Unregistered Carriers on 12/29/2009 - 1306
Unregistered Carriers on 12/30/2009 - 1302
Illinois - 93.96%
Maine - 93.35%
If you read yesterday's post, you know that I talked a lot about our work with carriers who obtained USDOT numbers during 2009. Well, it turns out that when Kathy and I were comparing notes on these carriers yesterday afternoon, we discovered a glitch in our contact procedures that resulted in 80 of our 489 unregistered "new guys" never having been contacted about UCR. So, of course, we remedied that immediately. But it points to the fact that no matter how diligent we are, we must continue to look for improvements and "cracks".
On another note, I recently identified timelines for "getting to zero" assuming certain rates of "clearance" of our unregistered carriers. Following up on that theme, we are only averaging a "clear rate" of about 8 carriers per day, which technically has us "getting to zero" sometime in August. Not cool. Hopefully, that daily "clear rate" will improve as we "dry up the lake".
Finally, we are approaching the "rare air" of 94% registration. With any luck, we'll hit it tomorrow, but anything can happen. We started December at 93.02% and trailed Maine by .27%, so I'm really happy with the month we've had. I'll recap December tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Unregistered List - Another Piece of the Puzzle.
Unregistered Carriers on 12/28/2009 - 1326
Unregistered Carriers on 12/29/2009 - 1306
Illinois - 93.94%
Maine - 93.38%
As you can see, we took 20 carriers off the list yesterday ... not a bad start on the next phase of the "getting to zero" effort.
Here's an interesting fact: of the 1306 remaining unregistered carriers, 489 of them have a USDOT number issued in 2009. That seems like a lot of carriers - and I might feel bad about that fact - except that we have registered nearly 88% (87.64%, to be exact) of our new USDOT carriers! No other state is even close to us in that department - Maine is next at 78.77%, and then the percentages fall into the low 60's.
The good news is this: we can be fairly certain that those carriers are really active and that their demographics are reasonably accurate, etc. In other words, they are probably not phantom MCMIS records and we can probably reach them and register them ... eventually.
Unregistered Carriers on 12/29/2009 - 1306
Illinois - 93.94%
Maine - 93.38%
As you can see, we took 20 carriers off the list yesterday ... not a bad start on the next phase of the "getting to zero" effort.
Here's an interesting fact: of the 1306 remaining unregistered carriers, 489 of them have a USDOT number issued in 2009. That seems like a lot of carriers - and I might feel bad about that fact - except that we have registered nearly 88% (87.64%, to be exact) of our new USDOT carriers! No other state is even close to us in that department - Maine is next at 78.77%, and then the percentages fall into the low 60's.
The good news is this: we can be fairly certain that those carriers are really active and that their demographics are reasonably accurate, etc. In other words, they are probably not phantom MCMIS records and we can probably reach them and register them ... eventually.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Getting To Zero - I Haven't Forgotten!
Unregistered Carriers on 12/24/2009 - 1333
Unregistered Carriers on 12/28/2009 - 1326
Illinois - 93.84%
Maine - 93.34%
It's tempting to look at all we've accomplished in 2009 and declare victory. But that's not what this blog - or the UCR5000 project - is all about. Let's recap.
In March of 2009, I said in a UCR Board Meeting that I was going to try to "get to zero" unregistered carriers in Illinois - in other words, I was going to try to register every carrier in our Illinois "UCR Universe".
At the time, we had 5,123 carriers left on our unregistered list - having already registered well over 10,000 IL carriers.
As you can see, we now have 1,326 unregistered carriers. What will it take to get to zero from here? Here are a few thoughts:
1) Until we have 2010 fees, we will actively continue to pursue 2009 unregistered carriers. When we get fees for 2010, we will probably get "distracted" as we only have a small staff and I'm sure they will be quite busy!
2) After 12/31/09, we will no longer be adding "new 2009 USDOT numbers" - which means our 2009 UCR Universe can only grow by "sideways additions". End result: quicker (hopefully) reduction of the list.
3) The Daily Reduction Table (DRT). The DRT shows how many work days (and months) we would need to get ourselves to zero based on reducing the list by a certain net number of carriers per work day.
Reduce List By Work Days / Months
-------------- ------------------
10 133 / 6
20 67 / 3
30 44 / 2
I have to think about what this means for our effort in the new year, but it's intriguing to think that reducing that list by 30 carriers per work day gets us to zero by the end of February. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes. But I keep thinking about that moment in "Dumb and Dumber" when Loren Holly tells Jim Carrey that his odds of winning her affection are not one-in-a-hundred but "one-in-a-million" and he says, "So you're saying there's a chance!!" I like the enthusiasm!
