XPO | Mismanagment & the "open door"

PlsntlyDsgrntld

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Here's a rant for you:

XNB is the most horribly managed workplace I have ever seen. All of our FOSes are pretty good, for the most part, but our SCM is an empty suit. We've got 1 FOS for each shift (in, p&d, out). The problem is that the inbound guy doesn't care how bad he screws the other guys as long as the freight is out in the morning (or more commonly recently: in the early afternoon :hysterical: ). This causes the p&d guy to come in way early to break freight himself so that the peddle drivers get out on time, empty out, make pickups... Anyways these two guys have been nearly to the point of fisticuffs on the dock almost half a dozen times in the last few weeks :hide: , and now they barely communicate at all unless forced. This wouldn't be all that bad if we had a manager to intercede but our SCM does nothing. At all... About anything...

This winter we didn't have enough snow chains to go around, now we don't have enough pallet jacks (we really need at least 6 more), we regularly run completely out of oil and coolant in our "shop", drivers who aren't up to top rate are constantly fleeing to other carriers. And all the SCM does is rearrange chairs in the breakroom and put people's bags away in the spiffy little cubbies. She's more concerned with keeping tall skids out of OS&D so she can peek out the window down the dock or whether drivers are shaved than the actual moving of freight in a timely and efficient manner.

"Be Professional, Look Professional" It's sad but that makes me sick now. How professional can one look when you roll up in a rusted out scrap heap trailer, 2 hours late for an appointment you had no chance of making, and then having to muscle their freight to the back to the trailer with two dock hooks since you don't have a jack? My regular customers shake their heads and laugh half the time I see them now. Or their just angry... It's sad... OK. End Rant.

Now a long-winded question:

We've had the regional manager in poking around for a few weeks off and on because our turnover rate is ridiculous. Outside of the top-rate crew, it's pretty much a revolving door. In the year and a half I've been there, probably 40 people have come and gone... Anyways the regional manager's been talking to senior drivers, trying to give pep talks, etc. All the senior drivers told him pretty much the same thing I ranted and raved about, but it was like talking to a fish. He gave a speech to the junior drivers where he said that all the turnover was due to junior guys not getting enough hours :BS:, which is a crock. I talked to him in private and gave him a more reasonable version of "the rant" and tried to explain how our turnover is due to hiring a lot of guys who don't know freight and run away screaming, but that the good guys don't want to deal with the (XN)BS and usually go to fedex after they have a year of service. Again it was like talking to a cod.... He said he'd "look into it". The end.

So my long awaited question is this: Does the open door exist? Have people had any success going above the regional level? Our regional manager seems to be a "go along to get along" kind of guy who has his eyes on the next rung of the ladder and doesn't want to get mired down. Meanwhile we're just waiting for our SCM to retire or die :Die:, but she seems healthy and well-entrenched. So I'm just wondering if it's worth it to stick my neck out at the XGO level or if I should just keep my yap shut, drink my strong liquor when I get home, and just leave if it starts to get to me that badly... Thanks for your comments.
 
Your SC is probably making some good profit right now. If that is the case, then the SCM is not going anywhere. As long as they are making a good profit, nothing else really matters. They will get to the other problems when they can.
 
Call XGO. Talk to Greg P. in personnel. Talk to someone in maintenance about the oil and coolant. Make it known that you have to drive tractors that are low on oil and coolant. Use the open door policy, you'll never know if it works otherwise.
 
Call XGO. Talk to Greg P. in personnel. Talk to someone in maintenance about the oil and coolant. Make it known that you have to drive tractors that are low on oil and coolant. Use the open door policy, you'll never know if it works otherwise.

Great advice for those who can't get their terminal managers to get out of their closed office and take notice.

Chain of Command broken at your barn? Call your G.O and state your vaild complaint.

RM shows up and things are suddenly schmoozed over and no one would step up to lodge their complaint? Thats nothing new. I hated that.

It's a shame that GO and other top brass have to make themselves announced.
This gives the terminal a chance to cover up all the inconsistencies and hide things for the visit. They need to make a sneak attack on some of these terminals to see the REAL thing in action.
They need to round up these employees at a surprise meeting and assure them that nothing would be held against them for bringing up issues. That's the only way things can get solved but most people are affraid of retribution. Sorry to say, it does happen to an extent and that's part of the reason there is a failure to communicate.
 
You know Bruce M.was in our barn ond day for a visit. I happened to walk in as he was headed out, he intro'd himself, shook my hand, made small talk. I went out to the dock, did what I needed and about 5 mins later was going out the door just as he was. So here we are the 2 of us outside alone, I am waiting for him to ask me some questions about how things really are. He talked to me about the "weather" I crap you not, the weather. Now i work out of a good barn, no b-day cakes, but well run,stocked and with good morale. I had nothing to gripe to him about, cept how l/h gets held at xde and we get behind, you all know this story...anyways, fos shot his mouth off about it, ended up spending 3 nights at xde, freezing his butt off... punishment for speaking one mind, thats the moral of that story. make those calls drv, then tuck your head between your legs and reach for a floaty cushion:)
 
I have seen the open door policy work well in the past without retaliation. I personally promote it's use. Drivers can develope the neccesary gonads after having suffered enough. Please do not take that as being directed at you.
If you don't inform them, they won't know. In the mean time, upper mngt is being blamed for ignorance beyond their control. My tact is to give people a chance to correct problems, so in utilizing the chain of command, common organizational respect is observed.

Not satisfied with RM inaction?
Go over his/her head.
We've been given that entitlement at Conway and that is a good thing.
 
When we run out of pallet jacks I refuse to move heavy skids. They either find me a pallet jack or it comes back with an orange sticker.

One day a few weeks ago when were were busy and I had to hit the street we actually borrowed a jack from Saia across the street so I could run my peddle.

Its a safety issue; I won't risk hurting myself trying to move a 2000+lbs pallet with a dock hook. If you refuse to cut corners on safety it forces management to address the issue.

One of the 1st things I tell new hires when on the dock is don't use your body to move freight, use the right tool for the job.

I'm 99.99% sure that even if the FOS or SCM was stupid enough to write you up it would get shot down by safety on appeal.
 
Open door works well if used correctly. Use the proper chain of command, never just go straight to the top. If you have a problem wiht your SCM, take it up with the RM. If it's warrented, his beating will come!!:chairshot:
 
Open door works well if used correctly. Use the proper chain of command, never just go straight to the top. If you have a problem wiht your SCM, take it up with the RM. If it's warrented, his beating will come!!:chairshot:
We have the same R.M., I won't waste my time with him.
 
RM shows up and things are suddenly schmoozed over and no one would step up to lodge their complaint? Thats nothing new. I hated that.

Pretty much all our senior guys stepped up and told the RM the real deal. And myself and another of the more junior guys did the same. It's not that no one told him anything, it's that he seems to not give a *bleep*.
 
Pretty much all our senior guys stepped up and told the RM the real deal. And myself and another of the more junior guys did the same. It's not that no one told him anything, it's that he seems to not give a *bleep*.
All you need is a few drivers calling miller at xgo,an it will be looked into.
 
WOW, i rembember when the north boston terminal opened... I was there for 2 weeks at the opening, no pallet jacks, 4 tractors, 1 motor,2 employees, that we had to train, as well as the tm and the 1 fos that did everything else... wow this takes me back....thank you:1036316054:
 
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