New Manager, new time allowance

[Griff]

Griff,

I've updated allowances countless times. While there is no maximum security database, I know that every edit is recorded and audited.

I also know that even if someone wanted to take the chance by manipulating allowances, it is impossible to do it in the manner you suggest.

Allowances are not recorded by individual. In hubs its by ares. In feeder its by location and leg. In package its by defined area. I am aware of no operation where its recorded by individual.

Now on the other hand, there are ways to increase planned time (inappropriately). Padding stops, miles, packages, etc.

These offences would get someone terminated and have seen it happen many times.

I don't know what happened in the case you mention, but I'm 100% certain that no one changed an allowance for an individual. They could not do it even if they wanted.

P-Man

He made an awfully convincing case. He showed me about 6 different paychecks and it was pretty clear they were stealing his bonus. How do you go from 3-3.5hrs bonus every single day to almost nothing and then back up again after you confront management about it? It makes no sense.

 

[pretzel_man]

He made an awfully convincing case. He showed me about 6 different paychecks and it was pretty clear they were stealing his bonus. How do you go from 3-3.5hrs bonus every single day to almost nothing and then back up again after you confront management about it? It makes no sense.

Griff,

If this happened to a few drivers at the same time, then it "could" be an allowance change. It doesn't work on a driver by driver basis.

Did he change the way he recorded any information? Miles, packages, special counts, etc.?

I don't know what happened there... It can't be an individual allowance change. Did he get a unusual amount of overrides? (F4's)

P-Man

 

[tieguy]

He made an awfully convincing case. He showed me about 6 different paychecks and it was pretty clear they were stealing his bonus. How do you go from 3-3.5hrs bonus every single day to almost nothing and then back up again after you confront management about it? It makes no sense.

How do you know they were "stealing his bonus" on those days. How do you know he did not have other days where his bonus was inflated by smalls or something else? if the guy is getting 5 hours bonus in one day then that is highly unusual. His getting less the next day does not mean someone stole his bonus. The anomoly here is not the loss of 5 hours but having 5 hours bonus in one day.

 

[DS]

I was talking to another guitar playing driver yesterday and suggested we should write the package car blues.He pointed out that we live so far apart that it would be hard.I suggested that one day we could do 100 stops each by 12 PM and sit for 3 hours and play guitar...on our lunch...lets see....that would be 54.6 sporh ....right.

 

[siouxman]

Has your route had a time study performed recently? If not then it should not have changed.

In my judgement the time study is now used only as a starting standard when it comes to dispatching. With the the pas system in place your dispatch will come from historical data the system keeps trak of.example it can look back a year and see what your work load was.In our center we have lots of snow and ice in the winter so we have different over and under allowed numbers depending on the time of year.so by going out and taking short cuts,not following the methods and not taking your required breaks you can sque the numbers for your dispatch and its usually not in your favor.In the 25 years I have been a driver I see new centewr manager come in and they all have a problem area they want to take care of.this lasts afew months then something else will be the hot topic.

 

[pretzel_man]

In my judgement the time study is now used only as a starting standard when it comes to dispatching. With the the pas system in place your dispatch will come from historical data the system keeps trak of.example it can look back a year and see what your work load was.In our center we have lots of snow and ice in the winter so we have different over and under allowed numbers depending on the time of year.so by going out and taking short cuts,not following the methods and not taking your required breaks you can sque the numbers for your dispatch and its usually not in your favor.In the 25 years I have been a driver I see new centewr manager come in and they all have a problem area they want to take care of.this lasts afew months then something else will be the hot topic.

Souix,

What you say is very true.

Time study is only a piece of dispatching. Inside the dispatch system is a place for the dispatcher to put in the overllowed for each driver. The program takes the time study then adds in the overallowed to determine the plan.

P-Man

 

[doesnotbelieve]

Ok please explain what the "BONUS QUALIFIER" its in the main computer when you open up your board

 

[loserupser]

I saw that(bonus qualifier) once on the computer in the office dont know what it means but i could only guess. Can anyone enlighten us?

 

[upsgrunt]

Griff,

If this happened to a few drivers at the same time, then it "could" be an allowance change. It doesn't work on a driver by driver basis.

Did he change the way he recorded any information? Miles, packages, special counts, etc.?

I don't know what happened there... It can't be an individual allowance change. Did he get a unusual amount of overrides? (F4's)

P-Man

What does an unusual number of friend-4's do to your allowance?

 

[trplnkl]

Souix,

What you say is very true.

Time study is only a piece of dispatching. Inside the dispatch system is a place for the dispatcher to put in the overllowed for each driver. The program takes the time study then adds in the overallowed to determine the plan.

P-Man

Over allowed what? as in the high number in your min/max ? Or are you talking over allowed on the dispatched time? ie took 9 hours to do an 8.5 ?

 

[pretzel_man]

What does an unusual number of friend-4's do to your allowance?

When you complete a normal stop (one that was not overridden with an F4), the system knows the address and the allowance associated.

