How do you deal with shuttling?

[kenman215]

New job I'm running is on an extremely tight lot, with no available street parking. Approved parking lot is two miles away, through four traffic lights on a very busy road. When we ramp up to full staff, I'll have around 40 guys on the job. Usually we require guys to be onsite at 6:55 for a 7am start time. The problem I have is that even if we shuttle the most efficient way possible, i.e., meet at lot, shuttle 40 people in ten vehicles, go back to lot, take the remaining ten in three vehicles, go back to the lot, take the last three in my vehicle, that's still 10 minutes at best per round trip, totalling full staff on staff 30 minutes into the day. It's a lot of wasted man hours. I was thinking of asking my guys to meet at the lot 15 minutes early to mitigate some of the lost hours shuttling. Do you think this is too much to ask them to offer freely? Just the cost of doing business?

 

[infinity]

IMO the employees should be on the job ready to go at starting time on their own accord. If you want to provide a free shuttle service then you can pretty much tell them what time that they need to be at the lot to get a free ride to the site. It is impossible for someone to get there on their own by 7AM?

 

[kenman215]

IMO the employees should be on the job ready to go at starting time on their own accord. If you want to provide a free shuttle service then you can pretty much tell them what time that they need to be at the lot to get a free ride to the site. It is impossible for someone to get there on their own by 7AM?

I think that you make a good point, and I didn't actually think of it like that. Hypothetically if they were working on an edition on a large building that was still in use and had to park at the back of a huge parking lot, giving the employees parking preference, even if they had a five minute walk into the building we'd still expect them to be on time. Thank you, I think I have my rationale now.

 

[sii]

First "adult" job right out of high school was doing concrete work for a small town construction company. Everyone was from the same town. Foreman picked us up in his company truck and drove us to work twenty miles away. We got paid from when we got picked up to when we got dropped off again at night. I was pretty naive and thought it was like that everywhere and was appalled to find out later I had to get to work on my own.

 

[kenman215]

First "adult" job right out of high school was doing concrete work for a small town construction company. Everyone was from the same town. Foreman picked us up in his company truck and drove us to work twenty miles away. We got paid from when we got picked up to when we got dropped off again at night. I was pretty naive and thought it was like that everywhere and was appalled to find out later I had to get to work on my own.

Too true, my friend. Our company is so big now, we literally work within a 200 mile radius of the shop. Some of our guys commute almost 2 hours to their jobsites. I suppose the 15 minutes I'm looking for doesn't amount to much in comparison.

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[hbiss]

New job I'm running is on an extremely tight lot, with no available street parking. Approved parking lot is two miles away, through four traffic lights on a very busy road.

I normally won't tolerate not having access to a job site. If the customer can't make arrangements for workers to park their vehicles within a reasonable distance then the cost of transporting them to the job site is figured into the contract. Hire a bus or two. Pick them up at 7AM sharp. If you require them to report earlier then you must pay them for the time.

-Hal

 

[iwire]

Pick them up at 7AM sharp. If you require them to report earlier then you must pay them for the time.

Bingo.

 

[Fulthrotl]

New job I'm running is on an extremely tight lot, with no available street parking. Approved parking lot is two miles away, through four traffic lights on a very busy road. When we ramp up to full staff, I'll have around 40 guys on the job. Usually we require guys to be onsite at 6:55 for a 7am start time. The problem I have is that even if we shuttle the most efficient way possible, i.e., meet at lot, shuttle 40 people in ten vehicles, go back to lot, take the remaining ten in three vehicles, go back to the lot, take the last three in my vehicle, that's still 10 minutes at best per round trip, totalling full staff on staff 30 minutes into the day. It's a lot of wasted man hours. I was thinking of asking my guys to meet at the lot 15 minutes early to mitigate some of the lost hours shuttling. Do you think this is too much to ask them to offer freely? Just the cost of doing business?

well, it depends a lot on if you are signatory with the union.
most working agreements have pages picking flychit out of
pepper on stuff like this... what you can, and can't do.

what is normal, is to have everyone meet at the collection point,
and shuttle them in. large jobs usually have all the trades in a common
area somewhere, and buses are provided.

if i didn't want to run buses, i'd make arrangements with :UBER: to have
a dozen vehicles there 10 minutes before start time, and set them up to
bill to the company credit card. that would cut you down to 20 minutes
lost a day or so per man. it's not gonna get better than that.

be sure to put signs on the personal cars saying
"i won't be back for eight hours. help yourself".

i was working on the pond at anaheim, and they had the bus thing going.
and peoples cars were getting broken into, 'cause there was no security
provided.

i asked the general foreman about something to prevent the loss, and was
told "suck it up and put on your big boy pants".

i replied "you know, darryl, there are two things you can do here, keep me,
or lay me off. when you decide what you are going to do, let me know if it's
a punishment or a reward."

that solved the problem nicely the next day, and as i left, i said "adios,
mighty ducks. quack, quack, don't look back."

