When the bear wakes up, there's going to be trouble

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a fleet safety manager that I know. His fleet had been having severe problems through the spring and summer with logbook violations, and were planning to implement a training program to help address the issue. It wasn't that their drivers were consciously trying to fudge their logs, but that they just didn't understand the regs and were making mistakes as a result. Current HOS regulations are pretty confusing, especially if you work cross-border, so you certainly can't blame someone for misunderstanding some of them. A customized training program looked like a great solution.

Except that they never got around to actually implementing it.

Over the last few months, their violation rate has gone down and the urgency of the problem seems to have gone down as well. When I spoke to the safety manager the other day, he said they weren't planning on doing the training program anymore, because "the problem went away".

Well, not quite.

While their violation rate may have gone down, and the drivers that were having problems have stopped having those problems (mostly because they've learned the hard way what not to do with their logs), the underlying problem itself hasn't changed.

That's because the real problem wasn't the violations - the real problem was the situation that created the violations in the first place. 

Drivers were getting violations because they didn't understand the regs. Drivers didn't understand the regs because the tools being used to convey information - driver meetings, pay stub inserts, etc. - were unreliable and ineffective. On top of that, the fleet also had no way to gauge whether or not that information was being received and processed properly, so all they could do was wait and see if problems came up afterwards. That problem hasn't been solved. And the next time there's a regulatory or process change, the same problems are more than likely to come up again.

If you're camping and a bear comes into your camp site, you've got a problem. If the bear goes to sleep, you get some temporary relief. But sooner or later that bear is going to wake up, and when it does you want to be far away!

Getting rid of the violations wasn't the answer. The fact that my safety manager friend isn't facing multiple logbook violations every week doesn't mean that the bear has left the campsite. It just means that it's sleeping right now.

Fixing the process that created the violations in the first place is the answer. Figuring out where the existing processes have failed, and rectifying those failures, is the answer. Implementing a solution that lets drivers take the time they need to learn the regulations properly (without having to make other sacrifices), and lets management see where the knowledge gaps are before those gaps turn into problems on the road, is the way to fix the problem once and for all. 

When that's done, the fleet will truly have solved the problem, and the bears will be gone from their campsite.

Delinquency

So, I'm a little behind on my blog posts. I normally try to do at least one a week, but we've got a lot of stuff on the go right now and I'm finding it VERY difficult to actually finish any thoughts.

We're wrapping up version 2.5 of CarriersEdge, which is scheduled for release at the end of this month. It's going to have a lot of great new additions - the video content from KRTS that we announced previously, new and updated courses, and a whole pile of new admin and reporting functions to make the system more efficient and more powerful for managing training programs - but in the software world, release time is always stupidly busy with last minute fixes and changes.

We've also got the Best Fleets to Drive For survey, which is seeing more fleets nominated every day. We'll soon be starting the process of interviewing all the nominated fleets so we're ramping up preparations for that. Right now we've got over 30 fleets nominated and that should more than double by the time nominations close at the end of November. Since we have about 6 pages of questions that we'll be working through with each nominated fleet, our Services team is preparing to do a lot of data crunching over the winter!

Add in all the regular day-to-day stuff, and you can see why I'm going crazy trying to stay on top of everything. The blog will be back to normal soon, but in the meantime I'm going to try and grab a few hours of sleep here and there and finish at least a couple of the many posts that are sitting in my "Drafts" folder. And if I can spare a few minutes, I may even have a chance to catch up on the outstanding serial drama that is the election (the U.S. election, that is, the Canadian election was pointless and boring!).

Stay tuned for more news about CarriersEdge 2.5, and if you're a driver or owner-op, check out the Best Fleets To Drive For website and think about nominating your company!

Repost - What's Your Plan?

I've discovered that last week's post - What's Your Plan? - never actually appeared on our main website in the section that's supposed to have the blog headlines. Since most readers access the blog through there, a lot of you probably missed this post. D'oh!

Here's a link back to the original article. Enjoy!

What's Your Plan?

I'm talking to a lot of people these days that are starting the budgeting and planning process for 2009. As I talk to them, I'm reminded of a comment made by my colleagues over at Viewnyx. Viewnyx, for anyone who's not familiar with them, makes an excellent in-cab camera system that monitors things like speed, braking, signalling, etc. and automatically records what's happening in front of the vehicle so that fleets can identify unsafe activity and do something about it proactively. In a conversation with them several months ago, they commented that they're surprised how few fleets have annual targets for collision reduction. Most every fleet knows their collisions-per-million-miles rate, but not very many actually set targets for reducing that number.

I also find that odd, so I've gotten into the habit of asking people about their own objectives, and lo and behold, I'm finding the same thing - not very many fleets that have specific targets for collision reduction. 

In order to measure the improvement (and the bottom line impact of that improvement), you have to have specific numbers. "Improve as much as possible" is not a viable objective, since there's no way to know if you've ever met that objective. On the other hand, setting an objective of reducing at-fault collisions by 5% (or 10%, 15%, etc.) over the previous year is a very specific, measurable objective, where the bottom line impact can be predicted and measured.

Same thing goes for HR issues as well. If your turnover dropped by 10% year-over-year, what impact would that have on the bottom line? If you could cut your cost of on-boarding by 10% (hiring, processing, orienting new drivers) what would that mean to the business? How about a 10% reduction in the amount of time it takes new drivers to ramp up to full productivity? 

