DRA is it true?...

[SmithBarney]

Is it true that some stations have refused to implement DRA? If so why?

 

[Star B]

Refused or unable?

DRA seems to not work for a route when:

You have non-10:30 P1 commits. It ONLY works when you have a 10:30 commit time. I don't know if it's changeable, but all the DRA routes in my station are 10:30 P1 routes, with anything that's later is SRA. On Saturdays, the DRA commit changes to 12N. Anything else is SRA.

 

[Nolimitz]

1/2 our station is non-DRA. Even have the mall and a couple downtown routes that are SRA due to multiple "vertical stops" in same buildings.

 

[HedleyLamarr]

The routes at my station are split half DRA and half not as well.

We had a new transfer to my station a few months back. He has worked at 2 different stations and had never seen the maps DRA routes get before. He was completely surprised.

I get DRA is really dumb at times, but if you are in an area you don't know, it helps a lot.

 

[Purplepackage]

1/2 our station is non-DRA. Even have the mall and a couple downtown routes that are SRA due to multiple "vertical stops" in same buildings.

My station doesn’t have it at all, half of my station covers some really crazy rural counties that I would like to see a computer try and plot in order.

 

[Fred's Myth]

Consensus seems to be this amazing tool called DRA works well in an extremely narrow application.

If the corporate bigwigs are banking on this saving the company, they need to invest the resources needed to make it accurate in the 99.9 percentile that they call acceptable in all other performance parameters.

Anything less should be deemed management failure.

 

[59 Dano]

Consensus seems to be this amazing tool called DRA works well in an extremely narrow application.

If the corporate bigwigs are banking on this saving the company, they need to invest the resources needed to make it accurate in the 99.9 percentile that they call acceptable in all other performance parameters.

Anything less should be deemed management failure.

I've rarely been as amazed as I am at people who are so resistant and feel so threatened by something that may help them do their jobs better.

 

[Express Courier]

I'd say about 15% of the routes at my station do not use DRA. All the extended routes with p1 times after 1030.

DRA is helpful to get a good picture of what you have for the day. I never run the route in full DRA order though because it tends to put me around a cluster of schools right when they are getting out. So I usually knock that area out right after p1, then do chunks of areas. I might do stops 1-25 then 85-95 then 40-70 then yadda yadda.

 

[Fred's Myth]

I've rarely been as amazed as I am at people who are so resistant and feel so threatened by something that may help them do their jobs better.

I am equally amazed that a multi-billion dollar company would push such an unproven system into service before working out the majority of the bugs.
Our station was well past the first implementation of ROADS, and it remains a costly (to FedEx) fiasco. It now takes a 50% increase of employees to handle a 15% increase in freight.

 

[SmithBarney]

It now takes a 50% increase of employees to handle a 15% increase in freight.

Well Roads basically doing what OpsMgrs couldn't. It Dispatches fairly(in theory, and mostly does it)

Oversimplified Consider a workgroup of 10, and say 1000 stops come in for this group, it will equalize(WORK Hours) based on the "knowledge" programmed into it. it may give some 100stops, some might get 120, and others 80 or whatever combination works so that all 10 routes get back around the same time, reducing overall hours. Yes roads adds routes, in the past and SRA group of 10 getting those same 1000 stops, might have one guy killing OT taking 160stops and someone else underperforming or just not having enough work to keep them out.

Unfortunately for the "knowledge" programmed in, I'm certain the engineers have the same complaints we do, they need more people to do the "engineer" job. I know we share our engineer with probably 15-20stations, we might see them once a year, and requests for "fixes" go unanswered for months at a time.

 

[Cactus]

I've rarely been as amazed as I am at people who are so resistant and feel so threatened by something that may help them do their jobs better.

So just like your Memphis buddies, you don't like couriers thinking for themselves. Got it!

 

[Fred's Myth]

Well Roads basically doing what OpsMgrs couldn't.

But couriers COULD, and did every day.

 

[whenIgetthere]

We don't use DRA at all. We only have five routes with 1030 commits, most have noon commits, and quite a few 1630 extended areas. All routes with 1200 and 1630 commits also get all the PUPs in their areas. We only have three pure PUP routes.

 

[!Retired!]

I've rarely been as amazed as I am at people who are so resistant and feel so threatened by something that may help them do their jobs better.

ROADS works pretty well in our workgroup. There's 4 problems I see with ROADS. Fix those and you shouldn't have any more griping.

 

[SmithBarney]

But couriers COULD, and did every day.

Yes and No, a good workgroup(or loop) is amazing to see work together,
unfortunately they are rare.
Mostly loops and groups that just don't do the teamwork thing. You have the OT CRR who would take every stop off you and drive for 24hrs if they could get away with it. You've got the slacker, who rolls next day freight everyday even if it's light. You've got the Old timer who just drops stops because "it's just too much" but still gets in before anyone else...
DRA 'fixes" this by balancing(errors happen but can be fixed)

 

[Fred's Myth]

Yes and No, a good workgroup(or loop) is amazing to see work together,
unfortunately they are rare.
Mostly loops and groups that just don't do the teamwork thing. You have the OT CRR who would take every stop off you and drive for 24hrs if they could get away with it. You've got the slacker, who rolls next day freight everyday even if it's light. You've got the Old timer who just drops stops because "it's just too much" but still gets in before anyone else...
DRA 'fixes" this by balancing(errors happen but can be fixed)

In theory. Managers still manipulate. Engineers are still lost.
I embrace the stated purpose if only it was doing what we were told. It’s the paranoid side of me that keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

[chris45]

Not having dra must suck....on the Saturdays during peak we didnt have it and I was looking at like 80 stops like WTF WHERE DO I EVEN START and then spent an hour putting them all on some app called route4me....and then spent absurd amounts of time digging for at stops

 

[vantexan]

Not having dra must suck....on the Saturdays during peak we didnt have it and I was looking at like 80 stops like WTF WHERE DO I EVEN START and then spent an hour putting them all on some app called route4me....and then spent absurd amounts of time digging for at stops

Wow, how did we ever manage before DRA?

 

[dezguy]

Lol dra seems absolutely absurd to me. We don't have it here and I couldn't imagine it.

Just give me my stops and let me deal with how best to get them done.

 

[Fred's Myth]

Not having dra must suck....on the Saturdays during peak we didnt have it and I was looking at like 80 stops like WTF WHERE DO I EVEN START and then spent an hour putting them all on some app called route4me....and then spent absurd amounts of time digging for at stops

The ability to operate sans DRA is the justification for being overpaid (by Corporate standards).

Stay the course of requiring someone to hold your hand while you work, and soon you will be staring at a minimum wage job.