XPO | If a Con-Tent Inspector pays for themselves , what does a driver pay for?
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truebluestang
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Do LH driver pay for themselves? Lets figure some numbers. Everyone keeps talking about these inspector people covering their salary after a few months.
Lets say the average LH driver travels 225 miles each way to another HUB each night. That is a total round trip of 450 miles, not sure what the average tractor gets for MPG but lets play it safe and call it 8 MPG. So for one day that is an average of 56 gallons. At lets say $2.75 a gallon for fuel ( I know much lower when bought in quanity)just figuring numbers. That is a total of $154 for fuel alone (one day). Now lets say a driver makes .50 per mile, that is $225 a day. Take 225-154 for fuel and you are at $71 (profit) for the day. Now lets say you decide to work the dock when you arrive at the HUB for 4 hours at a low average pay of $15 for a total of $60 (not realsitic numbers BC we could go over hours). We are now at a profit of $11 for the day. I will not count the pay we could get for our hooks and pre-trip time or the time that we mgith take a little pee break on the way or whatever else you want to all it!!
Lets pretend that we might damage 1 piece of freight a night while workign on the HUB with an average claim of $50 per claim (pretty low or a claim from what I hear). For one day we are now (-$39), lets add our benifts into that and all the other crap we get paid for us and multiply this times 5 and then times 52 weeks....Now lets multiply how many LH drivers we have in the system.. This might give us a starting point... So for us drivers, I dont think we pay for our salary in a onth or two months... It probably takes much longer, but it will pay for our work.... Just my opinion. I know many other factors go into this and we are making PROFIT on us drivers, so this is not very realistic!
These are my opinons and I could or could not work any freight carrier listed on this website..
scratchingmyhead
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I remember that video, I think it was the "now is the time" video. At the time I thought it was poor judgment to say, "content inspectors will pay for themselves in a matter of time" for various reasons; I don't think a justification was needed; it was insensitive to other employees; and evaluating each position on a monetary production basis is not a good business practice in my opinion. Saying that allows for questions like, how much does a city driver generate? Well, how much does a mechanic generate? Nothing, but without him that city driver wouldn't be getting too far.
The only department that actually brings in money is sales. Everything else is an operating expense, necessary and vital operations but they don't generate money. CSRs, DSRs, FOSs, FOMs, etc are considered part of the operations side. We are needed for the company to operate. Just like sales is needed for the company to actually operate on something. Without a driver the freight doesn't get to the dock, without dockworkers the freight doesn't get out of the trailer but without an account manager the driver won't have any freight to pickup. Saying drivers do everything is nonsense. There are too many parts to this company to say/act like the drivers are the most integral or only part to it.
Here's another example. You have two DSRs on two different runs with the same amount of stops, same gas usage, same mileage and same route time. Both runs have the same operating costs but run A pulls in twice the amount of money as run B. Does that mean that driver A generates more money than driver B? Its an invalid question because both drivers have no control on what freight they pickup. There are too many other parts of the company that influence the situation.
I can easily see why we need content people. When you see a full pup and it only weighs 5k, you have to wonder how its getting billed. You could require p&d drivers to measure each piece and learn all the classifications but for some reason I could see a lot of complaining from all sorts of people and eventually it not being done. But like I said before DSRs can't, don't and shouldn't be expected to do everything. Because, for example, if they fixed the truck they would be mechanics and we're back to where we started.
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TiredDvrsWife
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Sorry scratchingmyhead, I can't see the DSRs & CSRs at expense only. True they cost money but they also generate the money the most. A salesman without the backup (workers) ain't nothing but a load of hot air. They take the product (service) to the customer but the DSR takes the freight to/from and the CSRs get the info to the DSRs for pickups, etc. I agree that other factors help decide whether a driver is in profit rather than expense as in the senario you just provided.
TiredDvrsWife
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How about figuring up your costs of LH this way:
Average total cost (fuel, pay,claims, bennies per day,etc) $800-$1000 per night
What customers paid average per bill on the truck: $150 x 15 bills (guessing)= $2250 per driver per night.
