XPO | Culture Matters

[vetran peddleman]

Been looking. Plenty of opportunities. Just not sure about jumping.

I am done with LTL if I go. There is no reason to start this process all over from day one again.

Thinking about switching up my bid. Maybe some time on L/H will get me what I need.

Yeah...I've heard that night owls don't have to put up w/ all the garbage at night and pretty much are left alone to do their jobs. Maybe if you do 'go on the road' you'll get a clear vision of what you want to do concerning leaving or staying. But remember what you once said..."nobody's leaving during the winter, if anybody's going to jump it will be in the Spring cause nobody wants to start at the bottom somewhere else in the winter ."

 

[highspeeds]

Exactly. Also, I want to see where XPO takes us. And I feel many will leave in the spring, for a variety of reasons, and that those who stay will be buried with work as a result.

It's to soon to go. But it's going to be pretty rocky. So I want to find the safest place to ride out the coming storm.

 

[vetran peddleman]

Exactly. Also, I want to see where XPO takes us. And I feel many will leave in the spring, for a variety of reasons, and that those who stay will be buried with work as a result.

It's to soon to go. But it's going to be pretty rocky. So I want to find the safest place to ride out the coming storm.

Well HS, whatever and where ever you land...I hope the best for you!

 

[Merdock]

It's been two weeks since we started this discussion and over 7,500 views... we have a few peoples' attention apparently
So as we move into the new bids of 2016 and people being shuffled, what will our Lean and Engagement Teams look like in January? I ask again, why isn't there an effort to drive engagement the way Lean has been promoted? Kevin Kruse is another author that really makes sense regarding employee engagement.
http://www.kevinkruse.com/books/

Kevin's post discussing the success of Chick-fil-A has me wondering, if we can develop the discretionary effort of everyone that touches our customer's freight, how quickly can we drive down our damages?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2015/12/08/how-chick-fil-a-created-a-culture-that-lasts/

 

[highspeeds]

Well HS, whatever and where ever you land...I hope the best for you!

I am so confused. Don't know if I am coming or going. And that's just the world we live in.

This XPO thing ain't got :: on the news right now.

 

[highspeeds]

It's been two weeks since we started this discussion and over 7,500 views... we have a few peoples' attention apparently
So as we move into the new bids of 2016 and people being shuffled, what will our Lean and Engagement Teams look like in January? I ask again, why isn't there an effort to drive engagement the way Lean has been promoted? Kevin Kruse is another author that really makes sense regarding employee engagement.
http://www.kevinkruse.com/books/

Kevin's post discussing the success of Chick-fil-A has me wondering, if we can develop the discretionary effort of everyone that touches our customer's freight, how quickly can we drive down our damages?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2015/12/08/how-chick-fil-a-created-a-culture-that-lasts/

Moving freight don't take book learning. Stuff comes in on this trailer. Rolls out on that one. Repeat. Get as much in the trailer as you can. Try not to tear :: up. Stop goofing off. Unless you are in Detroit waiting on Canadians, then you can goof off until they finally show up. And then you get to wait a half hour as they take their lunch immediately upon arrival while they are still under the set. Or whatever. It's not that hard. A very simple business. The idea that you can out think it, is why there are problems to begin with.

 

[Merdock]

A couple interesting things come out of the American Shipper article on Brad Jacobs being named Person of the Year.

"...The Norbert Dentressangle deal included a fleet of trucks and made XPO executives realize the benefits of owning transportation assets because customers have more meaningful relationships with companies that control a portion of their capacity
“I want to find ways to add value, to use our organization to actually save money for the customer. And we can’t do that unless we know the customer’s supply chain. I want to be a partner. I want to be someone who has a mutual, respected long-term relationship in good times and bad times, in times of tight capacity or loose capacity, times when the customer is doing great and when the customer not doing so great. I want to be a long-term fixture in their organization, and Con-way helps us get there. Con-way gives us a certain mass, a certain heft that gets us a bigger seat at the table,” he said..."