As we enter the fall 'planning season', in a changing and uncertain economic climate, it's ever more important to set specific, measurable objectives for the coming year and identify what's required to meet those objectives.

In the examples above, I used 10% as a baseline number, but it could be anything. What targets 

do you have for improving your safety and HR programs? What steps are you taking to meet those targets?

Let me know.

The Culture of the Internet ... and Free Stuff

The other day I saw a posting that tweaked my curiosity and I thought you'd all enjoy it as well. It was a list of the more common Internet memes - those interesting but pointless tidbits that pass our way periodically - from the past decade or so. Many of them I'd forgotten until the list reminded me of them, but they all represent a shared cultural experience that we've had over the Internet, as well as pointless, but fun, time-wasters.

See how many of these you remember:

• "All your base are belong to us"
  
• Neiman Marcus cookie recipe
  
• 9/11 tourist guy
  
• Bert is evil
  
• Hampster dance
  
• Bill Gates email - forward the message and Bad Billie gives you money
  
• Star Wars kid
  
• LonelyGirl15
  
• 300 page iPhone bill
  
• Dancing baby
  
• Exploding whale
  
• Bus uncle
  
• "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords"
  

I think you have to be a serious geek to remember all of them. So, in the spirit of geekiness, and recognizing that the uniform of every true geek is jeans and t-shirts, I'll give free t-shirts to anyone who can identify all 13 of them. Post here or email info@carriersedge.com with your details.

Enjoy!

Danger Sneaks Up On You

Wow, two weeks in a row of boogeyman-style headlines! 

You can tell that summer is over and I'm crabby because winter is coming :-(

To finish out the summer, we took our kids to Ontario Place which, for everyone who doesn't live in the Toronto area, is a large park that's equal parts amusement, heritage display, event venue, and all around nice place by the water. In the kids area, they had an attraction called Atom Blaster which was a multi-level indoor game where kids could shoot soft foam balls at each other (but mostly at their parents). It teaches kids about how atoms work, but mostly it's a safe, kid-friendly version of paintball.

Except that it's not safe.

I'll bet that every piece of the equipment is inspected regularly and it all looks very well maintained, so I'm sure the consensus is that it's perfectly safe. And as far as the overall fitness of the equipment and design of the attraction, I'd agree that it's fine.

But there's one area that no one seems to be checking, and that's an area that's definitely NOT safe. Atom Blaster is insanely LOUD. All of the gadgets that shoot the foam balls around use compressed air, so every time one of them goes off, there's a deafening blast of white noise accompanying it. The venue itself has a relatively low ceiling and hard plexiglass walls, so there's little to deaden that noise. Topping it off, each gadget needs to be loaded with foam balls so when they do go off, they're invariably surrounded by a bunch of kids.

Where I was standing (in the viewing area for crusty old people) the blasts had to be approaching 100 dB. Right in front of the things, where all the kids were, it was easily 120 dB.

As many of you know, I spent my youth touring with a variety of bar bands, so I've had plenty of exposure to painfully loud rooms (and in fairness, since my instrument is the drums, I've often contributed to that painful noise level). Atom Blaster brought back unpleasant memories of those days by giving me that sick, dizzy feeling that you get when the noise level is too high.

Sure, it's not gonna kill anyone, but prolonged exposure to excessive volume does do long term damage to the ears. Even brief exposure can be damaging if the level is high enough.

At some point, something bad will happen (either an injury to a guest, or an inspector who shuts them down) and when that happens, Ontario Place will be falling all over themselves to demonstrate how quickly they can respond. Unfortunately, by then it will be too late. 

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but maintaining a safety culture isn't about reacting after the fact - it's about working proactively to identify and correct potential problems BEFORE they blow up in your face. Danger sneaks up on you from the most inconspicuous places, so you have to check every dark corner to flush it out and deal with it.

And if you take your kids to Ontario Place, take ear plugs!

Ignore It At Your Peril

Apologies for the doom and gloom headline, but I came across a great quote from Seth Godin about technology and why it's so important to pay attention to what's happening:

Technology, most especially the Internet, has enabled the New Marketing, but you don't have to understand it to use it.

It's been a decade since the underpinnings of this revolution were put in place. For the last ten years, ignoring most of what was going on with the New Marketing wouldn't have hurt you that much.

Unless you were a travel agent. Now you're out of business.

Unless you worked for a newspaper. Now you're out of a job.

Unless you bought books. Now you know that the best place to find any title, fast and cheap, is online.

Unless you sold insurance. Now you've seen that fat commissions are a thing of the past.

The quote comes from Seth's Meatball Sundae, an excellent book about how technology has created new marketing channels, which in turn require the entire company to be aligned around those channels and the message. He's talking about marketing, but it could apply to any number of other things.

The point is that there's a lot going on and it's often easy to ignore it and say "that doesn't apply to me". The reality, though, is that technology changes businesses in ways that no one can see coming, so ignoring it can be very dangerous.

Ten years ago, did anyone foresee the demise of the independent travel agent? Of course not. How about the music business? Retailers? 

Ten years from now, what will be different? That's impossible to say with any certainty, but smart companies are investing some time in thinking about how they can use technology to improve efficiency, streamline operations, or do things that were previously impossible. When those companies start seeing the results of that effort, their business model is going to give them a tremendous advantage over everyone else - they'll be able to charge less, provide better service, and make more profit all at the same time.

The companies that AREN'T thinking about that will be the unfortunate ones trying to compete against them. Who do you think is going to win?