DRA will be the death of express

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
Because all you experienced couriers run like a well oiled machine? Im not talking about YOU. You are being phased out. Route knowledge and experience will be replaced by a computer program that can put anyone in the seat and do what you do.

How efficient are new hires? How long does it take to have a new route down?
With a new PT work force and a revolving door of new hires productivity will increase. Apply the Smith System and Get The Big Picture.

There's a big difference in the learning curve between new Home Delivery and Ground drivers. You will see the difference (if you're around then).

What a bunch of self-serving garbage, Because you benefit financially from all of this, you are totally behind the myth of DRA. Perhaps you need to get the "Big Picture". Total reliance on technology is a false promise because no matter how good the technology is, you need a certain level of competence in order to implement it effectively.

Compared to Express, the HD and Ground jobs are fairly simple, and DRA seems to be working. Add-in the additional level of complexity that Express represents, and there are big problems. Sorry, but you cannot just pluck a housewife, student, or clerk out of their old job, stick them in an Express vehicle, and expect technology to "make it happen".

Every Ground ISP and driver on this forum doesn't have a clue about the way Express runs relative to your simplistic operations. Express upper management has bought-in to the same mindset..."anyone can do this job because it's simple, and technology can make it happen". Wrong.

See how Express will continue to drop like a stone in terms of efficiency and customer service with this fixed idiotic mindset. What works for the Ground/HD simpleton does not work at Express.
 

DontThrowPackages

Well-Known Member
I have been on DRA for about 5 months now. This stupid program will be the demise of fedex. It has me making left hand turn on major highways all the time and driving in circles. I waste more time than I ever thought possible. Combine this with the hour break(psp haha) it takes me way longer to do my route than it ever has. I see this program as a way for fedex to be able to get rid of us long timers and replace us with mental midgets who will work for slave wages and just follow a manifest. I wonder what the cost was to conceive it and put it into action. What ever it was, the brains above at fedex are the mental midgets. All this money they are spending to track productivity and push this and that are wasting way more money than they will ever recoop. And the worst part is that even when they figure out this new program is not working, they are too proud to admit they made a mistake and dump it. I get more hour now than I have in a long time because of the hr break which causes me to have overtime.
I have lost all faith in upper mgt in this company. I think it is now run my morons and will be run into the ground in the not too distant future. I thank the powers that be that I am very close to retirement.
Express will be fine. Ground is making 100 billion dollars a day and will subsidize express for as long as it takes. So just sit back and enjoy your 5 days paid sick days and 5 week paid vacations and WAD.:beach_ball:
 

Cactus

Just telling it like it is
There's a big difference in the learning curve between new Home Delivery and Ground drivers. You will see the difference (if you're around then).

Look, Ground and Home Delivery just straight line stops w/o different service commitment times and then there's on-call pickups which Express drivers have to incorporate in the mix.

Use your head.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
Look, Ground and Home Delivery just straight line stops w/o different service commitment times and then there's on-call pickups which Express drivers have to incorporate in the mix.

Use your head.

I'm tired of these freaking Ground idiots who have never worked a day at Express thinking they know what the eff is going on. DRA is a disaster at Express, which should have the intelligent person asking "why does it work at Ground and HD and is such a turd at Express?'" But, no. The unthinking Ground ISP idiot assumes that since it's "all the same", it will work. Express is losing their ass on DRA, That is crystal-clear to the thinking man, but not the idiot.
 

mjtrackman

Active Member
I've been with Express for 4 months now and on the road for 2 as a swing driver. Worked 4 years at ground before making the switch. While DRA may not be beneficial to those have been on their "Same" route for years, it definitely helps a swing and a new guy like myself doing different routes everyday a TON!!! It has some flaws( has you crossing major streets multiple times) but it does help.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
Or maybe it's the lack of competency at express?

Increasingly, that is true, as Express hires Ground-quality people. But incompetence breeds further incompetence, and it is rampant over here. Watch Express plummet as Ground income keeps it afloat.
 

hypo hanna

Well-Known Member
....Watch Express plummet as Ground income keeps it afloat.

That is certainly not the way express management presents it to us. We are told specifically that the opco's are seperate entities. We can not have a decent pay raise because the express opco is not making as much money as anticipated. Perhaps you are givin a different set of lies to tell your employees.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
That is certainly not the way express management presents it to us. We are told specifically that the opco's are seperate entities. We can not have a decent pay raise because the express opco is not making as much money as anticipated. Perhaps you are givin a different set of lies to tell your employees.

