'I began doing this multiple times a day': Utility truck driver begins turning vehicle off at every opportunity after company berates them

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 16, 2023 3:00 PM EST

Supervisors have a habit of being penny wise and pound foolish, as this utility truck driver can tell you. 

At jobs where you're on the road for your entire shift, having a working vehicle is crucial. In a utility job, such as HVAC work, or driving a cherry picker to fix wires, you quite literally can't do your job without your specialized vehicle. Unlike most jobs where you stay in one place for eight hours at a time, these drivers usually see between 5-10 clients per day. 

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  • You'd think a supervisor at one of these companies would realize how important transportation is to their employees, but one dude just didn't think things through. He had a plan to reduce costs, but he seemingly didn't realize the full implications of what he was doing. At least he found out, and probably got an earful from his own managers. His mistake must've cost the company hundreds or even thousands of dollars that he thought he was saving. 

    You can check out u/Rocky3e33's entire story below, complete with additional info from the OP and comments from delighted readers. 

    Next up, this entitled aunt doesn't want to be sent any more Christmas cards by her nephew, and she told him in the most over-the-top fashion imaginable. 

  • 01
    MICK
    via Terry Jaskiw on Unsplash
  • 02
    HERE IS YOUR 0.00% IDLE TIME M OC I worked for a company that provides a utility truck and one of the analytics they monitor is how long the truck stays in place with the motor on. The target number was something like 3%, I consistently was stuck in traffic due to my area being changed to the downtown area of my city and naturally -raising my idle percent-.
    via u/Rocky3e33
  • 03
    My supervisor began constantly badgering me over the raise of my idle percent, about 10-12% higher now. After they decided to give me a wRiTtEn VeRbAl WaRnInG I became the MOST efficient truck no idler in our branch and I brought it down to a 0.00 by shutting the truck off at every stop sign, red light, highway stopped in traffic, in drive thrus, and INSTANTLY off when I got to where I was going.
    via u/Rocky3e33
  • 04
    Now remember this is a utility truck that is charging my 2 phones, laptop, tablet and my various equipments rechargeable batteries, all this juice sucking and no alternator spinning putting the power back into the truck battery causing it to die. ALOT.
    via u/Rocky3e33
  • 05
    Now the rules the company had made it forbidden for me to jump the truck myself so I had to call the company and they sent out a tow truck to jump start it for me (I could do it myself anyway and probably would have but they are writing people up out here for petty s and everytime I call this tow truck it takes a minimum of 2 hours for it to show up, I began doing this multiple times a day, every day until they figured my truck was broken. It goes to the shop, checks out, they give it back- I ki
    via u/Rocky3e33
  • 06
    They end up giving me an entirely new truck, I start killing it, I repeated this process until they gave me the THIRD truck and the manager calls me to asks what my daily routine is, I go through the basics and add in the whole stop at red light engine off- stop in traffic engine off- etc. and dude goes "Why the fl are you doing this" "My supervisor wrote me up for my idle time being too high"
    via u/Rocky3e33
  • 07
    "This is completely ridiculous" He tossed my write up and I'm guessing talked to the supe because I never heard a word about idle time again and I quit caring about it. There's my dumb petty story, thanks for reading.
    via u/Rocky3e33
  • 08
    Lizlodude This month we saved $3 in gas used while idling, and spent $3k in towing and jumpstart fees. Great job team!
    via u/Lizlodude
  • 09
    Hammer Of TheHeretics This kind of stupid s is what comes of managing to metrics.
    via u/HammerTheHeretics
  • 10
    JTBoom1 Great story! Perfect MC ✩ 2.5k Rocky3e33 OP. Reply Share Thanks lol I never thought I'd find such a specific place to tell this story to.
    via u/JTBoom1
  • 11
    Equinsu-Ocha Goes to show, if you start blindly managing by metrics your employees will start gaming the metrics regardless of how it affects business. Happens every single time. A company I worked for started running metrics or orders fulfilled by promised time and would not account for
    via u/Equinsu-Ocha
  • 12
    things we had no control over. So whenever we were far behind, instead of filling orders, we just started reprocessing them with later promise times. Hours burned away and not a single order filled
    via u/Equinsu-Ocha
  • 13
    yParticle Dumb in the sense that it took all of that for them to get the message. That took some real dedication on your part!
    via u/yParticle
  • 14
    imtalkintou I have the same issues. So glad winter is here too so I can freeze in my van because I can't use it long enough to heat it up.
    via u/imtalkintou
  • 15
    xpdx "This is completely ridiculous" "I'm glad we agree. My supervisor doesn't" Managers that hyperfocus on the wrong metrics are insane making. Like zoom out once in a while dude. There's a complex set of variables in the world, you can't judge any job by one stupid metric.
    via u/xpdx
  • 16
    hushoo It really is something that the supervisor wasn't having any of the traffic excuse. It takes a little look-see and they couldn't be bothered to do their job. Normally, going above the supervisor's head would be the right move, but with how OP told the story, I'm assuming the company isn't exactly worker-friendly.
    via u/hushoo
  • 17
    Rocky3e33 OP. The same supervisor probably would have moved my area an hour away from my house if I went over his head, my way worked better because it forced them to ask me what I was doing and they could tell me to stop it thus naturally stopping
    via u/Rocky3e33
  • 18
    the harassment over idle. No, not worker friendly at all.
    via u/Rocky3e33

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