I'd like to see him get the award two years in a row... next year for creating a company not based off of its return on investment, but for becoming a company that America's shippers can not live without. Highspeeds mentioned above that this is a simple business, and he is right. Our simplicity for success over the years has been based on a participative culture that has included 30 second sales calls and walk-a-mile programs. Discretionary effort on the part of employees that supported the company's goals and processes was simpler. The drivers handled the freight, hauled the freight, and delivered the freight. Our drivers continue to be an extension of the customer today, fulfilling exactly what Mr. Jacobs mentions in the article's quotes above. Many have stated that they feel we as employees are still in the dark regarding this new adventure labeled XPO Logistics Freight. The new coats are nice and thank you, I look like I am part of all this. But as a "DSR", I have so much more capabilities, driver and sales representative to start with.
I'm wondering what the population of XPO is... how many employees in what capacity before and after the acquisitions of ND and us, two asset heavy companies. No one knows our customers the way a driver does, and to satisfy the goals of a customer partnership as mentioned above will require a participative culture that extends power and purpose to the hourly workers. I invite Mr. Jacobs and his Lieutenants to walk a mile, to ride along within the city operation to experience the discretionary effort of the drivers towards the customers.
Coming to a Service Center near you is the second anniversary of the largest single event of culture diluting within our company. Starting in January of 2014 we took the drivers off of the dock. Our dock workers need a broader understanding of our business, an increase of their "purpose", their discretionary effort to also become a partner to our customer. Starting with next month I think dock workers should have the opportunity to also do a ride-a-long in the city operation.

 

[catchTHErabbit]

A couple interesting things come out of the American Shipper article on Brad Jacobs being named Person of the Year.

"...The Norbert Dentressangle deal included a fleet of trucks and made XPO executives realize the benefits of owning transportation assets because customers have more meaningful relationships with companies that control a portion of their capacity
“I want to find ways to add value, to use our organization to actually save money for the customer. And we can’t do that unless we know the customer’s supply chain. I want to be a partner. I want to be someone who has a mutual, respected long-term relationship in good times and bad times, in times of tight capacity or loose capacity, times when the customer is doing great and when the customer not doing so great. I want to be a long-term fixture in their organization, and Con-way helps us get there. Con-way gives us a certain mass, a certain heft that gets us a bigger seat at the table,” he said..."

I'd like to see him get the award two years in a row... next year for creating a company not based off of its return on investment, but for becoming a company that America's shippers can not live without. Highspeeds mentioned above that this is a simple business, and he is right. Our simplicity for success over the years has been based on a participative culture that has included 30 second sales calls and walk-a-mile programs. Discretionary effort on the part of employees that supported the company's goals and processes was simpler. The drivers handled the freight, hauled the freight, and delivered the freight. Our drivers continue to be an extension of the customer today, fulfilling exactly what Mr. Jacobs mentions in the article's quotes above. Many have stated that they feel we as employees are still in the dark regarding this new adventure labeled XPO Logistics Freight. The new coats are nice and thank you, I look like I am part of all this. But as a "DSR", I have so much more capabilities, driver and sales representative to start with.
I'm wondering what the population of XPO is... how many employees in what capacity before and after the acquisitions of ND and us, two asset heavy companies. No one knows our customers the way a driver does, and to satisfy the goals of a customer partnership as mentioned above will require a participative culture that extends power and purpose to the hourly workers. I invite Mr. Jacobs and his Lieutenants to walk a mile, to ride along within the city operation to experience the discretionary effort of the drivers towards the customers.
Coming to a Service Center near you is the second anniversary of the largest single event of culture diluting within our company. Starting in January of 2014 we took the drivers off of the dock. Our dock workers need a broader understanding of our business, an increase of their "purpose", their discretionary effort to also become a partner to our customer. Starting with next month I think dock workers should have the opportunity to also do a ride-a-long in the city operation.

all i know is actions speak louder than words! i love the the words,all that's left is the actions

 

[616jimmy]

A couple interesting things come out of the American Shipper article on Brad Jacobs being named Person of the Year.

"...The Norbert Dentressangle deal included a fleet of trucks and made XPO executives realize the benefits of owning transportation assets because customers have more meaningful relationships with companies that control a portion of their capacity
“I want to find ways to add value, to use our organization to actually save money for the customer. And we can’t do that unless we know the customer’s supply chain. I want to be a partner. I want to be someone who has a mutual, respected long-term relationship in good times and bad times, in times of tight capacity or loose capacity, times when the customer is doing great and when the customer not doing so great. I want to be a long-term fixture in their organization, and Con-way helps us get there. Con-way gives us a certain mass, a certain heft that gets us a bigger seat at the table,” he said..."

