Telematics is the blending of computers and wireless telecommunications technologies, ostensibly with the goal of efficiently conveying information over vast networks to improve a host of business functions. The term has evolved to refer to UPS package car systems that combine global positioning satellite tracking and other wireless communications for the purpose of monitoring vehicle and driver performance. If your truck isn't already wired for telematics, it soon will be. Telematics is coming, learn all you can. Be prepared.

                                  Keeping You on Edge

     Ever wonder why you never seem to be able to fall into a day to day, hum drum life, as a driver? It seems like you are always under pressure from so many angles when trying to do the job. You think you are getting it done to the boss's satisfaction, then you get hit from some other angle. Not enough lead cards. To many tracers. Production is off by 5 minutes. Driving the vehicle to hard. Not wearing the seatbelt. Not closing the bulkhead door. You've certainly heard all of these and many more. 
     The company knows that keeping you on edge and stressed makes you run harder. They know you will hurry up so you can get in and tell them off. They know you go faster to avoid the inevitable tongue lashing, even though you'll get it anyway. They know you will try harder to please them if they act like the abusive daddy.
     What's a long time driver to do? Practice stress relief. In your mind separate your actual day to day job of driving from the ass chewing you get in the morning. When you are on the road, perform your job at a steady, even pace. Take time to smile at the customer , and exchange pleasantries. Pet the friendly dog. Notice the beautiful gardens and flowers on your area. Don't let the job become the high stress, blood pressure raising, mad all of the time, nightmare the company wants it to be. Be sure to request your Union Steward whenever they want to talk to you.
     Life is to short to live a life of stress. The job can be wonderful. Take pride in what you do. Everyone is glad to see you. You are the answer to many of their problems. The company would have you act as a robot day in and day out. The fact is you are human, and you should treat other people as you would want them to treat you.
     If you've ever noticed, the company sells your customer relationships, even if they don't support it. It's important to remain professional in what you do, but don't be afraid to let a little of your personality shine through. Don't get sucked into the box monster, production whore you see around you. You won't go the distance. Most of you have long term goals with this job. You are obligated to give a fair days work, for a fair days pay. That fair day does not mean you have to sell your soul to the devil.
     Telematics is designed to steal more of that soul. The whole purpose of the system is to give them something to harass you about, even though you are doing the job. The system allows them to pick any point, and use it against you. The system should be known as Harassamatics. They tell you it's about safety, and seat belts, and backing. That's a bunch of crap. It's all about stealing your break time for their profit, and harassing you into a heightened state of frenzy about your job.
     Run your day like you should. Don't internalize their harassment. Don't carry it with you all day.
                                       You will have a long life, and career.

                                                                                             It's Simple
It's simple. Do the job, by the book, or you will be fired. That is the message given to the drivers at our AM meeting yesterday. The last statement is if you are fired the company simply will not want you to work here. We have harped to you all on these pages about doing the job. Don't falsify your delivery records in any way, shape, or form. Don't be where you're not supposed to be.
     You will certainly get into many arguments with management over the nickels, and dimes of time under Telematics. What will cost you your job is playing games with the air commit times. Playing games with saying you are delivering at an address you aren't at. The company has taken the attitude that you are the highest paid in the small package industry, and you will perform at the highest level.
     I'm not making any comment here about that, it's just the way things are today. Get used to it. Or as the company so politely says:
                                                                                          Get another Job!

                                                                             Be Prepared - Start Today
                        In order to be prepared for Telematics, you need to start today. Practice running your route exactly by the book without a Supervisor on the car. You will then be prepared, ready, and calm when they do ride with you. You will know what is reasonable, and how much you should do in a given day. You will also be able to spot their games, such as a massaged load, areas removed, etc. You will then have a fighting chance when they drag your butt into the office to discipline you for failing to meet their imaginary numbers. If you are prepared, your life at UPS will become easier. You won't have to sweat their harassment. Do it or else!

                                               Speculation

                                         Running, Jumping, Fireball

We have had the first casualty of a "running, jumping, fireball". This Gal had been notorious for running a paper route. Of course management loved her because her numbers were always great. For 15 years they looked the other way while she flung their stuff far and wide. Along comes Telematics. They found that she had "discrepancies", in her air deliveries. They found she wasn't leaving them where she said, or when she said. She had been living in fear of management for years, trying to do everything they wanted to stay out of the line of fire. It all worked great until the arrival of the great overseer. Now management does not have the power to lie, cheat , and steal like they used to. That includes protecting their "running, jumping, fireballs"
              Do It Right, or you won't be doing it at all!.
                       There are no lies with Telematics!
              They won't protect you, even if they want to!

UPDATE: The RJF mentioned here lost her job permanently through the panel system. IF you don't do it right, you will be fired. Additionally two more people are up for termination. One was even a scab from the strike.

