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<blockquote data-quote="Star B" data-source="post: 5393293" data-attributes="member: 61246"><p>Management has firmly embraced technology and creating routes with sequences. To try and fight back to 100% SRA-style CRR routing isn't going to happen in the long game. Yes, there may be areas that don't see E* for decades, but those will be few and far between and a tiny blip when it comes to cost and revenue. Don't be like the horse buggy and whip manufacturers when the automobile came around. Change is happening whether you like it or not.</p><p></p><p>Do you know what wildly outdated software platform ROADS ran on? Did you know that the main developer of ROADS is no longer with the company and hasn't been for quite some time? Did you also know that the way ROADS/DRA handles special conditions (such as business closed/opens later) is a hackjob and every map update causes a massive headache with updating existing FedEx generated data, including moving GPS coordinates for manually coded addresses?</p><p></p><p>That's one of the many reasons to get away from ROADS and onto E*. To get rid of the code rot of an unsupported program (have any of you actually seen DRA assist???) and make it easier to injest and process all sorts of new data, GPS pings from the LEOS/trucks, live & historical traffic data, quarterly map updates (without the massive headache of moving all the grains in ROADs around).</p><p></p><p>Remember when I've said there's plenty of heads to the hydra that is E*? You're starting to get a deeper look into it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>One of the reasons why they push E* is the ability to finely tune routes. You can define "5 Routes Starting from Downtown Chicago, Leave Station at 0800, 8 hours of delivery, 60 minute break RTB 1500" and then define "Wave 2 Routes starting from DT Chicago, Leave Station 1200, RTB 2000, 7 hours delivery, 60 minute break". There is even more granularity in the route definition (primary/secondary), where the routes will start solving from (the seed points, kinda sorta like loops in DRA), and other things that I can't remember right now.</p><p></p><p>To ask a question -- IF management had the bodies/trucks, wouldn't Response be a 2nd wave of dedicated CRRs?</p><p></p><p></p><p>an experienced CRR will beat a computer generated solution most of the time. I will never contest that. However, Management wants cheap labor... and with cheap labor you have to spoon-feed the complex, difficult decisions to them. I've said time and time again, FXE wants to implement an amazon-style workforce, little to no benefits -- use & abuse and throw away after a few years. Legacy costs, such as 401k, retirement plans, health insurance, etc, gets expensive quick with a veteran workforce.</p><p></p><p>Now, why don't we just update the old DRA maps? The reason is that it's a royal, ROYAL pain in the ass with how DRA is setup. Remember earlier when I said that having to migrate all the FedEx generated data from the old maps to the new maps? From what I understand and how it's been explained to me -- how special items are setup in DRA is a geofence area around where the grain (address) would plot. If the address plots in that certain defined box/polygon, then those special parameters apply. A map update could change where the address plots by a few hundred feet, which causes the grain to not be in the area and the special parameters would not be applied to the stop... and then the avalanche of extra work starts. Finding out that stop no longer gets the special parameters applied, then it has to get fixed, and not every location gets a package each day, multiply that by the 2000 or so stations FXE has. Not to mention the chance that a map update mixes up special parameters because the two address plots changed and criss-crossed.</p><p></p><p>E* changes that. Addresses are treated as separate entities (called shares) and the map plot is only used for solving. That way, even if the map plot point changes because of an update, the special parameters is per address and will be retained.</p><p></p><p>and remember folks, just because I think that E* is a needed upgrade, doesn't mean that I like it. I think it's wildly inefficient to send three CRRs where we used to send just one. I think that it's BS that they can't let a CRR be focused on an area so they can know it like the back of their head, instead opting for swing-like behavior in even more towns and cities that they pass through. However, management wants to cut labor costs and one way is to make the route so brain-dead that anyone who can drive a Sprinter safely can be successful 95% of the time without a massive investment in training and time spent gaining area knowledge.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Star B, post: 5393293, member: 61246"] Management has firmly embraced technology and creating routes with sequences. To try and fight back to 100% SRA-style CRR routing isn't going to happen in the long game. Yes, there may be areas that don't see E* for decades, but those will be few and far between and a tiny blip when it comes to cost and revenue. Don't be like the horse buggy and whip manufacturers when the automobile came around. Change is happening whether you like it or not. Do you know what wildly outdated software platform ROADS ran on? Did you know that the main developer of ROADS is no longer with the company and hasn't been for quite some time? Did you also know that the way ROADS/DRA handles special conditions (such as business closed/opens later) is a hackjob and every map update causes a massive headache with updating existing FedEx generated data, including moving GPS coordinates for manually coded addresses? That's one of the many reasons to get away from ROADS and onto E*. To get rid of the code rot of an unsupported program (have any of you actually seen DRA assist???) and make it easier to injest and process all sorts of new data, GPS pings from the LEOS/trucks, live & historical traffic data, quarterly map updates (without the massive headache of moving all the grains in ROADs around). Remember when I've said there's plenty of heads to the hydra that is E*? You're starting to get a deeper look into it. One of the reasons why they push E* is the ability to finely tune routes. You can define "5 Routes Starting from Downtown Chicago, Leave Station at 0800, 8 hours of delivery, 60 minute break RTB 1500" and then define "Wave 2 Routes starting from DT Chicago, Leave Station 1200, RTB 2000, 7 hours delivery, 60 minute break". There is even more granularity in the route definition (primary/secondary), where the routes will start solving from (the seed points, kinda sorta like loops in DRA), and other things that I can't remember right now. To ask a question -- IF management had the bodies/trucks, wouldn't Response be a 2nd wave of dedicated CRRs? an experienced CRR will beat a computer generated solution most of the time. I will never contest that. However, Management wants cheap labor... and with cheap labor you have to spoon-feed the complex, difficult decisions to them. I've said time and time again, FXE wants to implement an amazon-style workforce, little to no benefits -- use & abuse and throw away after a few years. Legacy costs, such as 401k, retirement plans, health insurance, etc, gets expensive quick with a veteran workforce. Now, why don't we just update the old DRA maps? The reason is that it's a royal, ROYAL pain in the ass with how DRA is setup. Remember earlier when I said that having to migrate all the FedEx generated data from the old maps to the new maps? From what I understand and how it's been explained to me -- how special items are setup in DRA is a geofence area around where the grain (address) would plot. If the address plots in that certain defined box/polygon, then those special parameters apply. A map update could change where the address plots by a few hundred feet, which causes the grain to not be in the area and the special parameters would not be applied to the stop... and then the avalanche of extra work starts. Finding out that stop no longer gets the special parameters applied, then it has to get fixed, and not every location gets a package each day, multiply that by the 2000 or so stations FXE has. Not to mention the chance that a map update mixes up special parameters because the two address plots changed and criss-crossed. E* changes that. Addresses are treated as separate entities (called shares) and the map plot is only used for solving. That way, even if the map plot point changes because of an update, the special parameters is per address and will be retained. and remember folks, just because I think that E* is a needed upgrade, doesn't mean that I like it. I think it's wildly inefficient to send three CRRs where we used to send just one. I think that it's BS that they can't let a CRR be focused on an area so they can know it like the back of their head, instead opting for swing-like behavior in even more towns and cities that they pass through. However, management wants to cut labor costs and one way is to make the route so brain-dead that anyone who can drive a Sprinter safely can be successful 95% of the time without a massive investment in training and time spent gaining area knowledge. [/QUOTE]
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