Only the people that see how many bills go into each truck at night and the average cost each can give the closest guess without actually being in the acct. dept.
I do know that to send a 10lb pkg overnight can average around $75 and a 6oz letter in one of our envelopes can cost a minimum of $25 where I work. I give quotes every day.
Average total cost (fuel, pay,claims, bennies per day,etc) $800-$1000 per night
What customers paid average per bill on the truck: $150 x 15 bills (guessing)= $2250 per driver per night.
Only the people that see how many bills go into each truck at night and the average cost each can give the closest guess without actually being in the acct. dept.
I do know that to send a 10lb pkg overnight can average around $75 and a 6oz letter in one of our envelopes can cost a minimum of $25 where I work. I give quotes every day.
free_thinker
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I'll say this to the person who said that sales is the only thing that generates revenue: technically, I suppose you are correct. An A/E is on the street, convincing customers to ship with Con-Way. And while I agree it can be seen as a slap in the face to many employees when saying 'inspectors will generate $__ in revenue", because all employees play a part in making the company profitable, perhaps we should rephrase the way in which we assess what inspectors contribute to Con-Way. If Sales generates revenue, at the very least inspectors insure Con-Way collects every penny of revenue that is due to Con-Way for services provided. I said before, inspectors do not set prices. All they do is verify that the freight being shipped is actually what the shipper claims it is. If it isn't, then their bill of lading is corrected by the inspector. Perhaps the cost to move that freight goes up, sometimes it goes down. Many factors enter into determining the cost for shipping an item, and because of that sometimes shippers will intentionally attempt to deceive as to the items shipped, or do so out of ignorance, but either way the result it a price that is less than it should be.
If we don't want to use the word 'generate' revenue, it should at least be conceded that they 'recover' revenue that, were it not for their efforts, would never have been recovered at all.
If we don't want to use the word 'generate' revenue, it should at least be conceded that they 'recover' revenue that, were it not for their efforts, would never have been recovered at all.
Your numbers are way, way off. My personal opinion, you have no clue what you are talking about. It might be a good idea to check your numbers and facts before posting something. It don't make yourself look very credable.
scratchingmyhead
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I think you missed the point of my post.
For now, I'm going to disregard client performance (damages).
I haven't read those six sigma books; my point of view comes from conversations, interactions, observations and logic. There are reasons companies draw lines between sales and operations. Inspectors are part of operations and when you start differentiating employees like that it causes malcontent in your workforce. And now you're inhibiting the performance of the very people your trying help integrate; I see it first hand at the fac. What happens when they don't recover money or cause less revenue by adjusting costs down?
To be frank, the most important employee to me at my sic is the janitor. Every time I see that dude, I'm giving him a thumbs up. Talk about a job that doesn't show revenue generation but improves production. There are a lot of intangibles that don't fit into an equation because the equations aren't sophisticated enough to include them; how nice a CSR is on the phone and the appearance/attitude of your DSR when he shows up at a place of business.
I understand the need to keep customers honest. I've seen pups with twelve 7' tall skids of straws and forks only weighing 5k lbs. I've also seen pups get to the fac with three 120-160 piece bills loose mixed together going to different destinations, although, I'm not sure if an inspector can do anything about the latter.
I'm making an assumption here, but the handheld's inspection note seems to pop up on freight that could possible give the company more revenue. That's not a bad thing, but I would also have an inspection on freight that may have been overcharged for. The adjustment wouldn't have to be automatic, it could be forwarded to an account executive first who could weigh the options. But it would give an opportunity for the company to show some goodwill to clients which may foster better business relationships. Maybe, another account is gained because of it or the client themselves decides to ship more of their products with us. Indirect revenue gains started from a reducing revenue inspection and the company being stand-up, how do you factor that?
The opinions expressed in this post are the views of the writer and do not represent any company.
truebluestang
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Lets hope that they dont initiate this into our pay.... Possible (PAK) Pay All Kinds... Anyone making $15.50-$26.50 gets their check rated at $10.25/hour!! LOL Sounds silly and we wouldnt like that, so why would we want a customer giving us shipments that are a class 125 and moving it at a class 60?? Not coutng their 83%+ discount!
