Stevens Transport aviary

Just like the new phone system LOL. I feel like I'm playing Russian Roulette!! Is this going to be the call that connects or not?? And if it connects, will I actually find an extension that connects and lets me speak to a human??

 

Luckily I have not had the to call in yet...

 

We were both on our phones for over an hour and a half trying to get a good connection to get the SNAFU straightened out. About 75-80% of the calls simply ended in dead air space.

 

Day 2 of trainee & trainee. Waiting here in Lubbock for a.m. delivery to Labatt foods. Just finished ORII with the sergeant major. I can't believe all of the procedures there are for each trip. Hopefully by the end of week three, this will be routine. My fellow trainee and I are doing this phase of the training as if we were out here going solo.

. Emulsified, thanks for all the info on what is going on the inside at Dallas. Clears up a lot of things. I have just realised that in this line of work, there are a lot of things that are beyond my control, including blood pressure. I just need to take it one day at a time, do the best I can, and go from there.

If all goes well, I should be in Gradfleet after first of new year. I guess that the best time to learn this job is in the winter, with all the weather precautions and unpleasantness. Doing a PTI in freezing rain makes sure I don't mess a round.

Sleep time for that a.m. delivery. Stay safe out there everyone. Later.

 

Man I wish our drivers would stop doing stupid #### that makes us all look bad. I strive to look and act professional at all times, man I wish others would too.

I am backed into a door at Whole Foods in Munster IN... another Stevens truck pulls into the lot from off of the street, makes sure his trailer is not in the street, then shuts the truck off and gets out to look for the check in, completely blocking anyone else from turning in or leaving

Come on people

 

The phone system is an absolute nightmare. I can guarantee you no one will blame a driver for not having called in. All you need say is, "I tried and tried, but couldn't get thru"
We'll believe it. Really!
Installing a phone system such as this requires a lot of homework and pre 'live' work.
Much of this was either done poorly or did not take into consideration the real problems, but rather was designed to 'cure' problems that needed to be addressed in a different manner.
Each area was designed according to the manager's request. For example, the Road Rescue dept was designed as a call center. Each call comes in and takes it's turn in a cue so each caller is answered in order. Much like before, vendors had separate cues.
It would work pretty good, except a technical glitch sends all callers over to the night hunt cue during nights and weekends. I don't know about during the daytime. I only work in the dark of things.
The DMs have their own individual phone numbers as well as the routing thru their extensions (just like before)
All calls after hours go to Operations.
There have always been two trunklines into Stevens: The driver line, where you receive the automatic recording allowing you to pick your extension and the customer line, one that is answered by an attendant and routed manually to it's destination.
Drivers are told to use the driver line, however, since weekend waits can be more than an hour on hold, many drivers learned to call the customer line and bypass the cue.
At first, those drivers were taken care of, but as of late we were instructed to send those callers to the driver cue where they wait their turn.
Not being happy, many drivers would hang up and call again.
This added more stress to the overwhelmed phone answering system.
In this new Operations and Night system, all calls come into the same cue. Each call has to be answered as it comes in.
We are instructed to answer the call, and if a driver, send it to a driver's cue where it is addressed in order. If it's a customer (such as Tyson, or Heinz) we take care of them immediately. Usually that means sending them to the respective person that handles their needs.
One of the problems is any call sent to another extension (say I get a call from the El Cajon police and route it to Safety) that is not answered within 10 seconds, is routed back to the original answerer and it jumps back in cue waiting to be answered with any other incoming call.
If someone calls for me and it is routed to my extension while I am on another call, it will go back to the originator in 10 seconds.
If there are any incoming calls not yet answered, we cannot get an outside line to call out.
So if you call and (there are no other calls) ask me to call a receiver due to a problem (this happens often), but another call comes in while I'm talking to you, I cannot get an outside line to complete your needs.
I have to put you on hold, answer any other incoming calls, put them on hold (if they're drivers), then call the receiver. If I need to have a three way (for which no one knows how to do), I have no way to recall you.
Once you are on hold, it's a guess as to how to recall you. The cue does not operate as we were told. If I put you on hold, someone else may accidently pick you up, then put you back on hold...and you go to the back of the cue.
In other words, anyone put on hold is lost in the system. You can wander forever (theoretically) and not be answered.
Here is an example: Yesterday I answered a call that needed an individual in the Meat dept. I sent them to that extension. I could see that person at the other end of the room at his desk. Either that person was on another call or didn't answer within 10 seconds so it rang back. But I was on another call, so it automatically went into the general cue. Another person answered it, realized it was holding for 'Joe' and forwarded it to that same meat desk. From there it was lost. According to the caller, more than 20 minutes later, he had been to Safety and 'wonderland' (I wonder where I'll land next) all this time.
In the meantime, we hadn't received more than 10 calls overall.
No one knows how the system works. We cannot put a person on hold, them come back to pick them up.
If I get a call that requires a supervisors help (such as a fuel card turned back on), I don't dare put them on hold. I set my headset down and walk down to handle the need with a supervisor, then return to my desk.
We have had drivers tell us they have been on hold for more than a half hour, but we haven't seen any calls waiting in the hold cue.
Many dept cues don't work. I can't send someone to Produce, or Meat or Safety. It doesn't work.
I have to send them to an individual. So if someone needs produce for a produce talk and dispatch, I have to send them to a person that isn't on the phone (or it bounces back and gets lost in Holdhell) So I have to wait until someone in that department is free, then forward the call. In the meantime, they're sitting on my phone (live) waiting.
Since the intercom doesn't work with the person on the phone, we are yelling across the room, "Anyone free inProduce?) When someone raises their hand, we forward the call to them. Sometimes it sounds like the stock market floor around there!
There were dozens of QC messages like, "I can't get thru. Someone call me!"
We're struggling with figuring out the phones, so QC messages are way behind. We tried to keep up with executing swaps and getting money out, but I noticed yesterday that many calls turned up in the QC que after we'd handled the calls earlier. So QC messages were being delayed. At one point were were high fiving each other for being current with money and swap messages only to go back five minutes later and suddenly find requests that were HOURS OLD!
I apologize to all you drivers that are experiencing this CF. We really are trying, but until someone decides we need to redesign Operations to work like a call center, we're all in for grief.
When I got home saturday night, my wife asked me how my day was. I told her, "It would have been more fun to be driving an empty truck in 40mph sidewinds thru a blizzard with no heat".
For all of you that are tying to figure out what to do, because you can't get thru on the phones? You must follow Stevens policies and rules.
But remember... it's easier to get forgiveness than permission!