They use whatever lies will suit their purposes. Kind of like the lie about insurance premiums needing to go up when they're making a killing by being self-insured. Anything that isn't spent on medical costs goes straight into Fred's pocket.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
I'm tired of these freaking Ground idiots who have never worked a day at Express thinking they know what the eff is going on. DRA is a disaster at Express, which should have the intelligent person asking "why does it work at Ground and HD and is such a turd at Express?'" But, no. The unthinking Ground ISP idiot assumes that since it's "all the same", it will work. Express is losing their ass on DRA, That is crystal-clear to the thinking man, but not the idiot.

Idiots? Really? I would be willing to bet that any one of my drivers could take an Express route in their area and run it perfectly on day one hitting every commit time given only a manifest and the commit time for each stop. I was a swing driver for several years. The hardest part about learning many routes is knowing what door to go in.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
I've been with Express for 4 months now and on the road for 2 as a swing driver. Worked 4 years at ground before making the switch. While DRA may not be beneficial to those have been on their "Same" route for years, it definitely helps a swing and a new guy like myself doing different routes everyday a TON!!! It has some flaws( has you crossing major streets multiple times) but it does help.

MFE

You can't ignore this. DRA might be a PITA for experienced couriers but Fred doesn't really care about them.
 

!Retired!

Well-Known Member
1. I haven't followed DRA since we started it. I routinely get P2 that the courier next to me has P1 for. Sometimes I give it to him, sometimes I keep it (if I need the extra stops).
2. You can debate for years whether DRA is meant to 'get rid of' the experienced drivers or not....only time will tell. Yes, DRA's intent is so anyone can run another route without training, but you can never truly replace someone's 'route knowledge' in the drop of a dime unless you run a route long enough.
3. I hear the UPS driver in my area routinely tell me how stupid their version of DRA routes him, just like me. The 'problem' isn't strictly with DRA, it's with the mapping program used. How many times has DRA plotted the stop 1/2/10 blocks away? Yet, if you use Mapquest/YahooMaps/GoogleMaps/etc, it plots it right on. Also, DRA doesn't always pickup the suite numbers (my biggest problem). This is such an easy fix......so easy, even a courier can see it.

In the 13+ years with FedEx, I have seen any technology/program 'created' by FedEx bomb big time. Then when they contract out to someone to 'develop' something new, it works....maybe not 100% right away, but eventually the bugs are fixed. Amazing how someones ego can get in the way of true progress.

The BIGGEST problem with upper management is they don't listen to the people that actually do the work. I have always said....while I don't agree with a lot of things upper management does......let them do what they want, I'll just go through the motions until retirement or I find something else to do.
 

fedupped

Well-Known Member
Idiots? Really! .. hitting every commit time given only a manifest and the commit time for each stop.
Whats a manifest? Commit times are on pkg, easy,,FO,PO,PO cod,SO,E2 bus, e2 resi, Express saver. I load my truck in p1 order, then in p2 order. Theres no magical road map. I change my p2 order midway daily because of target cls at 12:00, four condos with different lunch closings, early close pu etc. I wasnt aware there was a manifest that would do the work for me?
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
Whats a manifest? Commit times are on pkg, easy,,FO,PO,PO cod,SO,E2 bus, e2 resi, Express saver. I load my truck in p1 order, then in p2 order. Theres no magical road map. I change my p2 order midway daily because of target cls at 12:00, four condos with different lunch closings, early close pu etc. I wasnt aware there was a manifest that would do the work for me?
ok. Show my drivers the difference on the label and we'd get it done. Nothing magical about delivering boxes.
 

fedupped

Well-Known Member
A smart efficient courier will do well in any of the opcos. The problem is attracting these people. Wages and benefits used to be the bait. That is gone. The new disposable courier wont be around long enough to learn or care about being good. That is the problem. Year two and a 20 cent raise and a 4400 deductible will have the smart good ones running.
 

newgirl

Well-Known Member
Besides the mapping problem, DRA will also change an address from correct to incorrect, I have posted about this before. Just the other day I had one that DRA changed the entire address, including the zip code. The stops are 5 miles apart. That pkg did not make service. And no, it wasn't an ACO. If a swing was covering there would have been many lates since he/she wouldn't notice until it was too late. I hear many other people with the same problem. Delivering it late because our system is flawed is not acceptable customer service.

It's amazing all of the changes that X is going to make simply keep DRA in place.

I have been following DRA though. If the posts about olcc's fro SPH are correct then I will tell my mgr that it is DRA, not me. garbage in, garbage out.
 
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