When you do an F4, you type in the loop and unit, right? The loop and unit determine your allowance. If you enter the wrong one, you will get a wrong allowance.

The wrong allowance may be high or low. The point here is that its different.

P-Man

 

[pretzel_man]

Over allowed what? as in the high number in your min/max ? Or are you talking over allowed on the dispatched time? ie took 9 hours to do an 8.5 ?

When your plan is created, the dispatcher see how much planned time is associated with the work dispatched. If you generally do 8.5 planned time (according to the time study) in 9.25 hours, you are .75 overallowed.

The dispatcher can put that .75 of time into his computer. When he tries to give you 9 hours of work (per the allowance), the computer will then add this overallowed time and say he is really giving you 9.75 hours of paid work.

This then gets calculated backward to how many stops are in the min / max.

The point here was that the planner can account for these differences. It is not based purely on the time study (if they are doing their job correctly).

P-Man

 

[WhatEver]

Come on, If you think they can't change allowances then you've been drinking too much brown cool aid. They can change lots of time allowances that affect your plan day without changing your piece allowance and thus they can still say they didn't personally change anything. For example: several years back they announced that they forgot to take back the time we gained from paper to diad and we would all be losing a half hour aday time allowances...several years later I've lost 1.5 hours for the same thing (same route) I've always done for 16 years...I've got reports from a IE that proves it...

 

[redshift1]

My second bid route I routinely beat by 2 hrs daily. I was given a special time study and route loses 2 hrs per day. I'm suddenly scratch and utility drivers are 2 hrs in the hole when I'm off. I say it's unfair they re-study the route and it loses another 30 minutes. I bid to a new route which is then re-studied and lowered 1 hr per day. Meanwhile my old route is restudied and goes up 2 hrs per day. Those were the good old days.

 

[whiskey]

The last time my route was time studied was in 1990. The IE who did the study is now the Division Manager.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

I have seen the color coding for a route (red, yellow, gray) on the computer change quickly with the point and click of a mouse. A driver was complaining that he was in the red and the dispatcher changed his route from red to yellow with a swift point and clicking of the mouse. Those guys are masters at manipulating numbers. The problem that they haven't caught on to yet is that you can manipulate a route but not always the driver.

 

[ol'browneye]

way to go hammer. You know your cover driver is only 3.5 hours over when he runs it...

That's funny right there, I don't care who you are!

 

[pretzel_man]

I have seen the color coding for a route (red, yellow, gray) on the computer change quickly with the point and click of a mouse. A driver was complaining that he was in the red and the dispatcher changed his route from red to yellow with a swift point and clicking of the mouse. Those guys are masters at manipulating numbers. The problem that they haven't caught on to yet is that you can manipulate a route but not always the driver.

Here is what they did.

The computer can look at packages that are already in the preload, OR it can look at packages already in the preload plus PLD that is not yet here.

If the route changed from Red to Yelow, (or Grey) he was first looking at packages in the preload PLUS packages that have not yet arrived. He then switched to look only at packages only in the preload.

The correct method is that at the beginning of the sort, they look at the PLD forecast PLUS packages in the preload. This gives an idea of how routes will look at the end of the sort.

About an hour to 1/2 hour before the preload goes down, they are supposed to switch the view to only show packages already in the preload. This give a more accurate picture of what is really here. The PLD is generally high.

He didn't manipulat the numbers, he followed methods.

Of course it would have been better if he explained this to you. Tomorrow, take a look at the screen prompts and it may be more clear.

P-Man

 

[rocket man]

you got over 50 answers, face it you suck , dont feel bad im in the same boat.

 

[pretzel_man]

Come on, If you think they can't change allowances then you've been drinking too much brown cool aid. They can change lots of time allowances that affect your plan day without changing your piece allowance and thus they can still say they didn't personally change anything. For example: several years back they announced that they forgot to take back the time we gained from paper to diad and we would all be losing a half hour aday time allowances...several years later I've lost 1.5 hours for the same thing (same route) I've always done for 16 years...I've got reports from a IE that proves it...

If you read the origin of this thread, it asserted that an operations manager can change allowances to make different managers, supervisors, or drivers look better / worse.

This cannot be done. They have no control over the time allowances.

What you are mentioning is that Corporate I.E. changed a time allowance. That DID happen and it happens all the time. Corporate I.E. sends out work measurement change notices regularly.

The particular one you are referring to was done absolutely horribly. Here is what happened:

When DIAD matured over the years, the time it took to record stops got quicker. Look at how long it took to sheet a stop and write down the tracking number before DIAD and how long it takes to do the same thing today by scanning. Scanning is much, much quicker than writing down the tracking number, but the time allowance assumes the number was written down.

Corporate I.E. knew this. They were "afraid" to make the change when they first figured it out. (That was probably in the early to mid 90's).

Then PAS and EDD came out. They decided to overnight right their wrong from previous years. People were told that the change was due to EDD, when EDD had nothing to do with it.

As far as I know, there was not a second reduction beyond the first one.

P-Man