Idling With Tatlematics
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UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
You are right--they cannot take discipline based solely on information gathered from any technology; however, don't be fooled to think that they won't use that information to go on road and observe you. If you repeat the behavior they can and will take discipline so, yes, they can discipline with the assistance of technology.
Indecisi0n
Well-Known Member
I idled yesterday. My toes were cold.
Bubblehead
My Senior Picture
This its the truth. Telematics makes it infinitely easier for management to identify issues. Aside from grey area issues like cold weather idling, don't test them.
Packmule
Well-Known Member
I ususally eat in the truck, but don't stop long. Hate wasting daylight. Anyway, I have options for lunch in a resturant if I want. Waiting til it's 30 below and will shut down for full hour at a Subway, and let the diesel freeze up. Then they can have a road call to get it started again. That ought to do it.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
Your "management" team would probably rather have the road call. A road call shows up on someone elses report, not theirs.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
So let me see if I understand this.
We have a driver who is paid to make literally thousands of decisions every day regarding the safe operation of a $25,000 package car on a public road. He is paid to make thousands of decisions every day regarding the productive delivery and pickup of packages that may be worth upwards of $10,000 or more. And he is paid to deal with the public and perform his duties in a professional manner that best represents the interests of the company. But because the company has installed Telematics in the package car....this same driver is now required to call his supervisor and get permission to run the heater. Should he also call in and ask for permission to wipe his butt after he goes potty?
browniehound
Well-Known Member
No matter what they will hound you for idle time because it will save the company money right away. However, keep your eye on your idle time. I noticed I was always at the top or close to it. I found this odd because I have only 1 stop light on my route and zero traffic. Its all back roads and I never idle when waiting for a dock or even to keep warm as I take lunch at Dunkin Donuts.
So I'm taking heat and the manager is going into the computer and saying well, it took me 1 sec to put my seatbelt on 100 times so I should put the seatbelt on first and then start the car to save a grand total of 1.8 minutes of idle time. I was perplexed as to why it was so high and upset that I was getting nickel and dimed by my manager about this when I surely know I follow the rules. I'm not one of these guys that just lets it run and say screw it.
So, my car gets pulled for a PMI for 3 days. I check the idle time and sure enough it was cut in half! I went from like 70+ minutes to like 33 or 34 minutes. It was the freaking truck! I immediately brought this to the manager's attention still a little tiffed about the 1 sec at 100 stops and he says "good, great, that is wonderful that you noticed that!" and he PCMed it the next day.
For some reason my speedometer doesn't start registering speed for a few seconds even when I'm moving. It like goes up to 35 when you turn the power on but immediately shoots to zero and stays there for a few seconds thus showing the computer I'm idling when I'm really moving.
If telematics is new to you just keep your eye on them because there can be errors that will show. For example, I got 14 record while idling the other day when I never get any and I surely didn't commit this many errors (maybe one here and there by accident but NEVER 14 in one day!). The boss thought it could have been because I used 2 different vehicles for the day and sometimes it will show me in the other vehicle recording while someone else is driving the other one that I had used or will use. Or it could have been that it was my first day on keyless start and I will push the start button on the way back to the truck and stop complete soon after that. Not sure if the electrical running counts as idling to Telematics?
Just keep your eye on it..
So I'm taking heat and the manager is going into the computer and saying well, it took me 1 sec to put my seatbelt on 100 times so I should put the seatbelt on first and then start the car to save a grand total of 1.8 minutes of idle time. I was perplexed as to why it was so high and upset that I was getting nickel and dimed by my manager about this when I surely know I follow the rules. I'm not one of these guys that just lets it run and say screw it.
So, my car gets pulled for a PMI for 3 days. I check the idle time and sure enough it was cut in half! I went from like 70+ minutes to like 33 or 34 minutes. It was the freaking truck! I immediately brought this to the manager's attention still a little tiffed about the 1 sec at 100 stops and he says "good, great, that is wonderful that you noticed that!" and he PCMed it the next day.
For some reason my speedometer doesn't start registering speed for a few seconds even when I'm moving. It like goes up to 35 when you turn the power on but immediately shoots to zero and stays there for a few seconds thus showing the computer I'm idling when I'm really moving.
If telematics is new to you just keep your eye on them because there can be errors that will show. For example, I got 14 record while idling the other day when I never get any and I surely didn't commit this many errors (maybe one here and there by accident but NEVER 14 in one day!). The boss thought it could have been because I used 2 different vehicles for the day and sometimes it will show me in the other vehicle recording while someone else is driving the other one that I had used or will use. Or it could have been that it was my first day on keyless start and I will push the start button on the way back to the truck and stop complete soon after that. Not sure if the electrical running counts as idling to Telematics?
Just keep your eye on it..
browniehound
Well-Known Member
The way I look at is: Don't force me to take an hour lunch in the freezing cold and I won't idle your truck. Doesn't this seem fair?
