Assessing The Asset

So I was working for a client the other day, and it was a busy day. Since the company to which I was contracted was understaffed, the drivers on hand were all pulling triple duty. While I don't recall the precise hours, I believe it was a marathon that lasted around 15 hours in all. I started having engine troubles on the last stretch of my trip. The bus was performing "muggy". When I called dispatch, they informed me that I had an older bus in the fleet, and that she couldn't handle the workload I had been assigned.

From there we made some adjustments, and they met me mid-route with another bus to reduce the risk of critically damaging the asset.

However, at that moment, I began to think. Have we had this asset conversation backward? As operators, we’ve all experienced what happens when a bus is giving us signs that something is wrong.? I was “on” and operating the same amount of time as the vehicle. However culturally we never viewed it this way.

When the bus indicates a problem, we protect it. We have pre-trips to prevent them.? When operators indicate a problem, we penalize them.

I was never a really big fan of pre-trip inspection in my younger days. Earlier in my career, I was “that” operator who never completed them.? I was working from a point of ignorance. I was trained that if something can go, drive it. I often say that the way we are trained is not incorrect, just incomplete. We are currently seeing the evidence of this cultural pattern nationally, as more and more agencies find themself in the news due to safety violations.

Do you know how many buses I’ve driven with a check engine light that was on? Do you know how many operators have a check engine light on?

Better yet, do you know how many transit employees, in general, have a check engine light on?? As I have grown older I have discovered that malfunctioning is still a degree of functioning. Just because something can “go” doesn't mean it should.

As we look around us, the driver shortage is now impacting turnover in other departments. As bus operations support, recruiters, supervisors, and planners are being made to feel incompetent for lack of performance. When performance is not the issue here.? You are looking at the situation, and not the symptoms. You're looking at the leaves not the root of the tree. You can cut the tree in the form of switching management, or even executives but until you address the root, the same tree will grow.?

Here is the root–

For decades, this industry has been solely focused on ensuring that the bus travels forward. In that– We have created a scenario in which the genuine asset is facing rapid depreciation as a result of our incorrect asset projection.? The people, not the bus, are the most valuable asset. This is God's sowing and reaping principle. You will consume the fruit of the trees you plant.

To treat the root of the problem, transit must SOW three seeds in order to reap better roots and create more fruitful—and I use that word intentionally—trees.

1. Create a culture built simply on serving one other. Not catering to politicians, personal or departmental agendas. Every department's purpose should be to serve, not to moderate, the department below them. This has a big impact on our on-bus product. Most of the time, the operators simply repeat the treatment they receive in the depots on board. Because negativity is usually a downward spiral.
2. Infleuential Management Not Positional Management . This ones personal for me, only because I’ve been denied every management position at the agency I came from, simply because on the outside because I am “unqualified ” by their metrics.? Our current form of management is management by moderation, not by leadership. People follow people, not policies. Create the infrastructure that will allow leaders to lead, and empower upper management and administration to invest in and support those leaders. We don't need 30 superintendents who have never driven instructing the one who has, how to supervise the folks who are now driving.
3. Rest. Because so much of our industry is based on pushing forward at any costs, may I urge you to try something new? Resting. I recall some of my wife and I's simplest quarrels and when they occurred. Late at night, when sleep deprivation is common. Rest allows for a clear mind, and it is required by God in some capacity. This holds true for both people and objects.

??????????????Earlier in my story, I mentioned how the bus had been overworked and needed a break to recharge. Good cooks let their meals sit for a while. We give the land a rest when we plant gardens. Rest is a source of strength and understanding. In the interest of efficiency, we've inadvertently erased the rest component of life. Working hard to achieve the best numerical results possible while driving our assets, true assets into the ground. Consider how planes don't use all of their engine power and most of your flights are at their best when they cruise operated at 85% or less.

Allow yourself to rest for a while. Remove the metrics and statistics, take a fresh look at everything that is going on, and operate from that perspective. Rest is the most straightforward treatment for many of the concerns that plague operators. FMLA, absence, and even weight gain are all factors to consider. That's an entirely different blog that I don't have time to share today. So I'll leave you guys to have a great and blessed weekend!

You all have a great Friday, and thanks for hanging with me today!