 

[roger]

In the past we have bought old school busses (four for one particular job) as shuttles and they left the remote parking lot a set time. The employees didn't have to ride on them but they had to be on site on time.

Roger

 

[kenman215]

well, it depends a lot on if you are signatory with the union.
most working agreements have pages picking flychit out of
pepper on stuff like this... what you can, and can't do.

what is normal, is to have everyone meet at the collection point,
and shuttle them in. large jobs usually have all the trades in a common
area somewhere, and buses are provided.

if i didn't want to run buses, i'd make arrangements with :UBER: to have
a dozen vehicles there 10 minutes before start time, and set them up to
bill to the company credit card. that would cut you down to 20 minutes
lost a day or so per man. it's not gonna get better than that.

be sure to put signs on the personal cars saying
"i won't be back for eight hours. help yourself".

i was working on the pond at anaheim, and they had the bus thing going.
and peoples cars were getting broken into, 'cause there was no security
provided.

i asked the general foreman about something to prevent the loss, and was
told "suck it up and put on your big boy pants".

i replied "you know, darryl, there are two things you can do here, keep me,
or lay me off. when you decide what you are going to do, let me know if it's
a punishment or a reward."

that solved the problem nicely the next day, and as i left, i said "adios,
mighty ducks. quack, quack, don't look back."

The lot we'll be parking is actually at a Home Depot. GC talked to the manger and pulled the old "where do you think we'll be getting our supplemental tools and materials from?" So we're hoping that security won't be a problem. Time will tell I suppose. And we're not a union a shop, so no documentation on this. And the builder does actually have a shuttle bus, but it's only for 8 people. When this job is in full swing, they'll be at least 150-200 people working there. I can't guarantee when the guys will be able to get on that bus, plus it opens up the opportunity for the lazy ones to get paid to show up late or sit in their car until the last shuttle runs over, probably an hour and a half into the day. That's why I'd rather handle it in house. What about my parking lot analogy posted previously. Do we disagree with that?

 

[Fulthrotl]

The lot we'll be parking is actually at a Home Depot. GC talked to the manger and pulled the old "where do you think we'll be getting our supplemental tools and materials from?" So we're hoping that security won't be a problem. Time will tell I suppose. And we're not a union a shop, so no documentation on this. And the builder does actually have a shuttle bus, but it's only for 8 people. When this job is in full swing, they'll be at least 150-200 people working there. I can't guarantee when the guys will be able to get on that bus, plus it opens up the opportunity for the lazy ones to get paid to show up late or sit in their car until the last shuttle runs over, probably an hour and a half into the day. That's why I'd rather handle it in house. What about my parking lot analogy posted previously. Do we disagree with that?

i'd split the difference.

"we all have to be at our gang boxes at starting time, but we get to pick up early enough
that we are back at our cars at quitting time...."

in the overall days production, it'll make a lot more difference getting everyone rocking
on time. the day will be more productive. so, everyone's there at 6:30 for a 7am start,
so crews are at their gang boxes at start time. everyone picks up at 3 pm, so they all
make it on the bus, or the ubers, and nobody gets left behind.

honestly, the more i think about the ubers, the more i'd think about trying that.
set up a dozen guys and put ubers on their cellphones, and get a CC number that belongs
to the company on their uber app for billing, and then they all punch in at the same time,
the company gets a $8 hit to take three guys to their cars a day... cancel the CC number
when the jobs done.

uber emails a receipt as soon as your ride is done, to prevent abuse of the CC number.
so anyone using it except for on the job gets spanked.

 

[KD4315]

In the past we have bought old school busses (four for one particular job) as shuttles and they left the remote parking lot a set time. The employees didn't have to ride on them but they had to be on site on time.

Roger

This is what we did when I worked on a bridge. The company bought 4 old Ford 15 passenger vans. You had to be there when the vans left or it was up to you to get to the job site. It was a great investment as the cost of the vans was a fraction of what the loss of productivity and man power would have been.


