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FedEx Freight | New Scanner Program

Cody

Cody

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We started the new scanner program today. Dispatch handed us our route, the scanner and 30 loose pages of instructions and basically said go for it. My scanner is dead before 3 hours into the day and will not transmit under 40 % charge. Going to be an interesting day. Charger only works with key on and I have been out of the truck most of the morning.
 
Cody said:
We started the new scanner program today. Dispatch handed us our route, the scanner and 30 loose pages of instructions and basically said go for it. My scanner is dead before 3 hours into the day and will not transmit under 40 % charge. Going to be an interesting day. Charger only works with key on and I have been out of the truck most of the morning.
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What are we talking here,a new intermec?
 
Cody said:
We started the new scanner program today. Dispatch handed us our route, the scanner and 30 loose pages of instructions and basically said go for it. My scanner is dead before 3 hours into the day and will not transmit under 40 % charge. Going to be an interesting day. Charger only works with key on and I have been out of the truck most of the morning.
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Are you the same Cody that was telling me all about winter operations on Donner? A Fing city driver? Have you ever even pulled a set over Donner in the winter?
 
Richard Cranium said:
Are you the same Cody that was telling me all about winter operations on Donner? A Fing city driver? Have you ever even pulled a set over Donner in the winter?
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Why do you have to be an ass? We're talking about the new scanner program. Local drivers pull sets to more locations than road. Of my 39 years I ran Lake Tahoe for 10 years both north lake and south. Pulled sets over Donner, up 267, 89, spooner summit, Echo Summit. Also, local drivers make road runs to Sac on many occasions. You sir, can kiss my rear end.
 
fartknocker said:
What are we talking here,a new intermec?
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Yes, the menus and screens have all been changed.
It uses engine oil pressure to determine if the engine is running. You cannot send or receive messages while the engine is running. You cannot receive pick ups either.
It will automatically arrive and depart you from the yard. It enters milage but you have to confirm.
It arrives you at your stop when you turn off the engine. You can pre-route yourself to several stops and it will arrive and depart these stops. It automatically enters the milage.
You can group the deliveries so if you have more than one DR you just have to type the name in once.
If customers use the Internet to create their BOL all you have to do is high lite the pro (pre-listed) and send it. All the BOL info will be entered into the scanner. Could be a great thing for the future.
This is going to take some time to master. Some hand outs a few days before it was activated might have helped.
 
The new program has some nice features, but there is a ton of time wasted every day waiting for the vehicle in motion screen to go away!
These things are big brother run amuck, dispatch hates the constant battery level warning messages. Can you imagine 50-60 or 100 drivers wands all sending messages everytime a wand gets to 50% battery level! I'm guessing there will be several updates to program....... I do like that there is a timer for breaks as well as lunches, seems like I never could remember to look at a clock when going on break.
 
Yes, my scanner sent out 5 low battery messages today.
There is an inbox and outbox for messages. You can go back and read all the messages sent from your scanner. A charger in the tractor is a must and many of ours have the wires pulled out.
 
The worst part about the new system is the "Vehicle in Motion" screen if you drive a truck that has been equipped with a vector device. You cannot do much of anything while the truck is running. No messages to read or pickups to view as you are driving. There are two types of messaging: Priority and non-priority. Priority messages tell you to pull over and read it with three loud dings. The non gives you one ding.

The system lets you know you have a pick up by "DING DING, New pickup received". Then you must find a place to pull over and turn the truck off for five to ten seconds so you can read the pickup. Same for messages.

I like how they think we are all from Harrison and need the voice telling you what each set of dings mean.

The system works (well supposed to) if you have an inner city route with stops close together. It sucks when you are driving around 300 miles for a route and your being sent pickups and messages as you are driving.
The intermec will end your lunch for you (depending on your type of vector hookup) if you start the truck or roll it fast enough to register on the speedometer during your lunch. It's gets cold for some of us at lunch time.

My terminal manager told me after the national roll out is complete, we are going to get new handhelds. Our old wands are going to be used for the line system. No more kiosk. Can't wait to see how that works out.
 
If packerfans' terminal gets soap in their bathroom then maybe they just might buy wipes for everyone.
 
Cody said:
Yes, the menus and screens have all been changed.
It uses engine oil pressure to determine if the engine is running. You cannot send or receive messages while the engine is running. You cannot receive pick ups either.
It will automatically arrive and depart you from the yard. It enters milage but you have to confirm.
It arrives you at your stop when you turn off the engine. You can pre-route yourself to several stops and it will arrive and depart these stops. It automatically enters the milage.
You can group the deliveries so if you have more than one DR you just have to type the name in once.
If customers use the Internet to create their BOL all you have to do is high lite the pro (pre-listed) and send it. All the BOL info will be entered into the scanner. Could be a great thing for the future.
This is going to take some time to master. Some hand outs a few days before it was activated might have helped.
Click to expand...

On paper or in text as you wrote above it sounds great! But I have been using it for 10 months and it definitely isnt as good as it sounds on paper. The scanner will get stuck on "Vehicle in motion" so you wont be able to do a thing unless you start up the truck and move it a hundred feet or so, then shut it off or reboot which takes longer than moving the truck. Sure you can sequence the stops but that doesnt save any time in the long run. The 'group' function is the best part about it, but as you guys will see it runs slower because it has more features. Kind of like a smart phone running a bunch of APPS in the background. IMO, a couple terminals have had these for almost a year now and nobody came and asked how it was going. This along with the dock computers is the wrong technology. Its to time consuming and multiply that by tens of thousand employees country wide. Who is in charge of technology anyway? They must be locked away in a room brainstorming with one brain.
 
fartknocker said:
If your on lunch can you let the truck idle or do you have to freeze/ sweat your arse off sitting there?
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You can start your truck you can even move it, someone figured out that expecting a driver to never have to move after they've gone on lunch is stupid.
I mean really if you're parked in Joe's mini mart lot and the fuel truck pulls in with fuel for them, I don't think telling them I can't move till my lunch is over is gonna fly!
But I don't think they want you sitting there idling either, I guess for a few minutes at time would do:)
 
I cannot hardly believe what you City Drivers are posting. Is this a Real System? A system that FEDEX is actually considering as a Company Asset? If So... We are Doomed! How can anybody get any work done? I was a City Driver about 16 years ago and I liked it because my City Dispatcher worked his butt into the ground and treated his 30 City Drivers with Respect and he expected you to work. As it should be. We didn't have Cell Phones or Intermecs, we just called in from stops and he directed us to our Pick-ups. This new system sounds like someday it will be studied in College Business classes... as "How to Not Use your Human Resources".( I hate the term Human Resources) we are people, not Resources.
 
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