Many of you have heard of the possibility of the company wiring your package cars. The plan is to put sensors on your seat belts, your bulkhead doors, your e-brake, and your reverse gear. It’s happening now. Our shop has piles of the wiring harnesses to do all of the trucks, (except for some of the old stuff), in our building. I’m sure every shop across the country is gearing up for this major install. I’m sure the extended centers will end up with it soon as well. If your cars suddenly disappear for awhile you can figure you’ve got it. So what does it do? It’s simple. When you put your car in gear it senses if you have your seat belt on, and whether your bulkhead door is closed or not. Additionally it will tell if you put the car in reverse first and for how long. The other sensor on the e-brake will tell if you applied the e-brake when you turned the key off. The nuances of the system are yet to be discovered. When you return to the building at night it supposedly downloads all of the information, including the time you first hit the building. Again if you go to the air dock, or unload internationals, that may affect the real time, but they will know when you got there. HELLO BIG-BROWN BROTHER. “WE ARE WATCHING YOUR EVERY MOVE. PRETTY SOON WE’RE GOING TO PUT A SENSOR UP YOUR ASS SO WE KNOW IF YOUR REALLY TAKING ONE, OR TALKING TO THAT PRETTY GIRL AT THE COUNTER!!” How’s that for paranoia. Really for those of you that do your job as trained, (we have harped at you about that on these pages), it won’t change anything. Who it will affect are the balls to the wall, kiss ass that throws everything like it was a newspaper route. Those guys have big trouble ahead. I say Right On. All it will do is make a lot more good Union Members. What does it mean to you discipline-wise? You can be fired for not wearing your seatbelt. Get that straight today. That will be the major issue to come out of telematics. You can be disciplined for not closing your bulkhead door. You better get in the habit or you are going to have big trouble ahead, “up to and including discharge”. Close it every time without fail. They will know if its open when you are moving. The other stuff will aid in any accident investigation. No more lying about the e-brake in a roll-away. No more lying about whether you pulled into a space or driveway, then backed out. They will know. The big thing you need to realize is the more technical this job becomes, the more valuable you become. You guys that master this stuff are gold to them. All this system does is raise your value to the company. The major goal of the new system is to eliminate management. One guy will have more information than ten. The company continues to treat it’s management as overhead, and do everything in their power to reduce their ranks. If you read these pages you know about my “Lord and Master” theory. The company hopes to manage us all from one office in Atlanta, Georgia. That theory will remain until they create robots to deliver like in the movie Hitch. My point here is not to scare you, but to keep you informed. If you are on of those haul ass, kiss asses, you better get a clue. If you are one of those, get the job done right, and go home guys, you have nothing to worry about. The other little point is to remember there is such a thing as “too much information”. While this information is readily available, there won’t be anyone to look at it unless you rise to the top of the sh-t list for some reason. Do your job everyday, go home to your family, and have a nice day. Big Brown is Watching!

One last thing to remember is that the system will download any vehicle codes the on-board computer sets much like On-Star. Most of the time it won’t matter to you, but it will give an indication of vehicle abuse. Just a fact to keep in mind.

       All of us are members of the UPS family. It’s a good family, it’s well respected and wins many awards as the ideal family. But we all know that in the real world, outward appearances often hide internal conflict. The ideal family is not the norm, the more common family is the dysfunctional family. Is UPS a dysfunctional family?
        Here are some examples of patterns that frequently occur in dysfunctional families. See if any of these sound familiar in your relationship with UPS. Just substitute the work :management” for the word “Parent”.

Parents have addictions or compulsions such as overworking, that have strong influences on family members.
Parents use threats as the primary means of control.
Parents exploit the children and treat them as possessions whose primary purpose is to fill needs of parents.
Parents threaten to withdraw financial support.
Parents exert a strong authoritarian control, often rigidly adhering to a particular belief.
Compliance with role expectations and with rules is expected without any flexibility. 

 Since we are treated as the children in this family, we all suffer some common problems. Some of us may often:

Experience “reality shifting” in which what is said contradicts what is actually happening.
Have excessive structure and demands placed on our time and behavior.
Be restricted from full and direct communication with other family members.
Be ignored, discounted, or criticized for our feelings and thoughts.
Experience rejection or preferential treatment. 

        Dysfunctional families often foster children who question their self worth and are unable to trust their own judgements. Not surprisingly, they may experience problems in their work.
        In common with other people, members of dysfunctional families often struggle to interpret their situation as “normal.” The more they have to accommodate to make the situation seem normal, the more bizarre their world becomes. Do you feel that life at UPS is bizarre? 
        Is your UPS the ideal family or the dysfunctional family?