pretzel_man
Well-Known Member
I see the center manager come running downstairs after a conference call, run over to the "blue cart computer" and look at the truck colors. Then, he makes some add/cuts, and looks at the truck colors, again. Not the dispatcher, he is hiding in his office. I have yet to see them care about anything other than that. Is the color red? His head is sweating, if it is. Drivers that have 29+ years in can't understand why they do what they do. I have seen add/cut sheets with one stop on them. The paper wasted in my building on add/cuts in one year would reach the moon. We have IE come in now and then, and they say we should not have anywhere near that many add/cuts. Yet, there he(the dispatcher)sits in his chair, day after day. Hiding in his office, told to stay there because of too many harassment complaints from the employees.
This has nothing to do with the IE people.
The problem you mention is real. I am not trying to deny that. Here is what happens....
There is a metric called dispatch in range. It is meant to measure how good the plans are and how well they are being followed. The concept is good generally. However it can cause some bad behavior. Move one stop in a neighborhood to make the number look good.
There are other much more important metrics. NDPPH, and mileage index. They are meant to say are the hours and miles changing in the same ratio as packages and stops do.
Making a poor dispatch decision makes a less important metric look good, but hurts the more important one. Some managers just do not get it....
Both metrics can be met if the plans are good to begin with. A good trace first, then a good plan, then a dispatch that matches that good plan....
When done right, creating plans takes less time and produces better results.