We are being killed with crazy dispatches because it is more cost effective to have less drivers on the road and pay them overtime than it is to pay another driver or 3 to come into work. Yes you pay crazy overtime, but your cost for vehicles, fuel and equipment are more so it is cheaper in the end to pay the OT. Bottomline is more important that your family time. (to them)
Carzy overtime is an extra $16'ish an hour. Fuel would cost a fraction of that. the same pavement must be chewed to deliver the packages, the only difference is the to-and-from building those added routes would encure. Most routes in my center get to their areas inside of 15 miles. 4 miles per gallon at $4 a gallon is 1 hour's of OT for
1 of the drivers that an added route would help. Truck wear and tear....I don't know what the expense per hour a truck is driven factors out to be.
I honestly think the lion's share of the expenses in adding a driver is in the bennies that added employee costs the company. BUT, laying off the lowest senority driver every day for the sake of running 1 less route makes little sense to me because you are already paying bennies for that driver. But that 1 extra driver working 9 hours means 9 other drivers have 1 hour shaved off their 10 hour plan. Thats 8 hours of OT saved. This all assumes a good dispatcher.
I don't mind working overtime. I just wish it could be held down to 1 or 1.5 hours a day. Start at 8:30am and punch out about 6pm. I'd have plenty of family time then even with 2 small kids. The company would also find my production rate would be rock-solid steady throughout the day. I think most drivers really start dragging after 9.5 hours.
Thats just my 2 cents (worth about a penny I know).
