express lane is usually for those who are fast or more experienced at the register. tell them to stop putting you there if they want your ring tender to improve. in the end the ring tender doesn't matter and you cant get fired for it anyways so i wouldnt worry about it.
Put all the hard to bag items on the top of the carousel and bag them later (boxes, cans), while bagging things that are easy to bag (produce, packets). Has helped me a lot, especially with large orders.