 

Another case of management causing more problems, while trying to fix other problems. Stack on all the "required" talks, and nothing is getting done. Just another day of the proverbial rolls down hill, and management is clueless as to what the problem is.

This is not only a stevens problem. Current job, Home office Bakersfield CA, we have no terminal in Casper, just park the trucks at the KW dealership when they are not rolling, and are depending on that dealership for ALL maintenance issues. It may be 7 days before they can fix anything, there are more trucks than mechanics. So simple fixes, us drivers have been doing, like splicing a wire back together, tightening loose bolts... Management decided that drivers are NOT to fix anything, that a "certified" mechanic must do everything... putting all 4 trucks in Casper out of service, and the ripple effect started.. no oil being hauled, drivers upset about no pay, producers demanding oil to be hauled or they go to another carrier...

Management does not understand that in a low population, booming oil area, their are not enough people to fill all the jobs, and mechanics, tire techs, grease monkeys, are few and far between. And then comes the parts issue.. getting a needed part.

Has made for an interesting week, and very grump and tired regional manager.

 

Hope they are either running a bar tab at a nearby location for all of you when you get off work, or have a open bar somewhere in the depths of the building, cause it sounds like you definitely need a couple of stiff drinks after working a shift. LOL

I think it would have been better to try to tackle some computer system changes so that everyone at Stevens was 'on the same page' before trying to 'fix' the phone system!! We spent a tremendous amount of time trying to get dispatched on Sun (on Safety Hold for 90 day talk, but Kip had extended us to the 15th) because Dispatch couldn't see that we were extended. Sent a QC to Safety who in turn contacted Dispatch. Per our DM this a.m. we are still showing in the computer as being on Safety Hold even tho he put notes in on Friday. After getting dispatched, we had a load that showed 2 drops, but Taylor Farms had the drops loaded on separate trailers. Between messages on the QC and both of us on the phone playing Phone Roulette, we finally got things straightened out after about an hour and a half. Now we are sitting in Hutchinson, KS waiting for a load assignment. We had a pre-plan picking up in Dakota City, NE, 372miles away (but only about 220 from Cedar Falls, IA). We inquired if there wasn't something closer since we are near Dodge City, KS, Lexington, NE and Holcomb, and here we sit 4 hours later.

 

meat dispatch, the three locations in KS, and Lexington are reserved for trucks coming from the front range of wyoming and colorado. If you deliver any where in Kansas, Nebraska, you will be dispatched to Dakota City, Iowa City, Waterloo IA. Or maybe JBS in Nebraska where you will wait for days.

 

Due to the QC problems caused by the new phone system, our Empty Call didn't 'take'. DM had to go thru and find it and get it in the system. Sooo, 6 hours after sending the empty call we finally get dispatched on the load that we were pre-planned on yesterday!! Gotta love these 'new and improved' systems!!