New here - venting about Ground

[Nick9075]

I believe he could. Would probably bring a surprise audit very quickly.



I would still like to know how many actual terminations Nick has seen and how many he has seen scared into selling fast. My hunch is far more of the latter.

I am being proactive and can sell if (and when) I am told my contract is being terminated. My contract is almost up for renewal and I think I am about to get the notice. There are things I can't discuss but I can tell you that at least where I am contracts get termed left & right for any real material violation or too many chargeable claims (including complaints) and incorrect scans.

And this contract relations person is analogous to HR in your average Fortune 500 corporation. They are there to protect the organization and too make sure nothing is done that can expose the company to a lawsuit.

 

[bbsam]

Yes, Nick, to protect the company from lawsuits. And lawsuits from contracts come from management attempting to exert too much control. They have a vested interest in keeping things within the contractual agreement. Contractor relations is a little different than what you think. But if you are this deep into it and still don't know that, then I can only wonder if you have any idea what the contract even says.

 

[bbsam]

And think about what you have said. If contracts are being terminated as much as you say and none of the other contractors here have seen such frequency, then Pittsburgh already knows there is a problem with management as well. Buy as long as the SM has people terrified of the power he doesn't have, he will continue to get away with it.

 

[northbound]

Contractor relations isn't the blow hard company boys that you think they are. I also thaught that but was wrong.

 

[MrFedEx]

And think about what you have said. If contracts are being terminated as much as you say and none of the other contractors here have seen such frequency, then Pittsburgh already knows there is a problem with management as well. Buy as long as the SM has people terrified of the power he doesn't have, he will continue to get away with it.

OK. If the SM has people terrified by his "non-power", doesn't he really have defacto power? This sounds a lot like Express management tactics relating to labor unions. Employees are terrified of their "non-power", which translates to true power when management finds another reason to fire you because you dared advocate for a union. If they can force you out by other means at Ground, they still have the power, whether it's in the contract or not.

 

[bbsam]

They have de facto power until somebody who knows the contract stands up to them and starts makin constant calls to contractor relations. I guarantee this SM is already on their radar. Somebody just needs to step up to the plate and tell the SM that he is overstepping the limits of his power. I would suggest Nick insist on a conference call with the SM, the CR person and the managing director to address the concerns. At that point everybody is aware and retaliation beco.es much, much harder.

 

[northbound]

Contracts do not get terminated because a manager doesn't like someone. Period.

 

[xfdxgroundmgmt]

And think about what you have said. If contracts are being terminated as much as you say and none of the other contractors here have seen such frequency, then Pittsburgh already knows there is a problem with management as well. Buy as long as the SM has people terrified of the power he doesn't have, he will continue to get away with it.

bbsam, at my last ground facility I saw more contractors being terminated in less than half the time I spent at my previous facility. I also saw more management terminated in the second facility as well.

 

[bbsam]

bbsam, at my last ground facility I saw more contractors being terminated in less than half the time I spent at my previous facility. I also saw more management terminated in the second facility as well.

we heard it was a possibility at one gateway terminal but for good reason. They had management and contractors together pulling things that would have had Nick voting his SM Manager of the Year. Had to basically clean house..



Would you say contracts are routinely terminated for missing scans or having a handful of DNAs? I have never seen that.



I have heard that terminations are not done at the local level and go through legal. Am I incorrect?

 

[SmithBarney]

Thank you for vindicating my experience, HD. What they wanted us to do was a bit worse. Here's how much work time had lapsed before we even logged in:

1) We keep our vehicles at home and drive about 90 minutes to the terminal in the AM: 1.5 hours
2) Pack our town trucks as the package handler unloads the Ground trailer: 1 hour (or more)
3) Print out manifests, grab call tags, listen to the terminal manager
rattle on about some incident that happened 400 miles away, gas up, etc. 30 minutes
4) Drive 90 minutes back to the edge of our routes 1.5 hours
5) Call CPC for a remote login password, log in, organize stops on manifest 15 minutes

On average, we cheated the scanner/DOT times by an average of 4 hours, 45 minutes every single day. I do consider this an extreme case because we are so small and remote. If we logged in at 5am when we leave home, I think it's a real possibility we would violate DOT timeframes much more than the allowed 6 times per year.

By logging in remotely, it gives whoever views this information the illusion that we are somehow loading here and not driving 170 miles round trip everyday. Not only that, but once a week we'd take turns running all the outbound packages back to the terminal, so it was a double drive of 340 miles + route milage of about 40, resulting in 380 miles of driving, even on a light day. On these days we'd log in remotely, then log out before we made the trip to the terminal. Very shady.

Besides violating DOT laws, there are a handful of DOL laws you are breaking, get up to speed, and educate yourselves, you are cheating yourselves out of a fair wage http://www.dol.gov/whd/offtheclock/

 

[xfdxgroundmgmt]

we heard it was a possibility at one gateway terminal but for good reason. They had management and contractors together pulling things that would have had Nick voting his SM Manager of the Year. Had to basically clean house..



Would you say contracts are routinely terminated for missing scans or having a handful of DNAs? I have never seen that.



I have heard that terminations are not done at the local level and go through legal. Am I incorrect?

Both miss scans and dnas are areas that can get a contract on the radar, I feel it is what is done or not done after having issues brought up by Management to the contractor, what plan(s) do you have to correct missing scans, failing on service, etc.?

And yes legal has to sign off on all terminations, for contractors and management for that matter. However when you have a Station Manager that crosses all t's and dots all i's then the ability and idea of what type of documentation is needed in those matters becomes second nature.

 

[bbsam]

Why do you think you saw so many terminations at one station compared to the other.

 

[xfdxgroundmgmt]

I would have to go with the SM and what His personal / professional Goals for FDXG were, the previous building had higher revolving door of SMs and a couple were people first kind of managers. Maybe discretion was used from a people first management style in the first building and by the book in the second, because the SM's goals were to advance his clout and personally didn't care about the people in his path. IMHO

 

[HomeDelivery]

Thank you for vindicating my experience, HD. What they wanted us to do was a bit worse. Here's how much work time had lapsed before we even logged in:

1) We keep our vehicles at home and drive about 90 minutes to the terminal in the AM: 1.5 hours
2) Pack our town trucks as the package handler unloads the Ground trailer: 1 hour (or more)
3) Print out manifests, grab call tags, listen to the terminal manager
rattle on about some incident that happened 400 miles away, gas up, etc. 30 minutes
4) Drive 90 minutes back to the edge of our routes 1.5 hours
5) Call CPC for a remote login password, log in, organize stops on manifest 15 minutes

On average, we cheated the scanner/DOT times by an average of 4 hours, 45 minutes every single day. I do consider this an extreme case because we are so small and remote. If we logged in at 5am when we leave home, I think it's a real possibility we would violate DOT timeframes much more than the allowed 6 times per year.

By logging in remotely, it gives whoever views this information the illusion that we are somehow loading here and not driving 170 miles round trip everyday. Not only that, but once a week we'd take turns running all the outbound packages back to the terminal, so it was a double drive of 340 miles + route milage of about 40, resulting in 380 miles of driving, even on a light day. On these days we'd log in remotely, then log out before we made the trip to the terminal. Very shady.

i cover a few routes like yours & when they return from their unpaid vacation or short leave, i ask them why you like being raped every day for all that free labor? there are other contractors to switch over to in the same terminal; i known a couple that did just that when they were dealt with situations like yours...