Have you heard of the Orion System, what do you know?

[soberups]

My problem is that my give-a-crap has a faulty on/off switch. It keeps turning back to the "on" position no matter how many times the company in all its abject stupidity keeps switching it "off". Something tells me that, in a few more weeks when I actually go live on ORION, that entire circuit will get torn out and the switch itself wont be a problem any more.

 

[1BROWNWRENCH]

My problem is that my give-a-crap has a faulty on/off switch. It keeps turning back to the "on" position no matter how many times the company in all its abject stupidity keeps switching it "off". Something tells me that, in a few more weeks when I actually go live on ORION, that entire circuit will get torn out and the switch itself wont be a problem any more.

Believe me Soberups, I would remove the fuse for ya if I could. My switch gets bumped too. Seriously, one of these days rules 1 and 2 will be included in SWM.

 

[BSWALKS]

I used to care, but my morale and mental health were being eroded by constant disappointment. Self preservation. Work safe.

Boy does that sound familiar

 

[grgrcr88]

Trust me I gave up on caring a long time ago. It makes the job, and home life, a lot less stressful!! Actually is quite relaxing when you stop caring and just work exactly as instructed. Failures are no longer your fault. I do suggest learning to cover your ass at all times first prior to turning off the give a damn switch!!

 

[soberups]

(sung to the tune of "thats logistics")


Some with a map

Turned my whole route to crap

Thats ORION!


When your trace is all wrong

'Cuz IE hits the bong

Thats ORION!



There's no end to your day

When IE leads the way

With ORION!



When the stops come off slow

And your fuel runs low

Thats ORION!



90 left turns for me

There's no good I can see

In ORION!

 

[40andOut]

So...
Drivers are now being called in to the office because they are following ORION too closely, and the miles are way up.---"You only have to be 85% on trace; why didn't you make this or that adjustment"--

The problem is that ORION scrambles you route so much that it takes too much time and effort to figure out why it is running the stops a particular way. So they now expect you to scroll down several pages (several times a day) to figure out what stops might save you a few blocks. It is not worth it. Since ORION can't communicate to me why it is knocking stops off in the order it is, I have no way of knowing if adding a stop here or there will be productive or not.

It is like running football patterns without knowing how the overall play is designed to work...They tell you to run a post pattern, but you don't know if you are a decoy setting up the run, or if suddenly the ball will be thrown at you when you least expect it. Before we were the Quarterbacks but now we are not even told what the game plan is.

I am finding myself shutting off the brain and going into robo-mode more and more.

Before ORION............................................................................. After ORION
-1/2 to 1 hr under each day ........................................................-20 minutes under to 1 hr+ over allowed each day
-excellent customer service (business got del in AM) ....................-del some business at 4:45 PM; ORION tries to combine del and P/U by schedualling del at P/U time
-floor clear by 11:30 AM .............................................................-stumbling over bulk stops till 5 PM
-miles driven are lower................................................................. -miles driven are clearly higher
-more stops complete in set amount of time ...............................-less stops complete in same amount of time
-day is well planned out with set benchmarks to guide .................-can not understand the "plan" because it does not make sense 1/2 the time

The good part of all this is that it is quite freeing to put it in robo-mode. When I do, I don't even look more than 2 stops ahead most of the day. I am trying to stop daydreaming while working now. That is the danger, you are an accident/injury waiting to happen when you mind is not occupied by your work.

 

[soberups]

So...
Drivers are now being called in to the office because they are following ORION too closely, and the miles are way up.---"You only have to be 85% on trace; why didn't you make this or that adjustment"--

So in other words... they will bitch at you if you dont run 85% compliant. Then when you comply with their demands, they will turn around and bitch at you when you do run 85% compliant and they dont like the number of miles that result.

You cant make them happy, so why bother trying? If I were in your situation I would just shut ORION off and use your area knowledge. If you are gonna get bitched out no matter what you do, then you might as well be as efficient and productive as possible while you pretend to listen to their bitching.

 

[Coldworld]

So in other words... they will bitch at you if you dont run 85% compliant. Then when you comply with their demands, they will turn around and bitch at you when you do run 85% compliant and they dont like the number of miles that result.

You cant make them happy, so why bother trying? If I were in your situation I would just shut ORION off and use your area knowledge. If you are gonna get bitched out no matter what you do, then you might as well be as efficient and productive as possible while you pretend to listen to their bitching.

i recall that when they came into the center with edd they wanted a certain percentage of following edd and they were getting in people's faces about it...that lasted about 6 months...then they were all going crazy about idle time and number of backs after we received all the tattle matics and again they were squawking like chickens and that lasted a few months then nothing has been heard...after the "BIG O" team has left the building you will probably hear 85% for a couple months then it will drop off a cliff after customers threaten to leave and the 9.5's start rolling in....another wasted piece of basic mapping technology.