I mean who wants an hour lunch when it extends your day to 7 or 8 pm and its 25 degrees below zero with the wind chill. I won't idle your truck if you don't force me to sit in the cold when I'm a route that is not near a warm place. Still, how can you ask me to take a lunch "somewhere warm"? What if there is a Mcdonalds on my route and you instruct me to take lunch there? How can you ask me to do that? Nobody can eat that crap everyday so you are asking us to be vagrants just to help YOU out. Not fair to be asked to do that I say
An hour lunch is great when its 75 degrees and the sun shining until 9 pm. Again, who wants to waste the hour of sunlight for lunch in the winter? In January, here in the northeast, it gets bone chilling cold once that sun goes down and just wish management would let us take what we need for lunch and not the entire hour.
It would benefit them also (unless they are banking on lunch-runners which is why, I'm sure, they insist on the entire hour) because we are more productive in the day light and less likely to get injured with a slip and fall. All that snow that may have melted during the day freezes on walkways making a more hazardous situation compared to using that walkway at 2pm.
You would think this would make sense but its UPS and nothing make sense. At least not to me?????
Hallelujah. You guys have to take a stand like the above. Don't sit there freezing like an idiot. Humans need heat...
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
It makes perfect sense.
The company doesnt want you to take a full 1 hour lunch, they want you to record a full hour lunch.
Mandating a full 1 hour lunch is nothing more than a blatant, cynical attempt on their part to screw a few more people out of pay by coercing them into working off of the clock. They are well aware of the fact that a signifcant percentage of the drivers will not want to take a full hour for the very reasons you describe, and they are counting on them to knuckle under and do the work for free.
You need better local language. In my area, the company cannot arbitrarily force you to record a full hour lunch. They are required to pay you according to what you enter into the DIAD and it is up to you the driver to decide whether you want to take an hour, a half hour, or something in between. The only exceptions are for legitimate service-related issues such as pickups with late close-out times.
Im a big boy. I can cross the street by myself, I can go potty by myself, and I can decide for myself whether I want to take a 30 or a 60 minute lunch. I dont need a "management" person to hold my hand and make the decision for me.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
Top IE slogan #11......"I generate reports, therefore I exist."
Hypothermia . . . Really ?
You are going to sit in a truck that has been running for 4 hrs. with the heat on and get frost bite within 30 minutes ?
What is your delivery area ?
Siberia ?
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
Do these morons think we actually want to sit in the truck for an hour with the engine idling?
The truck is already a pretty miserable place to take a lunch break in the first place. The last thing anybody really wants to do is to make it worse by spending 30 - 60 minutes sitting there breathing exhaust fumes and listening to the Godawful racket of the diesel engine. That is only going to happen as a last resort, to keep the inside temp bearable and to keep the windshield from fogging up or freezing.
I seldom eat in the truck, and it seldom gets cold enough here to make continuous idling a necessity. But when it is a necessity...I am going to do it and if they dont like it they are free to rectally insert whatever Telematics reports are generated as a result.
The truck is already a pretty miserable place to take a lunch break in the first place. The last thing anybody really wants to do is to make it worse by spending 30 - 60 minutes sitting there breathing exhaust fumes and listening to the Godawful racket of the diesel engine. That is only going to happen as a last resort, to keep the inside temp bearable and to keep the windshield from fogging up or freezing.
I seldom eat in the truck, and it seldom gets cold enough here to make continuous idling a necessity. But when it is a necessity...I am going to do it and if they dont like it they are free to rectally insert whatever Telematics reports are generated as a result.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
This will be one of the changes you will notice when you come back. The district requires we put 45 minutes in unless we are approved for a Code 5 which we have been told will be few and far between.
Packmule
Well-Known Member
Kudos! Out here we managed to force our district--and our union-- to conceed the hour break to 1/2 hour minimum. Still have the option to take a full hour when WE choose, and I still think 1/2 hour is more than ought to be forced down anybody's throat. Especially in winter. Things change fast out here in the Northern Plains states, too, and I believe we drivers need the flexibility to make personal decisions about break. Makes a lot more safety-sense than having a one-size-fits-all mandated by some idiot sitting in a warm dry office in some other state.
40 and out
Well-Known Member
In my old 7 cube,I was showing 10 to 15 delivery while idling.
Was accused of riding around with packages in cab. Supervisor was sent out with instructions to take me out of service the first time i was caught doing this. you have to wonder how dumb some of these so called educated mgmt people reading these reports are. I asked to see the report showing where these incidents supposedly happened. Within 1 minute i figured out they were all at pickup stops that had no pkgs going out so the bulkhead door was not opened.For some reason it was showing delivery while idling if bulkhead door wasn't opened and closed. Their solution was not to fix it but i was told i had to open and close the bulkhead door at every stop. Loved showing my customers what brilliant people i work for by showing them this.
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