The Drive Up Thread

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Jun 11, 2011
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Anybody else feeling absolutely broken from the sheer amount of drive ups? My store is doing about 350-400 a day, we're in the middle of a heatwave, and our GS team is all on the verge of a mental break down. Between the honks, the temperature, the 2 minute time stress, the unpredictability of when we're going to get hit with 24 arriving at the same time with no time to prep.

I'm to the point that I'm just an exhausted ball of rage all day because my body hit its limit about 8 months ago but we still have to keep chugging along.

What on your body no longer functions properly because of this terribly chaotic program? I've got myself a nice old case of tennis elbows, the knees of a 60 year old (I'm not 60), a case of plantar fasciitis, a pinched nerve in my back, and probably a mild case of heat exhaustion after the past two weeks. Other team members have stress fractures, torn muscles and ligaments, and just overall broken down. How much longer can they expect us to keep pushing ourselves like this? The stress from Drive Ups alone has broken our new TM's morale almost immediately, not to mention the sheer amount of crap piled on to the GS team because 'all they do is stand around up there'.

How are you holding up?
 
Anybody else feeling absolutely broken from the sheer amount of drive ups? My store is doing about 350-400 a day, we're in the middle of a heatwave, and our GS team is all on the verge of a mental break down. Between the honks, the temperature, the 2 minute time stress, the unpredictability of when we're going to get hit with 24 arriving at the same time with no time to prep.

I'm to the point that I'm just an exhausted ball of rage all day because my body hit its limit about 8 months ago but we still have to keep chugging along.

What on your body no longer functions properly because of this terribly chaotic program? I've got myself a nice old case of tennis elbows, the knees of a 60 year old (I'm not 60), a case of plantar fasciitis, a pinched nerve in my back, and probably a mild case of heat exhaustion after the past two weeks. Other team members have stress fractures, torn muscles and ligaments, and just overall broken down. How much longer can they expect us to keep pushing ourselves like this? The stress from Drive Ups alone has broken our new TM's morale almost immediately, not to mention the sheer amount of crap piled on to the GS team because 'all they do is stand around up there'.

How are you holding up?
Thank you for sharing this! I wish I had answers, or could send the Calvary. Please know after reading this; It’s so good to know my team isn’t the only one experiencing the non stop climb to unrealistic expectations. System is not set
Up to succeed.. it’s very sad!
 
How much does Spot pay Drive Up Team Members. If it's more then I make I might jump ship and go back to Spot. lmao.
 
My knees got so bad I couldn't go down a flight of stairs without hanging on for dear life. I've had pulled muscles and I've been mentally exhausted. I had to spend time off DU. I was probably off them for 3-4 months. I'm all better now and am running them out again. I'm more of a back up though. I've been running them out for 1.5 years. I've put in my time.
 
I don't do drive up, but nearly every single tm that does them at our store has had muscle injuries, foot injuries, knee injuries, or leg injuries of some sort. There aren't any specific "incidents", so they aren't really reported. I feel sorry for these mostly younger tm's when they get older and wonder why they have to have knee or hip replacements, tear repairs, or back surgery and have to pony up for the cost.
 
My store typically gets 100-150 on weekdays and up to 200 on weekends, excluding during holidays. Most people tend to get burnt from doing drive-ups and will either not cover the shifts or try to switch positions. For us, the distance to the spots is hard with the 2 minute goal, even if the orders give warning. Add the extreme heat and sudden rain of the last week, plus the no warning orders, orders that say they are in the spots when they aren't (we haven't seen a measureable impact from the updates yet), incorrect car descriptions or parking somewhere else in the lot, plus multiple hold locations, and it gets to be a lot. TLs and other TMs in the front try to help if asked but that isn't a guarantee. Also, there are typically two people at guest services at a time, one at the desk and one on drive-ups and we help each other when we can.
 
We have a separate pick up space, and they do DU and PU orders there, not from Service Desk. There is always at least one person there, and they switch off so that they aren't running DU more than 4 hours a day (Typical shifts would be half cashier, half PU, or half cleaning, half PU). Cart attendant helps too. Sales floor and SFS team are all trained on PU to back up. We are smaller store with about 100-200 DU per day.
 
Not to mention the hearing loss from the repetitive loud honks. Feels like everyday is just destroying my health, physical and mental
 
are you holding the device up to your ear or something
No, but the guest service area is very echoey at my store and again, it’s like 3-400 times a day. Couple numerous devices doing it and it’s for sure damaging. Not to mention when you walk into the equipment cabinet and they ALL go off.
 
seriously?? We have the same 1-2 GS people everyday.
For ours, we have 1-2 specifically scheduled for Drive Up. On the rare occasion that there isn't anyone "honking" they jump on and help GS. Sometimes GS helps Drive Up. It never goes beyond the front end. Frequently, our GSTL's also help with Drive Up and the ETL will then hop behind the service desk until they're caught up. Lately they've really been pushing the bulk of the hours toward the front end, which has been nice in a way (less "back up" requests... we get very few now) but also it sucks because there aren't any hours for anywhere else and the backroom gets backed up very quickly.

For real though, making me help with drive up in this heat... that would make me quit. 100%. IDK how any of them do it. It's an annoyance to help out on the lanes but helping with drive up? I'd walk right out.
 
If you would walk to your car to go home, you can take out a drive up. Severe is relative. New Englanders think they get severe thunderstorms, but compared to other places, they don't.
 
We had a massive hailstorm yesterday and didn’t do them for the duration. Every other type of weather, though, we go.
 
We stop for lightning. That’s it

CSC can turn it on or off
This is how my store is. Our Team Leads are usually pretty good about calling CSC and having them turn it off for lightning for safety. The way they see it if you are dickish enough to pull up for an order during a thunderstorm you can walk inside and pick up your order or come back later.
 
What do you guys do with drive ups during severe weather?
We had a week of torrential rain.
They shut off drive-up whenever there was lightning.
Karens were pissed but, then again, they got pissed when the inside of their cars got wet & when they got soggy bags.
Not a peep about the poor TMs slogging out there.
 
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