I'd like to see him get the award two years in a row... next year for creating a company not based off of its return on investment, but for becoming a company that America's shippers can not live without. Highspeeds mentioned above that this is a simple business, and he is right. Our simplicity for success over the years has been based on a participative culture that has included 30 second sales calls and walk-a-mile programs. Discretionary effort on the part of employees that supported the company's goals and processes was simpler. The drivers handled the freight, hauled the freight, and delivered the freight. Our drivers continue to be an extension of the customer today, fulfilling exactly what Mr. Jacobs mentions in the article's quotes above. Many have stated that they feel we as employees are still in the dark regarding this new adventure labeled XPO Logistics Freight. The new coats are nice and thank you, I look like I am part of all this. But as a "DSR", I have so much more capabilities, driver and sales representative to start with.
I'm wondering what the population of XPO is... how many employees in what capacity before and after the acquisitions of ND and us, two asset heavy companies. No one knows our customers the way a driver does, and to satisfy the goals of a customer partnership as mentioned above will require a participative culture that extends power and purpose to the hourly workers. I invite Mr. Jacobs and his Lieutenants to walk a mile, to ride along within the city operation to experience the discretionary effort of the drivers towards the customers.
Coming to a Service Center near you is the second anniversary of the largest single event of culture diluting within our company. Starting in January of 2014 we took the drivers off of the dock. Our dock workers need a broader understanding of our business, an increase of their "purpose", their discretionary effort to also become a partner to our customer. Starting with next month I think dock workers should have the opportunity to also do a ride-a-long in the city operation.

That's the biggest bunch of B/S that I have ever heard of beside being a waste of time and money, what they need to do is put some teeth into the program that they started like holding these people responsible for the freight they destroy and reprimand and terminate if they don't get the message instead of looking at the money they might be saving!

 

[616jimmy]

Starting in 2017, employees will be given an annual review that will assess, among other things I would presume, work performance and productivity. "Raises will not be automatic, but rather be based in part on individual merit," according to info on the XPO employee portal. So hopefully this info will motivate some of the dead wood to pick it up, get engaged, and really begin to start earning their pay checks by actually doing something...like work... for a change.

It would never work even if it were true, this company might slip up and say something that might offend someone and we cant have that even if it is in their best interest, can we?

 

[616jimmy]

I know someone will complain about my post, but I have to ask, you state "greatness again" I am wondering when you consider Conway was a great company? I have been in the ltl racket for a little over thirty years and actually have more years non union than union, but not by much. I have been out of work several times over those years and filled out many applications over the years. Even though there has always been a Conway terminal in a city about 20 miles from my house, I have never stopped there. I have had two buddies go to Conway over the years and between working split shifts when starting out and then having a job once you were there for a while that consisted of taking your set down to a suburb of Chicago, breaking the set, working the dock, building your set again and driving three hours home. That just never sounded like a job I was interested in, so am I missing something, is there something Great that my buddies never told me about?

NO

 

[Merdock]

That's the biggest bunch of B/S that I have ever heard of beside being a waste of time and money, what they need to do is put some teeth into the program that they started like holding these people responsible for the freight they destroy and reprimand and terminate if they don't get the message instead of looking at the money they might be saving!

If they don't get what message? This goes right back to determining whether your treated as an X or a Y. I do agree that we do not have accountability of loading and handling performances right now. We load trailers the way GM built cars in the seventies and eighties... "get it done as fast as possible and we will worry about the defects later, I need my production numbers". The quality should go in before the door comes down, period! That's where and when you hold people accountable, both hourly and salary employees.

If you have been with our company for a number of years and want to do some comparison research on our culture and how old our managing mentality really is, read the article of the following link and see if you find similarities with our struggles of culture and quality.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/561/transcript

 

[Northern Flash]

The quality should go in before the door comes down, period! That's where and when you hold people accountable, both hourly and salary employees.

I like this point of yours.

My questions to everyone would be these these.
Is it the management that crushes the freight or the employees that do it? Is it the employee's responsibility to protect the freight from damage, or just the management's? If it takes a few minutes longer to load the freight properly to avoid damage, who cares what the management thinks about the productivity numbers? Do you get whipped with a stick if they think that it took you too long? If they challenge you on how long it took to load it, refer back to the damage issues that every LTL carrier has. What are they going to do, fire you for trying to protect the customer's freight?
Point being.......just do the right thing, and do your best, and if that's not good enough for them.......tough ::.

