Learning From Others

by Michael Hamline, Editor / Published January 2015

Whether you wanted it to be here or not, 2015 has arrived. In the midst of setting your goals for the New Year, there is no need to reinvent the wheel when you can learn from others. At the website for Mental Floss, a recent article listed the 19 Secrets of UPS Drivers (for the full article, visit mentalfloss.com/article/60556/19-secrets-ups-drivers), and there are some helpful secrets that might be worth utilizing in order to meet your goals at work as a supplier, manufacturer, distributor, or contract cleaner.

They’re Always Being Watched—For UPS drivers, this translates into data being collected to increase productivity. Data such as how hard they brake, whether a truck’s doors are open or closed, vehicle idling time, and more are collected to see where savings in time and money can be made. As a business owner, you can analyze the work processes and flow of those who work for you to see where time and money can be saved.

They Go to Bootcamp—Bootcamp is for teaching them how to handle heavy boxes, walk in slick conditions, practice package deliveries, and more. Practice makes perfect so your company should consider setting up a bootcamp for your business that helps train your employees on how to deal with common situations they will face in the course of carrying out their jobs.

Good Drivers Get Rewarded—When they are accident-free after a certain amount of time, they can choose gifts from the company catalog. The longer they retain their safe driving record, the better the gifts they get. So for your service repair technicians, one idea might be to set up a reward system based on how long they go without having a pressure washer come back for a second fix. Or for a contract cleaner, you can reward your employees based on how long they go without a customer complaint that the cleaning wasn’t done properly (of course, this should be based on whether the complaint is legitimate).

This is a small sample of the secrets that can be learned from UPS drivers. Read the article and incorporate those ideas which are helpful and can save your business time and money as you move into 2015. Cleaner Times|IWA wishes you a happy and prosperous 2015!

Michael Hamline
michael@adpub.com
(800) 525-7038