                                  Telematics = Potty Profit  

The company has shown it's hand for the real use of Telematics. The use is to harass drivers into using their break to cover Poop and Pea times. The company feels that any use of time for anything other than productive delivery is a theft of time from the company, and they call it excessive break. Drivers are being told that they do not have the right to break trace or wash their hands after they use the bathroom. Telematics shows the break in trace as a red line, with a heading of "no delivery made".
     Drivers are being harassed for such breaks as a theft of time from the company. The other use is to claim drivers must count their break from their last stop, to their return to delivery, even though they are still operating a company vehicle, and subject to all of the potential problems associated with that. If they have an accident, or get injured, it will all be considered UPS time, but the driver must use their time to cover the drive to and from break. Is the company demanding we leave the vehicle in the middle of the intersection in order to walk to break? They don't make it clear.
     We are being held responsible for the safe operation, and parking of that vehicle, but they don't want to pay us for that time. Sounds like a theft of time from the drivers to me. Again, folks, it's all about harassment. Telematics has no other function than to harass drivers, and the company is using it for no other purpose.
     Zero information has come from the Union regarding the harassment. My feeling is they are purposely being quiet about it, because they are afraid of the consequences of fighting such cases. Politics and all that. Our contract is very vague in these areas, and the company feels they can do whatever they want. I feel we should just go in a bag, and leave it in the back of the package car, or use the newly required PUD, (personal urinary device),installed in each car, (usually a Subway cup, or a Burger King cup, or for the girls, a 7-11 Big Gulp). The company has reduced it's harassment to the ultimate in Brown. The new add will be, "what kind of Brown did you take for the company today?"
     Many of you will chastise me for having this conversation on these pages. The fact is, these are the kinds of discussions we are having in the office every day, with a Telematics printed sheet in front of us. They have argued with me on the Brown Cafe, and other sites, and the fact is, "Telematics is being used as a harassment tool". Out of hundreds of meetings we have never had a discussion with a driver over excess backing. We have never had a discussion with a driver over seat belt usage. We have had a thousand discussions over where a driver took a dump, and how he charged the time. 
                   The company has a new motto directed at the drivers!
                                           Sh-t on Your Own Time!

                                         Eye Can't See You

     Telematics is all about assumption. Managers have always assumed that the drivers are sandbagging them. They assume that every driver is cheating and stealing from the company, they just haven't caught them yet. Telematics brings a whole new perspective to this world of assumption. 
     Everyone needs to remember that Telematics cannot see. It does not look through the eye of the driver and know what is going on. All it will see is the truck sitting in one place for a specific amount of time. That's when the assumption of the manager comes in. Since we are all considered cheats, and thieves, it is assumed that every extended stop is "theft of time" from the company.
     Every time Telematics has been thrown in my face, it has been presented to me that I was "taking extra break without recording it". In fact, I was dealing with irate, or disgruntled customers to the companies benefit. Of course the assumption was that I was stealing from the company.
     I was also being chastised for taking care of bodily functions. My comment to the manager is, "now you are the potty monitor". How many times did you go? How long did it take you to wipe? How far did you have to travel to go? Can't you consolidate your bathroom stops to fit better into your trace?
     Again we are all lying cheats, bent on stealing from the company so the assumption is we go out of our way even to use the bathroom. The goal of the company is to eliminate paying for any function other than delivery. If you stop to use the bathroom, that will be on your own time. If a customer asks a question, you will answer on your own time. Any out of the way travel will be done on your own time. Driver meets will be on your own time.
     If you are charging the company, it better be for productive, profitable, company specific time. Otherwise the assumption is that you are stealing that time from the company. There is no other mentality allowed. It's not about efficiency. It's not about productivity. It's about controlling the cheats and thieves that work for them. They simply want to assume.
                                        They simply want to make an ass out of you and me.

            Just What Part of "YOU'RE SCREWED" Don't You Understand

It's amazing to me what all of you Brown Boys and Girls don't get it. YOUR SCREWED. With the advent of Telematics the company always knows where you are, and can always make an assumption as to what you should be doing. It's a simple matter for them to track you down. They can always make any assumption they want, as to what you should be doing, and what you are actually doing. They have any, and every ability to harass you for anything and everything.
                                             If you do not think they intend to do just that, YOU ARE A FOOL!
              They have you all scared out of filing nine-fives. They have you all scared out of raising your hand for any reason. If you waste your time on the Brown Cafe, they will tell you  the attempt is benign, to create a safe work environment, and is a benefit for them as well as you. 
                                      BULLSHIT!
                         The system has been put in to eliminate supervisors, and the push is on to harass every one of you. It is happening every day. If you are a 2 hour over driver, they will come to see you on area, and you will be harassed for every fly speck of shit they can find. It's happening every day folks. Run your area as if that sup. is sitting there, because he is!  It's all about production!
                                 If you listen to the jerks on the Brown Cafe that tell you otherwise, you are simply a fool waiting for the other shoe to drop. Those are supervisors fighting to justify their existence. Within five years, most of them will be gone, or they will be reduced to diaper wearing, drooling idiots. (I think they are already that, but some of them chose to argue the point.) If you are a driver, and you think my description of life at UPS is false, then say so. Meanwhile I intend to sit back and watch the Sups. get trashed, and you get harassed. Do I sound bitter. You bet. 
                                    You people simply won't listen!

                                                                              A Way to Amuse Ourselves

Yes, there are all sorts of false readings associated with Telematics. It showed that I backed up 124 feet in a parking lot that is 90 feet wide. We had another driver who has shown to have driven backwards for over 18 blocks, at an average speed of 23 MPH.

This is just one of the reasons why it is important to have the mental discipline not to buy into the data or get drawn into discussions with your supervisor over any specifics. We dont recognize it; the contract says they cant use it; so we should not dignify it with any response whatsoever. It is what it is, and when confronted as to the specifics of any particular stop the answer should consistently be..."I dont recall."

The day they install a camera in my cab is the day I start putting a booger on the lens every morning.

Telematics does give us drivers the opportunuty to amuse ourselves with a little "collective action" if we chose to do so. If all drvers in a center agreed ahead of time, we could make a statement to our management team by leaving ALL of our bulkhead doors open for exactly 1/2 an hour between 1:00 and 1:30, or maybe spend 10 minutes at a prearranged time driving around an empty parking lot with the seat belt unbuckled. It would be the Telematics version of dropping our pants and mooning them. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Division Managers office when the CM had to go in there with his center's Telematics printout in hand and "assume the position" while he faced the wrath of his superiors.
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