XPO | If a Con-Tent Inspector pays for themselves , what does a driver pay for?

icuicp

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As an employee of Con-Way ( especially DSR's ) you are told many things as far as damages and how YOU can stop them. Drivers are shown videos showing losses and profits. Drivers are told how we will be hiring more content inspectors to capture missed profit and the new content inspectors pay for themselves. I hope the new management can find a way to show yearly and quarterly profit without the majority of it coming from pay cuts. Drivers pay for themselves also , it's just not always something you can place in a statement to shareholders or boardmembers. No offense to content people , it's just an example.
 
As an employee of Con-Way ( especially DSR's ) you are told many things as far as damages and how YOU can stop them. Drivers are shown videos showing losses and profits. Drivers are told how we will be hiring more content inspectors to capture missed profit and the new content inspectors pay for themselves. I hope the new management can find a way to show yearly and quarterly profit without the majority of it coming from pay cuts. Drivers pay for themselves also , it's just not always something you can place in a statement to shareholders or boardmembers. No offense to content people , it's just an example.

I have been watching these new Content Inspectors . Being serious and not exaggerating , half of them seems to be just walking around like they are lost . I can't see a profit coming from what I have been seeing so far. This comes from 3 different FAC's that I run to. I won't say which ones because I don't want to narrow down where I am at.
 
I have been watching these new Content Inspectors . Being serious and not exaggerating , half of them seems to be just walking around like they are lost . I can't see a profit coming from what I have been seeing so far. This comes from 3 different FAC's that I run to. I won't say which ones because I don't want to narrow down where I am at.

they out to be running their tape measures,micrometers, and levels on some of the mgrs. that they have running some of these terminals and see how they MEASURE-UP.
 
they out to be running their tape measures,micrometers, and levels on some of the mgrs. that they have running some of these terminals and see how they MEASURE-UP.

They would find that they are fall short of what they are getting payed !!!!!!!!!
 
I have been watching these new Content Inspectors . Being serious and not exaggerating , half of them seems to be just walking around like they are lost . I can't see a profit coming from what I have been seeing so far. This comes from 3 different FAC's that I run to. I won't say which ones because I don't want to narrow down where I am at.

The entire CONTENT program has been a joke from its inception.

The inspectors do their job...they find mis-classed freight...oversize freight...heavy freight...whatever their jobs require.

The rates are adjusted accordingly and the customer complains.

The affected AE makes an agreement with the affected customer and the rates go back to where they were prior to the inspector's changes.

I have seen this happen so many times I am not fazed by it anymore...they had CONTENT inspectors some years back and Johnnie the Wonderdog couldn't wait to be rid of them so as to artificially inflate the bottom line (which is all he was good at).


So why the hell do they have them now?...just another useless program with no follow through...some exec saying "Hey...lookie what I done"...

At the end of the week all remains status quo.

I am sure some management type (or wannabe) will come crawling out their hole saying "this is the result of that"...or the manual "says this"..."just follow the program and all will be good"..."the CONTENT program is self funding and is making the company money"...ad nauseum..

No it is not...not now...nor has it ever...nor will it.

All of us have witnessed these ineffective programs time and time again...

This one is no different.

Anyone remember "horizontal communication?"...

I didn't think so.

Rat
 
A W&R program is only effective if everyone (including management) support the program.

If you have an FAk setup that let's a shipper ship class 250 and class 300 freight as class 50 your pricing department and some other managers probably need to be replaced with people serious about being profitable. If those people are only interested in generating "bill count" the shippers will be happy to use the carrier until it goes out of business from operating at over 100.
 
The entire CONTENT program has been a joke from its inception.
The inspectors do their job...they find mis-classed freight...oversize freight...heavy freight...whatever their jobs require.
The rates are adjusted accordingly and the customer complains.
The affected AE makes an agreement with the affected customer and the rates go back to where they were prior to the inspector's changes.
I have seen this happen so many times I am not fazed by it anymore...they had CONTENT inspectors some years back and Johnnie the Wonderdog couldn't wait to be rid of them so as to artificially inflate the bottom line (which is all he was good at).
So why the hell do they have them now?...just another useless program with no follow through...some exec saying "Hey...lookie what I done"...
At the end of the week all remains status quo.
I am sure some management type (or wannabe) will come crawling out their hole saying "this is the result of that"...or the manual "says this"..."just follow the program and all will be good"..."the CONTENT program is self funding and is making the company money"...ad nauseum..
No it is not...not now...nor has it ever...nor will it.
All of us have witnessed these ineffective programs time and time again...
This one is no different.
Anyone remember "horizontal communication?"...
I didn't think so.
Rat