 

[icuicp]

We load trailers the way GM built cars in the seventies and eighties... "get it done as fast as possible and we will worry about the defects later, I need my production numbers".

Some of us do care about the quality of our work and the well being of this company and finally , the state of its culture.

Overall , we have great people , now if we could get the processes and procedures to match.

 

[Merdock]

I like this point of yours.

My questions to everyone would be these these.
Is it the management that crushes the freight or the employees that do it? Is it the employee's responsibility to protect the freight from damage, or just the management's? If it takes a few minutes longer to load the freight properly to avoid damage, who cares what the management thinks about the productivity numbers? Do you get whipped with a stick if they think that it took you too long? If they challenge you on how long it took to load it, refer back to the damage issues that every LTL carrier has. What are they going to do, fire you for trying to protect the customer's freight?
Point being.......just do the right thing, and do your best, and if that's not good enough for them.......tough ::::.

where is "just do the right thing and do your best" on the score card?
when was "do the right thing and do your best" discussed with a dock worker?

I get it, you need a performance matrix, but employee engagement, discretionary effort, must support quality not quantity as its priority.

 

[dalesr]

I like this point of yours.

My questions to everyone would be these these.
Is it the management that crushes the freight or the employees that do it? Is it the employee's responsibility to protect the freight from damage, or just the management's? If it takes a few minutes longer to load the freight properly to avoid damage, who cares what the management thinks about the productivity numbers? Do you get whipped with a stick if they think that it took you too long? If they challenge you on how long it took to load it, refer back to the damage issues that every LTL carrier has. What are they going to do, fire you for trying to protect the customer's freight?
Point being.......just do the right thing, and do your best, and if that's not good enough for them.......tough ::::.

One thing I notice at the FAC that I go to is the last breakers of the night are usually the worst. Ugliest freight, upside down, falling over. The "hurry up at the end of the night to finish the outbound" mentality. I don't know who is more at fault, dockworker or FOS, but it sucks! I don't think many drivers work the outbound, so I can't blame them.

 

[highspeeds]

where is "just do the right thing and do your best" on the score card?
when was "do the right thing and do your best" discussed with a dock worker?

I get it, you need a performance matrix, but employee engagement, discretionary effort, must support quality not quantity as its priority.

And where will the model go ? More drivers ? More dockhands ? Which combination will deliver the most profitable results ?

 

[radman]

And where will the model go ? More drivers ? More dockhands ? Which combination will deliver the most profitable results ?

Definitely more dockworkers. They don't cost as much and I welcome it. The last thing I want to do is work the dock. We don't have to hire a bunch drivers to grow, just get the drivers off the dock into tractors and we can move alot more freight.

 

[616jimmy]

If they don't get what message? This goes right back to determining whether your treated as an X or a Y. I do agree that we do not have accountability of loading and handling performances right now. We load trailers the way GM built cars in the seventies and eighties... "get it done as fast as possible and we will worry about the defects later, I need my production numbers". The quality should go in before the door comes down, period! That's where and when you hold people accountable, both hourly and salary employees.

If you have been with our company for a number of years and want to do some comparison research on our culture and how old our managing mentality really is, read the article of the following link and see if you find similarities with our struggles of culture and quality.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/561/transcript

People like you are always over thinking this, freight is freight and hasn't changed in the last 50 years, it needs to be loaded in a manner that you don't damage it from point A to B and then delivered in a timely manner and in a friendly manner what part of that got to be so confusing to people like you, some people don't belong in freight, it isn't that the rules need to be changed, it just is what it is!

 

[rangeman]

People like you are always over thinking this, freight is freight and hasn't changed in the last 50 years, it needs to be loaded in a manner that you don't damage it from point A to B and then delivered in a timely manner and in a friendly manner what part of that got to be so confusing to people like you, some people don't belong in freight, it isn't that the rules need to be changed, it just is what it is!

It's really not that complicated. Want to stop crime in America have a punishment that deters the crime? Want to stop damages hold people accountable, 1-talk 2-letter 3-out the door. Camera on every door should get the Toyota asses off the motor to use dunnage and straps.I'm sure the new handhelds have the software technology to monitor what we are doing with our dock time.I can't count the times I have been forced to stay late while dockworkers and local drivers are BSing to get dock hours.hours. I can live without being watched but this is what happens when people abuse.