Managers, in every company on Earth, mis-use metrics all the time. "Average" doesn't mean every value has to be better than the goal, but managers are always forgetting what average means.
Yes, results that are below average need to be investigated. But that doesn't mean going and finding the worker involved, and telling them they need to get that number above average. It means finding out why the number is below average, and whether there are improvements that can be made. In this case, a manager might look at whether this is a temporary thing, or if it's consistant. Is it the trace that's laid-out incorrectly? Or could the driver benefit from learning how to make better decisions in the field.
It tells you alot about a manager to watch how he uses the numbers she/he is given. And it tells you a lot about a manager as to whether his/her first assumption is, 1) No assumption, 2) An assumption that the trace needs lots of improvement, or 3) An assumption that the drive isn't doing his/her job right.
In the end, even after all practical changes are made, if the goal is 85% *AVERAGE*, then there will still be routes coming in at less than average, and there is nothing in and of itself wrong with that. The trick is to find a manager who is pragmatic enough to be okay with that, and has the ability to stand-up to his/her manager about it as well. It can be done. There just aren't that many people who are capable of being good managers out there, and that's partly because front-line managers are not trained or mentored well enough, meaning too many unqualified managers moving up the ladder.
If it's any consolation, it's like that in every big company, not just UPS.
