Telematics....Company wide?

[SignificantOwner]

Oh good grief, just stop where the customer is, deliver the package, go to the turn around, and proceed to finish your route knowing you have done a good job.

100% agree.

 

[soberups]

Oh good grief, just stop where the customer is, deliver the package, go to the turn around, and proceed to finish your route knowing you have done a good job.

Thats what I would do.

My center has been on Telematics for a year and a half now. I have made peace with the fact that any action I take to get off of one report will simply cause me to show up on a different one.

I have made peace with the fact that my supervisors job security depends upon finding things about my job to complain about, so even if I do my job perfectly he will just make something up.

I have made peace with the fact that the people who invent/install/implement Telematics must justify the expense of doing so. This process is simple; first they invent a metric, then they invent a way to manipulate it, then they convince everyone that the metric is somehow relevent to the successful operation of the business. If they repeat this process often enough, they can actually maintain the illusion that they are accomplishing something worthwhile and secure their position at the corporate tit.

Its not what they accomplish, its how good they look on paper pretending to accomplish it.

As an hourly employee, I am one of the dogs who is attached to and pulling the sled. I do the labor that moves the product. There is also a management person who is needed to control the speed and direction of the sled so that it stays on course. When both sides work together, we succeed.

Those who have implemented Telematics....are pretty much like the fleas that infest the sled dogs and bite them on the ass. They itch, and irritate, and often cause the dogs to have to stop and scratch.Sometimes they even bite the management person who steers the sled. They are parasites who contribute nothing to the forward motion or direction of the sled, but they are along for the free ride anyway.

Eventually the dog can learn to disregard the itching for the most part, and return its focus to pulling the sled. The fleas will always be an annoyance...but that is all they are. You can ignore them if you have a thick enough hide.

 

[hellfire]

Thats what I would do.

My center has been on Telematics for a year and a half now. I have made peace with the fact that any action I take to get off of one report will simply cause me to show up on a different one.

I have made peace with the fact that my supervisors job security depends upon finding things about my job to complain about, so even if I do my job perfectly he will just make something up.

I have made peace with the fact that the people who invent/install/implement Telematics must justify the expense of doing so. This process is simple; first they invent a metric, then they invent a way to manipulate it, then they convince everyone that the metric is somehow relevent to the successful operation of the business. If they repeat this process often enough, they can actually maintain the illusion that they are accomplishing something worthwhile and secure their position at the corporate tit.

Its not what they accomplish, its how good they look on paper pretending to accomplish it.

As an hourly employee, I am one of the dogs who is attached to and pulling the sled. I do the labor that moves the product. There is also a management person who is needed to control the speed and direction of the sled so that it stays on course. When both sides work together, we succeed.

Those who have implemented Telematics....are pretty much like the fleas that infest the sled dogs and bite them on the ass. They itch, and irritate, and often cause the dogs to have to stop and scratch.Sometimes they even bite the management person who steers the sled. They are parasites who contribute nothing to the forward motion or direction of the sled, but they are along for the free ride anyway.

Eventually the dog can learn to disregard the itching for the most part, and return its focus to pulling the sled. The fleas will always be an annoyance...but that is all they are. You can ignore them if you have a thick enough hide.

good post

 

[brownboxman]

Very good analogy!

 

[dave991]

I dread the day telematics comes to my center, not from a personal point of view, but when the center manager delights in causing discord among the drivers and union reps he will use this to try to push a divide between the two. Example, writing up people for meaningless things, but never getting to the point of out-of center discipline, still angers employees and makes them frustrated that they have no way to remove such meaningless items from their record. Its hard to tell a driver the writeup means nothing (when or) if something else goes wrong and the center manager starts stacking discipline to show a trail of transgressions. Noone is perfect and we can all be nit-picked to infinity.

 

[deleted9]

Thats what I would do.

My center has been on Telematics for a year and a half now. I have made peace with the fact that any action I take to get off of one report will simply cause me to show up on a different one.

I have made peace with the fact that my supervisors job security depends upon finding things about my job to complain about, so even if I do my job perfectly he will just make something up.

I have made peace with the fact that the people who invent/install/implement Telematics must justify the expense of doing so. This process is simple; first they invent a metric, then they invent a way to manipulate it, then they convince everyone that the metric is somehow relevent to the successful operation of the business. If they repeat this process often enough, they can actually maintain the illusion that they are accomplishing something worthwhile and secure their position at the corporate tit.

Its not what they accomplish, its how good they look on paper pretending to accomplish it.

