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(I haven't been posting because I respond to stress by trimming things out of my life. I've been under a lot of stress lately; posting on this site kinda fell by the wayside.)
(Lots of this belongs in Morons in Management, but I don't feel like doing multiple posts right now.)
Big, big changes have come to Big Green Cab Co. How big? Well...
1. We lost our #2 contract. I discussed this in the thread Here we go again... Company-wide, it was around 20% of our total business... but for wheelchair drivers like myself? More. Significantly more. In my case, fully half of my trips were from that one account, and I know one driver where it was literally 80% of his business. (Of course, he was smart enough to quit the day before this happened.)
2. Our corporate overlords decided it was time for a new dispatch system. (That's the computer system that handles dispatching calls.) Apparently, the old one was rather expensive to maintain, and it had its share of problems. Unfortunately, the new system is an absolute disaster; calls are:
- repeatedly duplicated (there was one where 6 of us showed up for the same person)
- mysteriously deleted
- getting sent out hours late (literally 2-3 hours)
- given the wrong pickup time (usually 12 hours off)
- sent out with pickup and drop off addresses reversed
- dispatched to multiple companies (!)
...and there are numerous other issues.
3. At the same time, new call center software was installed. The old system worked just fine, but the new system makes it almost impossible to get through to a human being (the normal method of "press 0 for a human" doesn't seem to work), instead insisting on forcing you to use the voice recognition prompt... which sucks horribly. Add 40+ minute hold times and watch our cash business go into free fall!
4. Also at the same time, and related to #2 above, the company got rid of our driver support department, under the theory of "the new software is so good we won't need dedicated support personnel." (Wrong.) Now, the ENTIRE CALL CENTER is "driver support", which none of them have been trained for in any way, and there are exactly 4 reasons we are allowed to call in for:
- been in a wreck
- roadside assistance
- need help with their current "let's compete with Uber" app
- a very short list of things wrong with a call, to wit:
* destination is incorrect
* a cash trip should be a voucher trip
* can't perform the trip due to vehicle or driver incompatibility (e.g. wheelchair passenger, non-wc cab)
* destination is closed and need to return passenger to pickup
...and NOTHING ELSE. In fact, the phone message when calling was updated a couple days ago, and option 4 was replaced with, "If you are not calling for one of these 3 options, we are not able to help you at this number," but pressing 4 still gets us to what passes for the support line.
5. Speaking of that "let's compete with Uber" app, a lot of our cash calls have been getting "mysteriously" routed to them instead of to, you know, CABS. I can understand a car call coming in to a cab, because the passenger would still get charged the (lower) car rate, but I've had passengers who specifically request a cab, and have an unmarked car show up instead.
6. Not a change, but... it's summer here. In Desert Hell, that's the slow season for cabs, because the college kids and snowbird are all gone... and also, nobody wants to go anywhere when it's 110+ outside.
All of the above happened at the same time: #1 went into effect July 1st, and everything else on July 2nd. (There are other issues, but they're not really relevant.)
So. Problem #1 slashed everyone's income, significantly. (It may have been 18% of the company's trips, but I'm pretty sure it was significantly higher money-wise.) Problem #2 has built Mount Everest where there used to be a series of minor speed bumps. Problem #3 has absolutely decimated our cash business. Problem #4 has pissed off every driver at this company. Problem #5 is pissing the drivers off, not to mention our customers. Problem #6 is... temporary. (Yay?)
Any one of those issues I could have dealt with. Hell, I could have dealt with all of them if I'd had some time between them -- say, a month between each one.
Needless to say, most drivers have left the company; I'd say probably around 80%. The first week of July, we had roughly 80 wheelchair drivers quit, and that's JUST the wc drivers. (July 3rd, a group of about 20 drivers quit as a group, through a single spokesman.) You'd think that would've balanced things out -- after all, fewer trips, fewer drivers, etc. That's what the company was expecting, but it hasn't happened -- my income is down to an all-time low. July was literally the worst month I've ever had at this company, worse even than when I was still learning how to cab in the first place (and I started at the beginning of summer!).
I hesitated to leave the company, hoping that they'd get their
together and fix things, but alas, it's just been getting worse. Unfortunately, I've waited too long, if I intend to continue driving a cab: every other major company in town has been flooded with Big Green Cab Co drivers, especially our number one competitor, Cab Co That Is Yellow. (A friend of mine and a few others I know who all moved there have all told me "It's so much better over here." Thanks for rubbing my bad decision in my face, guys.) In fact, Yellow has so many wheelchair drivers now that they have run out of wc vans to send out.
(As a side note, Big Green Cab Co has dropped from "biggest cab company in the state" to probably the #4 or #5 position locally. Yellow is now by far the largest.)
As for why all of these "wonderful" things have been happening... there's a theory making the rounds which makes sense to me. You see, rumor has been trickling down from above that our corporate overlords want to get out of the cab business entirely, focusing instead on the other branches of the biz (public transit, medical transportation, "we're totally not Uber" apps, etc). Now, to get rid of Big Green Cab Co, they have a few options:
1. Sell it.
2. Spin it off.
3. Shut it down.
4. Go bankrupt.
Option 1 would involve all sorts of money issues, most notably taxes all over the place, not to mention the fact that the buyer would likely insist on investigating the company before buying (and I won't go into the problems that would uncover). So, that's a no.
Option 2... no. Just no. Our corporate overlords are too focused on money for this to be an option.
Option 3 has its own problems, partly related to taxes, and entirely related to money.
Option 4... well, now, let's see. If we can deliberately drive ourselves out of business, we can get bankruptcy protection from creditors, taxes are deferred, and we can still sell off the business and/or its assets... sounds good to me!
I'm not saying that's what they're actually doing, but the decisions that have been coming out of the boardroom make no other sense to me.
