soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
My area had Telematics implemented about 4 months ago. Much has changed since the program started; UPS has promoted many myths about Telematics that have turned out to not be true.
When the company first rolls out Telematics in a new area, it will begin with a "backing reduction campaign." Each driver will receive training and intense scrutiny over the number of times per day he/she puts the truck in reverse. Each driver will be given an "allowance" per day which is arrived at by expecting a 25% reduction in backs from the previous average. There will be printouts every morning listing the number, distance and speed of every back by every driver for the previous day.
This campaign will last about 2 weeks before being completely forgotten and replaced with the next phase which will focus on seat belt usage, keeping the bulkhead door closed, and not pulling the DIAD while the vehice is moving.
During this phase, employees will be badgered and harassed every morning over minor "glitches" in their Telematics reports. Did your wheels come to a complete stop before you pulled the DIAD? Was your bulkhead door open when you moved the vehicle 2 feet? Did your seatbelt latch .0001 of a second after the vehicle started moving? A "yes" to any of these questions will result in a printout, and a bunch of whining and nagging by your supervisor.
Then one day....as if by magic...this phase too will end. Excess backing and trivial seatbelt/DIAD violations will be ignored. On this day...the real fun begins and we get in to the real intent behind Telematics, which is to inflict the most intense level of scrutiny and production harassment that any driver has ever experienced.
In this final phase of Telematics....you will be questioned and issued a warning letter for "failure to properly record breaks" if there is so much as a 90 second discrepancy between the time you record your break and the time that Telematics shows you "breaking trace" to drive to a suitable location for that break.
In this phase...every single stop you do will have an allowance and the printout will show if you were "overallowed" for that particular stop.
Every morning, the on-car sups will have a clipboard full of printouts and readouts. They will use this information to question, nag, whine and harass each employee about every perceived delay or instance of off-area travel.
This micromanagement will go to ridiculous extremes; morning meetings will occur between a sup, the driver and his shop steward in which 30-40 minutes of driver time will be spent questioning the employee over a 1 or 2 minute discrepancy in his recorded lunch or break period.
Did you go out to your truck after lunch and spend a couple of minutes sorting and lining up your remaining stops? Did you spend 1 or 2 minutes driving to the end of the block to take your break at a place with a public restroom and legal parking? Did you drive by 2 stops in order to get to a restraunt in time to beat the lunch rush? A "yes" to any of these questions is going to result in a metting the next morning in which you will be confronted and expected to explain yourself for these transgressions.
UPS has been promoting myths about Telematics, touting it as a "safety" enhancement. This is a lie. The safety aspect is just a facade that is meant to conceal the truth, which is that Telematics is about increasing production by allowing a supervisor to micromanage every moment of a drvers day from behind the comfort of a desk.
When the company first rolls out Telematics in a new area, it will begin with a "backing reduction campaign." Each driver will receive training and intense scrutiny over the number of times per day he/she puts the truck in reverse. Each driver will be given an "allowance" per day which is arrived at by expecting a 25% reduction in backs from the previous average. There will be printouts every morning listing the number, distance and speed of every back by every driver for the previous day.
This campaign will last about 2 weeks before being completely forgotten and replaced with the next phase which will focus on seat belt usage, keeping the bulkhead door closed, and not pulling the DIAD while the vehice is moving.
During this phase, employees will be badgered and harassed every morning over minor "glitches" in their Telematics reports. Did your wheels come to a complete stop before you pulled the DIAD? Was your bulkhead door open when you moved the vehicle 2 feet? Did your seatbelt latch .0001 of a second after the vehicle started moving? A "yes" to any of these questions will result in a printout, and a bunch of whining and nagging by your supervisor.
Then one day....as if by magic...this phase too will end. Excess backing and trivial seatbelt/DIAD violations will be ignored. On this day...the real fun begins and we get in to the real intent behind Telematics, which is to inflict the most intense level of scrutiny and production harassment that any driver has ever experienced.
In this final phase of Telematics....you will be questioned and issued a warning letter for "failure to properly record breaks" if there is so much as a 90 second discrepancy between the time you record your break and the time that Telematics shows you "breaking trace" to drive to a suitable location for that break.
In this phase...every single stop you do will have an allowance and the printout will show if you were "overallowed" for that particular stop.
Every morning, the on-car sups will have a clipboard full of printouts and readouts. They will use this information to question, nag, whine and harass each employee about every perceived delay or instance of off-area travel.
This micromanagement will go to ridiculous extremes; morning meetings will occur between a sup, the driver and his shop steward in which 30-40 minutes of driver time will be spent questioning the employee over a 1 or 2 minute discrepancy in his recorded lunch or break period.
Did you go out to your truck after lunch and spend a couple of minutes sorting and lining up your remaining stops? Did you spend 1 or 2 minutes driving to the end of the block to take your break at a place with a public restroom and legal parking? Did you drive by 2 stops in order to get to a restraunt in time to beat the lunch rush? A "yes" to any of these questions is going to result in a metting the next morning in which you will be confronted and expected to explain yourself for these transgressions.
UPS has been promoting myths about Telematics, touting it as a "safety" enhancement. This is a lie. The safety aspect is just a facade that is meant to conceal the truth, which is that Telematics is about increasing production by allowing a supervisor to micromanage every moment of a drvers day from behind the comfort of a desk.
