Telematics and the Supervisor of the Future

To continue in my theme of Telematics and unintended consequences, I felt we should look at what the future holds for the new supervisor candidate. All of you drivers know that it is the running, jumping, leaping, throwing, cheating, maniac, of a driver that ultimately gets promoted and becomes your new supervisor. Under Telematics that will be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), I will not be around to see what kind of person they will promote after years on Telematics. The only guys that will survive Future Stupidvisorthe driving rigors will be the steady, consistent type of driver that can do the right thing at every stop, every day. Of course the guy that can do that will not necessarily be the fastest guy in town, so what kind of mentality will he or she have when it comes to management. Managers for years have taught drivers to lie, and cheat, and steal to get the job done the fastest way possible. Now what? Will they be the nerdy, careful, meticulous type of person? Soft spoken, but right to the point. Will they be a perfect physical specimen with exceptional ability to perform any task in a robot like manner, never wavering from the task at hand, spewing the 5 seeing habits in their sleep, or sitting on the pot? Will they be able to drive exactly at the posted speed limit, never wavering, never speeding, better than electronic cruise control? Will they be a social misfit that is able to go without any customer contact, yet sell the company, and fill out lead cards without using any time that would show up on Telematics? Will they have the work ethic of an Amazonian Unick, with no other purpose in life than to do the perfect job 24 hours a day? Probably! It may be the reason we are seeing the company turn to the outside for their new management people. We currently have 2 supervisors that were never drivers. How can the company make ridiculous commands, and expectations without someone that knows nothing about doing the job? Never doing the job allows them to be stupid in their demands and expectations. It is the new UPS under Telematics! Coming to a center near you!
                                               

The End of Over/Under Allowed

I never thought I’d see the day where UPS has thrown the idea of Over/Under Allowed performance in the trash, but it’s happening with Telematics. Telematics is becoming a story of unintended consequences. With the company’s disdain for it’s employees, and their attitude that the drivers are all ripping off the company for time, they have come up with what they thought was a foolproof system to keeping everyone in line, and doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. What has really happened is they have taken a driver’s You Drivers are Ripping Us Offability to hurry up away. The concept really never came to mind until I received a message the other day from my dispatch supervisor telling me he had dispatched me near an 8 hour day, and that I should, “be in somewhere near 8 hours”. It suddenly dawned on me that with Telematics it would take as long as it took, and that I had no control over time, space, and safety. I began to think about what Telematics doesn’t see. It doesn’t see the bunch of kids riding their bikes in a neighborhood. It doesn’t see the semi blocking the dock you need to get into to make a bulk stop. It doesn’t see the shiny road from an afternoon shower. All it can see is a bunch of numbers, and where you are at any given time. The new response from the driver to management will become
             That’s how long it took!”
There will be no other answer. They will already have any information regarding the delivery. They will know how long you were there, (of course they won’t know why), they will know how fast you were driving, where you were before, where you went after, and how much time elapsed, but they will not know why. They will not know about the customer that is pissed about a mis-delivery, or a missing package. They will not know about the receiving clerk that has disappeared into the bathroom with a comic book while you need a signature for a hundred boxes. They will not know about the driveway you had to walk because the customer always parks in the turnaround. They will not know about the drunk going twenty in a fifty mile an hour zone or the lady on the cell phone blocking the right turn lane talking to her mother about her cheating husband. The fact is all of these things and so many others go on in a driver’s day to day life. Telematics cannot see any of these things. Of course in the “Olden’ Days” a driver could, and usually would, hurry up to make up the time these, and many more issues cost them. No longer! Hurrying up would mean driving faster, (not allowed). Hurrying up would mean running up the sidewalk instead of walking, (not allowed). Hurrying up would mean leaving the bulkhead door open for a few stops, (cardinal sin). Nowadays the driver can never look back. If they lose time, it’s lost forever. Management will see, and discipline, for any infractions that show up on Telematics. There will be no knowledge of why, just that it happened. Therefore there will be only one answer from any driver for anything!
                  “That’s how long it took!”     
 

UPS Ditches O’Reilly

Just as ThinkProgress.com was launching its campaign to punish Bill O’Reilly for harassing his opponents with physical, trespassing confrontations, United Parcel Services became the first major sponsor to dump him today.


“Thank you for sending an e-mail expressing concern about UPS advertising during the Bill O’Reilly show on FOX News. We do consider such comments as we review ad placement decisions which involve a variety of news, entertainment and sports programming. At this time, we have no plans to continue advertising during this show.”

Since Rupert Murdoch is losing money on his Fox News empire, you have to wonder how many sponsors he can afford to push away by condoning O’Reilly’s illegality and unstable public presence.


O’Reilly is acting as an agent of Fox News and Murdoch when he sends his producers out to stalk, threaten, and trespass against his perceived opponents. I wonder how long it will be before someone sues O’Reilly and Murdoch, or files a criminal complaint against both of them for this behavior.

Deacon Blues, The Left Coaster