The main thing that is keeping me going right now:
(Lots of this belongs in Morons in Management, but I don't feel like doing multiple posts right now.)
Big, big changes have come to Big Green Cab Co. How big? Well...
1. We lost our #2 contract. I discussed this in the thread Here we go again... Company-wide, it was around 20% of our total business... but for wheelchair drivers like myself? More. Significantly more. In my case, fully half of my trips were from that one account, and I know one driver where it was literally 80% of his business. (Of course, he was smart enough to quit the day before this happened.)
2. Our corporate overlords decided it was time for a new dispatch system. (That's the computer system that handles dispatching calls.) Apparently, the old one was rather expensive to maintain, and it had its share of problems. Unfortunately, the new system is an absolute disaster; calls are:
- repeatedly duplicated (there was one where 6 of us showed up for the same person)
- mysteriously deleted
- getting sent out hours late (literally 2-3 hours)
- given the wrong pickup time (usually 12 hours off)
- sent out with pickup and drop off addresses reversed
- dispatched to multiple companies (!)
...and there are numerous other issues.
3. At the same time, new call center software was installed. The old system worked just fine, but the new system makes it almost impossible to get through to a human being (the normal method of "press 0 for a human" doesn't seem to work), instead insisting on forcing you to use the voice recognition prompt... which sucks horribly. Add 40+ minute hold times and watch our cash business go into free fall!
4. Also at the same time, and related to #2 above, the company got rid of our driver support department, under the theory of "the new software is so good we won't need dedicated support personnel." (Wrong.) Now, the ENTIRE CALL CENTER is "driver support", which none of them have been trained for in any way, and there are exactly 4 reasons we are allowed to call in for:
- been in a wreck
- roadside assistance
- need help with their current "let's compete with Uber" app
- a very short list of things wrong with a call, to wit:
* destination is incorrect
* a cash trip should be a voucher trip
* can't perform the trip due to vehicle or driver incompatibility (e.g. wheelchair passenger, non-wc cab)
* destination is closed and need to return passenger to pickup
...and NOTHING ELSE. In fact, the phone message when calling was updated a couple days ago, and option 4 was replaced with, "If you are not calling for one of these 3 options, we are not able to help you at this number," but pressing 4 still gets us to what passes for the support line.
5. Speaking of that "let's compete with Uber" app, a lot of our cash calls have been getting "mysteriously" routed to them instead of to, you know, CABS. I can understand a car call coming in to a cab, because the passenger would still get charged the (lower) car rate, but I've had passengers who specifically request a cab, and have an unmarked car show up instead.
6. Not a change, but... it's summer here. In Desert Hell, that's the slow season for cabs, because the college kids and snowbird are all gone... and also, nobody wants to go anywhere when it's 110+ outside.
All of the above happened at the same time: #1 went into effect July 1st, and everything else on July 2nd. (There are other issues, but they're not really relevant.)
So. Problem #1 slashed everyone's income, significantly. (It may have been 18% of the company's trips, but I'm pretty sure it was significantly higher money-wise.) Problem #2 has built Mount Everest where there used to be a series of minor speed bumps. Problem #3 has absolutely decimated our cash business. Problem #4 has pissed off every driver at this company. Problem #5 is pissing the drivers off, not to mention our customers. Problem #6 is... temporary. (Yay?)
Any one of those issues I could have dealt with. Hell, I could have dealt with all of them if I'd had some time between them -- say, a month between each one.
Needless to say, most drivers have left the company; I'd say probably around 80%. The first week of July, we had roughly 80 wheelchair drivers quit, and that's JUST the wc drivers. (July 3rd, a group of about 20 drivers quit as a group, through a single spokesman.) You'd think that would've balanced things out -- after all, fewer trips, fewer drivers, etc. That's what the company was expecting, but it hasn't happened -- my income is down to an all-time low. July was literally the worst month I've ever had at this company, worse even than when I was still learning how to cab in the first place (and I started at the beginning of summer!).
I hesitated to leave the company, hoping that they'd get their
together and fix things, but alas, it's just been getting worse. Unfortunately, I've waited too long, if I intend to continue driving a cab: every other major company in town has been flooded with Big Green Cab Co drivers, especially our number one competitor, Cab Co That Is Yellow. (A friend of mine and a few others I know who all moved there have all told me "It's so much better over here." Thanks for rubbing my bad decision in my face, guys.) In fact, Yellow has so many wheelchair drivers now that they have run out of wc vans to send out.(As a side note, Big Green Cab Co has dropped from "biggest cab company in the state" to probably the #4 or #5 position locally. Yellow is now by far the largest.)
As for why all of these "wonderful" things have been happening... there's a theory making the rounds which makes sense to me. You see, rumor has been trickling down from above that our corporate overlords want to get out of the cab business entirely, focusing instead on the other branches of the biz (public transit, medical transportation, "we're totally not Uber" apps, etc). Now, to get rid of Big Green Cab Co, they have a few options:
1. Sell it.
2. Spin it off.
3. Shut it down.
4. Go bankrupt.
Option 1 would involve all sorts of money issues, most notably taxes all over the place, not to mention the fact that the buyer would likely insist on investigating the company before buying (and I won't go into the problems that would uncover). So, that's a no.
Option 2... no. Just no. Our corporate overlords are too focused on money for this to be an option.
Option 3 has its own problems, partly related to taxes, and entirely related to money.
Option 4... well, now, let's see. If we can deliberately drive ourselves out of business, we can get bankruptcy protection from creditors, taxes are deferred, and we can still sell off the business and/or its assets... sounds good to me!
I'm not saying that's what they're actually doing, but the decisions that have been coming out of the boardroom make no other sense to me.
The main thing that is keeping me going right now:
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