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[JoeyD74]

New job I'm running is on an extremely tight lot, with no available street parking. Approved parking lot is two miles away, through four traffic lights on a very busy road. When we ramp up to full staff, I'll have around 40 guys on the job. Usually we require guys to be onsite at 6:55 for a 7am start time. The problem I have is that even if we shuttle the most efficient way possible, i.e., meet at lot, shuttle 40 people in ten vehicles, go back to lot, take the remaining ten in three vehicles, go back to the lot, take the last three in my vehicle, that's still 10 minutes at best per round trip, totalling full staff on staff 30 minutes into the day. It's a lot of wasted man hours. I was thinking of asking my guys to meet at the lot 15 minutes early to mitigate some of the lost hours shuttling. Do you think this is too much to ask them to offer freely? Just the cost of doing business?

Do your guys typically drive to the job site in their own cars?

 

[kenman215]

Do your guys typically drive to the job site in their own cars?

Yes sir. Only exception is sometimes we have jobs that are up to three hours away from the shop. In that scenario, company usually rents an apt or house for te duration of the job.

 

[roger]

This is what we did when I worked on a bridge. The company bought 4 old Ford 15 passenger vans. You had to be there when the vans left or it was up to you to get to the job site. It was a great investment as the cost of the vans was a fraction of what the loss of productivity and man power would have been.

Absolutely, and we have even run staggered shifts due to this. One crew would work 7:00 to 3:30 and the next would work 7:30 to 4:00, that way the shuttles could be kept to a minimum.

Roger

 

[kwired]

The lot we'll be parking is actually at a Home Depot. GC talked to the manger and pulled the old "where do you think we'll be getting our supplemental tools and materials from?" So we're hoping that security won't be a problem. Time will tell I suppose. And we're not a union a shop, so no documentation on this. And the builder does actually have a shuttle bus, but it's only for 8 people. When this job is in full swing, they'll be at least 150-200 people working there. I can't guarantee when the guys will be able to get on that bus, plus it opens up the opportunity for the lazy ones to get paid to show up late or sit in their car until the last shuttle runs over, probably an hour and a half into the day. That's why I'd rather handle it in house. What about my parking lot analogy posted previously. Do we disagree with that?

The others catch on to the guy that waits in his car until the last shuttle is about to run. This guy is probably also at the bottom of the chain of command and gets the brunt of dirty work, IMO it is his choice to remain at the bottom so let him be. Hopefully his peers put him in his place and maybe even attempt to make sure he is on the last shuttle out of there come quitting time.

 

[zcanyonboltz]

I normally won't tolerate not having access to a job site. If the customer can't make arrangements for workers to park their vehicles within a reasonable distance then the cost of transporting them to the job site is figured into the contract. Hire a bus or two. Pick them up at 7AM sharp. If you require them to report earlier then you must pay them for the time.

-Hal

Couldn't agree more, I was recently on a 28 story job and to get to the upper floors would some days take 20+ minutes. We also had to park about 10 minutes on foot away. The project manager had a guy pick us up at our vehicle lot at the time we went on the clock. I know one of the foreman required his crew to be at site 15-20 minutes early until PM stopped this foreman is not very well liked nor respected now, not saying this is exactly right but those guys got the 15 to 20 minutes a day back one way or another.

 

[Fulthrotl]

not saying this is exactly right but those guys got the 15 to 20 minutes a day back one way or another.

yep. you may think you are getting over them for fifteen minutes a day,
but they have 8 hours to even things up, and that tends to happen.

i was working in brentwood, at a reservoir, and the foreman was a large
amount of a poop.... didn't want to allow this, or that. just ornery.

so instead of driving my personal vehicle to brentwood each day, i drove to a
facility where my work truck was parked, and drove it back and forth... from
long beach to brentwood. and back. on the clock. past LAX. both ways. slowly.
took about three hours a day, and you had to leave early, so you could make
it back by quitting time.

fridays were worse. sometimes two hours to get back. took a long time to get
that job done......

 

[JoeyD74]

Yes sir. Only exception is sometimes we have jobs that are up to three hours away from the shop. In that scenario, company usually rents an apt or house for te duration of the job.

I think your being fair enough getting them back and forth then. They are use to getting to the site already on their own.

 

[rt66electric]

Early bird gets choice of assignment

Early bird gets choice of assignment

A certain foreman would give out daily assignments based on the arrival time of the "pleebs"

The guys who arrived first got the gravy jobs and the tardies got the crappy jobs.

The seasoned helpers never told the pleebs , some pleebs never figured it out.