So, much the same as analyzing the posts on this site, let's look at accuracy and integrity. Well, here it goes unchecked and once you get away with it and no one calls you out it just continues. Wait a minute, this is also the problem with freight. Some customers understand the system and intentionally change class, dimensions, and weight to save money. And others are just unaware of the legalities of federal standards.

So the company should just turn a blind eye to situations that are inaccurate and cause losses to the bottom-line? Once again selective soapboxing... hey not bad... I'll see if Webster will include it in their next printing. You want to scream and shout about the so-called thieves that took you two and a half percent but programs that protect the bottom-line, profits and our paychecks are useless programs?

The things that crawl out of holes are rodents, those ugly un-trusting animals that constantly burrow under the foundation of your home. Let them go on long enough and they jeopardize the strength of the structure's foundation. Sneaking, crawling, just out of reach and just out of sight, not having the intelligence to realize they crap where they live.
 
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Drivers pay for EVERYTHING. Our hard work picks it up, unloads it, loads it, unloads it, and then delivers it day in and day out. Everyone else is background noise "except for the CSR's"
 
I personally wasn't saying we don't need the content inspectors. I was only asking a simple question: If you always talk about how a particular job pays for itself , then WHAT does a driver pay for? If they are making money on content inspectors (God bless 'em) , then what do they make off of a drivers' sweat and hard work?
 
In other words , instead of blasting the content inspector who you see not working very hard , blast the upper levels of management , who you can't see working , produce poor results , make a lot of money , tell you they are working hard , and blame those under them when something goes wrong.
 
i have scanned a bill at a fac already and it says flagged for inspection! and i cant find a wr man anywhere. the fos says **** em load it up if we had to wait on them for everything, we would never get any thing loaded
 
So, much the same as analyzing the posts on this site, let's look at accuracy and integrity. Well, here it goes unchecked and once you get away with it and no one calls you out it just continues. Wait a minute, this is also the problem with freight. Some customers understand the system and intentionally change class, dimensions, and weight to save money. And others are just unaware of the legalities of federal standards.

So the company should just turn a blind eye to situations that are inaccurate and cause losses to the bottom-line? Once again selective soapboxing... hey not bad... I'll see if Webster will include it in their next printing. You want to scream and shout about the so-called thieves that took you two and a half percent but programs that protect the bottom-line, profits and our paychecks are useless programs?

The things that crawl out of holes are rodents, those ugly un-trusting animals that constantly burrow under the foundation of your home. Let them go on long enough and they jeopardize the strength of the structure's foundation. Sneaking, crawling, just out of reach and just out of sight, not having the intelligence to realize they crap where they live.

As is the usually the case these posts completely miss the point.

When was the last 'program' announced that Con-Way actually stuck with and saw it through to its conclusive end?

The ICE program?...nope!...as mentioned before the 'horizontal communication' program?...nope...and this also includes the CON-TENT program. They had it before...determined it wasn't needed and in usual Con-Way style eco-termed those people (the CON-TENT inspectors) they no longer deemed necessary...and by some miracle it now once again is going to be the redemption of the company by catching those 'lying and cheating' shippers...

Calling me out for pointing to the failures of unqualified managers and the ongoing 'crisis' mentality that pervades the panicked and desparate leaders of the company solves nothing. These posts are getting desperate in some vein attempt to discredit my humble opinions...which is typical of the company's management mentality...be seen and not heard. "We pay you to do not think."

What I post here is nothing more than a response to what the company has done to the many good folks employed by them.

These kinds of responses are predictable and as usual...completely miss the point.

Rat
 
There are many facets of the inspector / W&I (Weights & Inspections) discussion. Due to paranoia, I'm not going to divulge if I am an inspector, or not, or just know one really well through conversation.