As an hourly employee, I am one of the dogs who is attached to and pulling the sled. I do the labor that moves the product. There is also a management person who is needed to control the speed and direction of the sled so that it stays on course. When both sides work together, we succeed.

Those who have implemented Telematics....are pretty much like the fleas that infest the sled dogs and bite them on the ass. They itch, and irritate, and often cause the dogs to have to stop and scratch.Sometimes they even bite the management person who steers the sled. They are parasites who contribute nothing to the forward motion or direction of the sled, but they are along for the free ride anyway.

Eventually the dog can learn to disregard the itching for the most part, and return its focus to pulling the sled. The fleas will always be an annoyance...but that is all they are. You can ignore them if you have a thick enough hide.

Its called ACCOUNTABILITY and most people do not like it so they complain about it.....
As far as your analogy goes when a dog does not carry its weight when pulling the sled, it is replaced by one that will......

 

[stevetheupsguy]

I dread the day telematics comes to my center, not from a personal point of view, but when the center manager delights in causing discord among the drivers and union reps he will use this to try to push a divide between the two. Example, writing up people for meaningless things, but never getting to the point of out-of center discipline, still angers employees and makes them frustrated that they have no way to remove such meaningless items from their record. Its hard to tell a driver the writeup means nothing (when or) if something else goes wrong and the center manager starts stacking discipline to show a trail of transgressions. Noone is perfect and we can all be nit-picked to infinity.

Dread is meaningless, just sayin...

Its called ACCOUNTABILITY and most people do not like it so they complain about it.....
As far as your analogy goes when a dog does not carry its weight when pulling the sled, it is replaced by one that will......

As a UPS driver, I hold myself accountable, and the level to which I hold myself accountable, is a level that telematics cannot reach.

 

[DS]

As a UPS driver, I hold myself accountable, and the level to which I hold myself accountable, is a level that telematics cannot reach.

Well spoken Stug.

 

[grgrcr88]

I dread the day telematics comes to my center, not from a personal point of view, but when the center manager delights in causing discord among the drivers and union reps he will use this to try to push a divide between the two. Example, writing up people for meaningless things, but never getting to the point of out-of center discipline, still angers employees and makes them frustrated that they have no way to remove such meaningless items from their record. Its hard to tell a driver the writeup means nothing (when or) if something else goes wrong and the center manager starts stacking discipline to show a trail of transgressions. Noone is perfect and we can all be nit-picked to infinity.

Telematics is not recognized by the Union for discipline. It is too unreliable.

 

[deleted9]

Dread is meaningless, just sayin...

As a UPS driver, I hold myself accountable, and the level to which I hold myself accountable, is a level that telematics cannot reach.

Good for you, being a proud person is excellent, but until you pay yourself, UPS decides what is good and what is not.

 

[soberups]

Good for you, being a proud person is excellent, but until you pay yourself, UPS decides what is good and what is not.

UPS is free to decide what is "good" and what is "not"....but these are judgements that hold no relevance for me.

Those in management who would try to make such judgements about my performance are less concerned with the truth and more concerned with protecting their own jobs.

So it doesnt matter how "good" I do my job, it will never quite be good enough....because the job of a management person is to solve problems and if I dont give him any problems to solve he will simply make one up in order to justify his continued employment.

 

[Re-Raise]

Good for you, being a proud person is excellent, but until you pay yourself, UPS decides what is good and what is not.

The customers who use our service are paying our wages and they couldn't care less about you and your endless reports.

 

[Re-Raise]

Thats what I would do.

My center has been on Telematics for a year and a half now. I have made peace with the fact that any action I take to get off of one report will simply cause me to show up on a different one.

I have made peace with the fact that my supervisors job security depends upon finding things about my job to complain about, so even if I do my job perfectly he will just make something up.

I have made peace with the fact that the people who invent/install/implement Telematics must justify the expense of doing so. This process is simple; first they invent a metric, then they invent a way to manipulate it, then they convince everyone that the metric is somehow relevent to the successful operation of the business. If they repeat this process often enough, they can actually maintain the illusion that they are accomplishing something worthwhile and secure their position at the corporate tit.

Its not what they accomplish, its how good they look on paper pretending to accomplish it.

As an hourly employee, I am one of the dogs who is attached to and pulling the sled. I do the labor that moves the product. There is also a management person who is needed to control the speed and direction of the sled so that it stays on course. When both sides work together, we succeed.