 

[Wally]

1. Shut brain off.

2. Stop caring.

3. Follow ORION 100%. Not 80%, not 90%...one hundred percent, no exceptions.

4. If NDA is late, enter "other" as reason. If attempting delivery to business after posted hours, scan as "missed".

5. If resulting delays cause you to be out beyond a safe or reasonable time, return to building and scan all remaining stops as "missed." Remember that they dont want you to think anymore, so dont. Their plan, their fail.

6. Repeat as necessary.


They have no intention of fixing the problems with your ORION because you are enabling them not to. The only way to force them to make the necessary changes is to make the consequences of their decision so agonizing...in terms of late air and missed stops...that they will do anything they have to do in order to make the pain stop. Remember that you are dealing with fundmentally stupid and incompetent IE people who dont care about anything except looking good on meaningless reports. You have to find a way to make them look bad on those reports. Pretend that you are trying to herd a 2000 lb bull through a china shop. The bull is big and heavy and stubborn and stupid. It doesnt listen and it doesnt care about what you say. Trying to reason with it is a useless waste of your time. You have to use a 240 volt cattle prod to get the damn thing to move. It wont move the way you want it to and it will knock a bunch of crap over and step on it in the process, but if you are persistent and just keep applying the voltage of service failures to that bull's ass every day you will eventully force it to move it in the direction you need it to go.

Also, remind customers to call for refunds and to complain about the new service.

 

[soberups]

Also, remind customers to call for refunds and to complain about the new service.

In my opinion it is unprofessional to solicit complaints to the 1-800 number or to actively encourage customers to seek refunds.

A better choice when dealing with an irate customer is to simply give them your center manager's phone number, prefaced by a statement to the effect that "we are experimenting with a new dispatch system and trying to work out the issues. Here is the name and number of the person in charge who will resolve this issue for you." Its polite, professional, direct and to the point, and you as the driver are not bad-mouthing the company you work for. You are also helping that customer to avoid wasting time on hold dealing with a useless 800 number. And, you are forcing your management team to personally speak with the customers they are screwing over instead of just continuing to hide behind a desk and a stack of compliance reports.

Remember that, in the first phase of ORION at least, your management team is going to be blindly chasing that compliance number to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. They arent going to give a rats ass about losing volume or complaints called in to the 800 number. Failing to generate the compliance number makes them look bad on the report; missed stops, missed pickups and late air make them look worse on the report. Giving them 100% compliance while shoving the resulting service failures down their throat is probably the only way you will be able to force them to back off and let you get your job done.

 

[soberups]

Its kind of bizarre how different operations have different sets of priorities. From what I read here, there are centers that are going overboard on the whole 85% compliance metric. Yet at the same time, the drivers who are on ORION in my center arent getting harassed about compliance...at least so far. I hope it stays that way. They have already re-looped my route (badly, of course) and I will probably go live on ORION in a few weeks. Im not looking forward to it.

 

[rowan]

Went live on orion stop count went from 180 to 225. Miles did drop for me so I'm more efficient is what I was told. Got on the 9.5 list now down to 180 to 190. Some days its works well others I just shut it off. With that many stops its pretty easy to hit 85%. Sure adds time when your first 30 stops are on the 7 and 8 shelf.

 

[soberups]

Turn it off, hear them bitch

Leave it on, you'll get rich!

Thats ORION.



Next contract they'll strive

To hire monkeys to drive

With ORION.




Shut it off, hear their wails

Leave it on, the route fails!

Thats ORION.


You'll drive past the same place

50 times, what a waste!

With ORION.

 

[Coldworld]

Turn it off, hear them bitch

Leave it on, you'll get rich!

Thats ORION.



Next contract they'll strive

To hire monkeys to drive

With ORION.




Shut it off, hear their wails

Leave it on, the route fails!

Thats ORION.


You'll drive past the same place

50 times, what a waste!

With ORION.

I like turn it on hear them bitch....turn it off hear them bitch...lol

 

[soberups]

Watch your boss scream and cry

'Cause you failed to comply

With ORION

 

[soberups]

"But you'll save half a mile"

Drink that Kool-Aid and smile!

At ORION.

 

[cosmo1]

Its kind of bizarre how different operations have different sets of priorities. From what I read here, there are centers that are going overboard on the whole 85% compliance metric. Yet at the same time, the drivers who are on ORION in my center arent getting harassed about compliance...at least so far. I hope it stays that way. They have already re-looped my route (badly, of course) and I will probably go live on ORION in a few weeks. Im not looking forward to it.

I went back to my building today to ship some stuff, and dropped in on my old on-car to see how things were going. He told me that as of next week, the building would have 50% of the trips on ORION. At least in this division/district, that is the tipping point when the 85% compliance comes into play.

He told me that it is going to be a nightmare. Nothing was done to the loops before the ORION team arrived.

​Good time to be retired, I guess.

 

[serenity now]

Good time to be retired, I guess.

and a bad time to be retired would be?

 

[BigPapaB]

I never use it. Someone ran my route and followed it 95%. He was 14 miles over. I run it my way and that's at about 85%. I'm usually 4-7 miles under plan. It's worthless in my opinion.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

and a bad time to be retired would be?

Shortly after your pension plan becomes insolvent?