Before this latest surge in their number, there were about 80 inspectors. One of John L's last acts was to decree that 200 more were going to be added. The thinking being that if 80 inspectors generated "X" amount of dollars in revenue, then 280 would generate X times 3.5 dollars in revenue found. Don't bother telling me that is faulty thinking, I agree with you.

So, the last few months have seen a flurry of hiring in the inspector ranks. From what I understand, these new people have come from both within and without Con-Way. Most have had one week of training, and are still 'getting their feet wet.'

What baffles me is the redundancy in their placement, and the seemingly arbitrary way in which the prjoected revenue these people are supposed to generate is determined.
First of all, there are now many inspectors working Outbound in locations that never had them.
Second, most FACs have seen their number of inspectors double or triple.
I ask you, if there are inspectors getting stuff on Outbound, what are all those inspectors at the FAC going to look at when the freight arrives there?
Much of it has already been looked at, at origin.
If you ask me (and admittedly, no one did), they should have put people in one place or the other.

The goals that each service center has been saddled with, again--in my opinion, are unrealistic. I won't get into specific numbers here, ask an inspector if you have access to one (they aren't bad people), but from what I understand these goals serve only to de-motivate people because they seem unattainable. I've had inspectors tell me that, "... there is no way they can achieve their goal, so what's the use?"

Now, in the wake of JL's departure, I understand the brakes have been thrown on his plan to some extent, but the people in place are going to remain there (for the time being), and the department is going to continue its current state of operation.

Someone here commented on 'what an inspector makes' and 'what a driver makes', and referenced how we've been told that most inspectors should pay for their own salary.
That is true, even the poorest producing inspector still probably pays his/her own annual salary in a month or two, the rest being profit for Con-Way.
I would like to think the gentleman was trying to make the point that we all 'make' money for Con-Way, via our contribution to the company's daily operations, no matter what our job.
I realize that without all of us, none of us would have a job. But, with that said, an inspector is one of, if not the, only people in the company who can point to a definitive dollar amount and say, "This is what I brought into the company today."

I agree with an other poster who mentioned the cycle of futility that inspectors are only a small part of:
Shipper ships freight; inspector corrects it accurately and the cost of shipping goes up; shipper complains to A/E; A/E goes to pricing dept. gets a price break and adjusts shippers rates, thus eliminating future revenue potential via corrections for an inspector; inspector looks elsewhere for inaccurately classified freight.

But these people are opposite ends of a delicate scale. An A/E is trying to get freight on our trucks, and all an inspector is doing is making that freight is classified correctly, and consequently, Con-Way is paid commensurately for the work we perform. Inspectors do not set prices. The classify freight. You could have identical shipments, from two different shippers, same origin & destination, and still have two different prices to ship that material. I've seen drivers chastise inspectors as 'chasing off customers', and I think that isn't quite fair. Those people are trying to do a job, just like we all are. Not to portray all drivers as jerks, I've seen many be supportive and helpful to inspectors.

The sad fact is, I feel for a lot of these new inspectors who might lose their job in the next 12-18 months, if not sooner, when having almost 300 isn't the latest fad in management, and most are released.
Just like always, Con-Way's answer isn't to proceed cautiously and hire in small increments, gradually judging where & when more inspectors might be the most advantageous, but rather to go from one extreme (80) to the other (280+)

I will also add this: I think some of the hostility toward inspectors is that much of their role is misunderstood. Comments like, "I saw one, just standing around" give the impression that some DSR's think inspectors do nothing, or don't serve a function, and I'd like to think that most of us realize that isn't the case.

Obviously, I do not have all the answers, I'm merely offering my opinion.

Thanks.
 
I worked as an inspector at a major coast to coast LTL carrier.

We had 6 inspectors scattered across the country. There were no "managers". Each year we had annual sales and operations meetings to go over the previous year and discuss plans for the new year. At one of these annual meetings one of the operations VP's pointed out the company had a net profit of 14 million dollars. He then pointed out to the sales force and operations people the W&I program generated 14 million dollars in recovered revenue.

If you hire the right people for inspectors they don't need to be "managed". The inspectors don't need "goals".

You don't need a lot of inspectors. Just the right inspectors placed in the right places.

I wish you luck with your W&I program.
 
The info about the W&I program is very helpful and appreciated. But , does anyone know or have a rough idea how much money an average city driver generates for Con-Way?
 
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