Those who have implemented Telematics....are pretty much like the fleas that infest the sled dogs and bite them on the ass. They itch, and irritate, and often cause the dogs to have to stop and scratch.Sometimes they even bite the management person who steers the sled. They are parasites who contribute nothing to the forward motion or direction of the sled, but they are along for the free ride anyway.

Eventually the dog can learn to disregard the itching for the most part, and return its focus to pulling the sled. The fleas will always be an annoyance...but that is all they are. You can ignore them if you have a thick enough hide.

+1

Sometimes the fleas pretend they pulled the sled once at peak a long time ago

 

[JustTired]

The customers who use our service are paying our wages and they couldn't care less about you and your endless reports.

While that is true to a point.......In todays' scenario the customer does not wield the power that they once did.

This company (and for that matter, most companies) became successful by listening to and satisfying the customers needs. Now...it is the shareholder who's needs are at the top of the list. And therefore (in my opinion) it is why many companies struggle. Without a customer there is no business. A fact that seems to have been lost in the attempt to satisfy the needs of the Wall Street crowd.

Take care of the customer and everything else will fall in place. You can satisfy a customer.........good luck satisfying the greed of Wall Street.

 

[deleted9]

UPS is free to decide what is "good" and what is "not"....but these are judgements that hold no relevance for me.

Those in management who would try to make such judgements about my performance are less concerned with the truth and more concerned with protecting their own jobs.

So it doesnt matter how "good" I do my job, it will never quite be good enough....because the job of a management person is to solve problems and if I dont give him any problems to solve he will simply make one up in order to justify his continued employment.

If you are as good as you say you are you would be on the bottom of the management priority list....... If you are only as good as you THINK you you are like a lot of people on this site then that's a different story, you are probably closer to the top of the priority list. by the way what you think means nothing you are only as good as your last safety, service, and performance day.

 

[deleted9]

The customers who use our service are paying our wages and they couldn't care less about you and your endless reports.

customers want what they paid for and more, and they are the reason we are all here, ups can live and thrive without you, But since we do not make, manufacture anything all we have is service customers rule, but ups still pays you

 

[soberups]

. by the way what you think means nothing you are only as good as your last safety, service, and performance day.

I cant argue with that statement. The recent downsizing in the management ranks pretty much shattered the whole "partnership" model that was just a myth anyway. Whether we wear browns or a tie, we are only as good as our previous days production...and the moment that we are unable to make our immediate superior look good on paper we become a liability rather than an asset and we will be treated accordingly.

The flip side to that coin for you....is that its not what you accomplish as a management person that will get you promoted, its how good you look on paper pretending to accomplish it.

You dont need to produce results to succeed. You only need to produce a metric.

 

[hellfire]

If you are as good as you say you are you would be on the bottom of the management priority list....... If you are only as good as you THINK you you are like a lot of people on this site then that's a different story, you are probably closer to the top of the priority list. by the way what you think means nothing you are only as good as your last safety, service, and performance day.

here you go fireball,, deal with this,,im a WELL seasoned runner,, i skip lunch lunch,,i leave the bulkhead open in developements ,, cut every corner known to a ups'er,,and every safety, service and performance ride ive ever had has consisted of a on road comming out and having me sign a piece of paper,,no ride or anything more,,we decide what area i need to improve in,, i sign it,, and we are done,, we help to justify the "metric".....dont dont be so quick to think you know the goings on at ups,,,, trust sobers opinion,,, its dead on

 

[FracusBrown]

I cant argue with that statement. The recent downsizing in the management ranks pretty much shattered the whole "partnership" model that was just a myth anyway. Whether we wear browns or a tie, we are only as good as our previous days production...and the moment that we are unable to make our immediate superior look good on paper we become a liability rather than an asset and we will be treated accordingly.

The flip side to that coin for you....is that its not what you accomplish as a management person that will get you promoted, its how good you look on paper pretending to accomplish it.

You dont need to produce results to succeed. You only need to produce a metric.

The restructuring is supposed to change the way performance is measured. Profit and loss is supposed to be the new measure. There's some really stupid stuff that gets done in the name of making an element, metric or goal. I haven't seen any changes yet though.

 

[UPSGUY72]

I don't care about telematics I still do my job the same way. However it seems that the maintenance issues are starting to appear. In are building they are constantly replacing sensors. When you open and close the bulk head door and buckle and unbuckle your seat beat over 100 times a day they where out and give bad info. I drove a car today where the antenna had falling off the roof and some driver had stuffed it in the slot on the side of the car on the top shelf behind the driver. Now they can't be getting any good info from that car.