Telematics, Unintended Consequences 101

    Here is another addition in the long list of unintended consequences of Telematics. Drivers are now bidding routes with the crappy, old vehicles The Most Desired Vehicle in the Fleetbecause they are not equipped with the Telematics transmitters. Any vehicle on the ADA list has not been retrofitted with the Telematics equipment, so the drivers are wanting routes to stay out of “Gods” eye.
     The P-32 is on the short list to be smashed, but the company has been slow to replace them. The company has had a problem finding a direct replacement vehicle the size of a P-32, and therefore has chosen to fix them rather than replace them.
     Of course the idea that the drivers will remain “out of sight” is ridiculous. The sooner a driver gets under Telematics, and trains themselves in the function of the system, the sooner the driver will be at peace with the “Brown World”.
     The days of the “Lord and Master” are here. The dispatch functions are being systematically centralized. Soon the only function of the management people will be “bed check”. In other words, management’s function will be simply to make sure the drivers show up, and deal with the day to day issues of the drivers. One or two sups. can certainly handle those issues in a 60 driver center. That goal is why we are seeing the layoff of management in the current economic times. The overhead of so much management just isn’t needed any longer.
     The driver simply cannot be “replaced” by technology yet!  The driver can be controlled, and managed by technology. Management, on the other hand, can be replaced by technology.
     Over the years I have watched the technological changes, from pen and paper, to the Diad, PAS, and now Telematics. With each change the driver’s fear of company reprisal has increased. Yet the value of a good, solid, day to day driver has quintupled within the company. Until robotics, or virtual delivery can be achieved, that value will continue to rise.
      Keep those ideas in the back of your mind as you go through the day. Listen to your fellow drivers, and do not let the company “fear mongers” scare you. They need you more everyday.
                 By the way, have you put in your management letter yet?
                                                             That’s the quickest way to promote yourself out of a job.

                                   You’re not “just a truckdriver” anymore!
            The Teamsters are more important in your life today, than ever before. Get involved, or get fired.

Why Do Conseratives Hate UPS?

Exports heading overseas      The right-wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation, has found a way to criticize government efforts to increase US exports. Now I would think that exporting more manufactured goods could only be a move in the right direction to get our economy back on track and put people back to work.
 
     More exports, more manufacturing, more jobs. Sounds good to me and it sounds good for UPS because we fly those goods to other countries. So what could be so bad about increasing exports?

    
Well, the brainiacs at the Heritage Foundation think it’s too much government. “President Obama’s “Export Cabinet” wants to hire more U.S. Government (USG) bureaucrats “to advocate for U.S. business” and channel more taxpayer dollars into “export promotion activities” at the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Agriculture.” Man, that sounds nasty!

     And they go on to complain that ““improved access to credit” through increasing U.S. Export-Import Bank lending to small- and medium-size businesses from $4 billion to $6 billion through FY 2011 budget increases” would only hurt everyone in the long run, because….the lenders could play favorites with the loans.

     The bottom line they say is, “The National Export Initiative (NEI) relies on too much government interference and too many USG bureaucrats shilling for politically well-connected companies.” And to prove their point, they attack that liberal, socialist Commie company, UPS. “Another little sign—a pro-NEI press release from the United Parcel Service (UPS) was distributed at the luncheon.  Non-unionized FedEx has alleged in full-page advertisements in the Washington Post and elsewhere in recent months that the Obama Administration has
tilted USG policy in favor of UPS and their 35,000 Teamster Union drivers.”  

     So the right-wing Heritage Foundation has found a reason to hate UPS. And I thought UPS was pretty far to the right. How far to the right of UPS must The Heritage Foundation be? Apparantly they are too far out there to see that this country isn’t going to last much longer if we don’t start creating some jobs.