Hey, what do we have to lose???
Unregistered Carriers on 12/28/2009 - 1326
Illinois - 93.84%
Maine - 93.34%
It's tempting to look at all we've accomplished in 2009 and declare victory. But that's not what this blog - or the UCR5000 project - is all about. Let's recap.
In March of 2009, I said in a UCR Board Meeting that I was going to try to "get to zero" unregistered carriers in Illinois - in other words, I was going to try to register every carrier in our Illinois "UCR Universe".
At the time, we had 5,123 carriers left on our unregistered list - having already registered well over 10,000 IL carriers.
As you can see, we now have 1,326 unregistered carriers. What will it take to get to zero from here? Here are a few thoughts:
1) Until we have 2010 fees, we will actively continue to pursue 2009 unregistered carriers. When we get fees for 2010, we will probably get "distracted" as we only have a small staff and I'm sure they will be quite busy!
2) After 12/31/09, we will no longer be adding "new 2009 USDOT numbers" - which means our 2009 UCR Universe can only grow by "sideways additions". End result: quicker (hopefully) reduction of the list.
3) The Daily Reduction Table (DRT). The DRT shows how many work days (and months) we would need to get ourselves to zero based on reducing the list by a certain net number of carriers per work day.
Reduce List By Work Days / Months
-------------- ------------------
10 133 / 6
20 67 / 3
30 44 / 2
I have to think about what this means for our effort in the new year, but it's intriguing to think that reducing that list by 30 carriers per work day gets us to zero by the end of February. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes. But I keep thinking about that moment in "Dumb and Dumber" when Loren Holly tells Jim Carrey that his odds of winning her affection are not one-in-a-hundred but "one-in-a-million" and he says, "So you're saying there's a chance!!" I like the enthusiasm!
Hey, what do we have to lose???
Thursday, December 24, 2009
UCR Best Practice Review
Unregistered Carriers on 12/23/2009 - 1342
Unregistered Carriers on 12/24/2009 - 1333
Illinois - 93.81%
Maine - 93.34%
So far we've talked about four UCR best practices:
1) Know who's on your UCR Unregistered List
2) Routinely Solicit Your Unregistered Carriers
3) Know Your Statistics
4) Work Smarter, Not Harder
Best Practice #5 is really important to me, but you may find it ridiculous: Set A Challenge For Yourself and Your Staff
I've been as forthright as possible about the challenges I've set here in Illinois:
Register more of our state's carriers than anybody else.
Register a higher percentage of our carriers than anybody else.
Get to Zero.
I have to be honest - I think these kinds of challenges cause us to operate at a higher level. The thinking goes something like this, "I know we probably won't be able to do this ... but if we were going to try, what would that look like?"
Asking that one question, "... what would that look like?", has helped us to develop tools and processes that would not have happened otherwise. As corny as it sounds, it's the "stuff" from which innovation emanates.
So ... setting a challenge really just "puts a specific number target" on improving the operation.
And, I can tell you from first-hand experience that overcoming a challenge that didn't really look possible at the outset raises the expectations of everybody involved about what's possible. It has rewards that go way beyond UCR.
I Wish You A Merry Christmas And A Very Happy And Prosperous New Year!
Unregistered Carriers on 12/24/2009 - 1333
Illinois - 93.81%
Maine - 93.34%
So far we've talked about four UCR best practices:
1) Know who's on your UCR Unregistered List
2) Routinely Solicit Your Unregistered Carriers
3) Know Your Statistics
4) Work Smarter, Not Harder
Best Practice #5 is really important to me, but you may find it ridiculous: Set A Challenge For Yourself and Your Staff
I've been as forthright as possible about the challenges I've set here in Illinois:
Register more of our state's carriers than anybody else.
Register a higher percentage of our carriers than anybody else.
Get to Zero.
I have to be honest - I think these kinds of challenges cause us to operate at a higher level. The thinking goes something like this, "I know we probably won't be able to do this ... but if we were going to try, what would that look like?"
Asking that one question, "... what would that look like?", has helped us to develop tools and processes that would not have happened otherwise. As corny as it sounds, it's the "stuff" from which innovation emanates.
So ... setting a challenge really just "puts a specific number target" on improving the operation.
And, I can tell you from first-hand experience that overcoming a challenge that didn't really look possible at the outset raises the expectations of everybody involved about what's possible. It has rewards that go way beyond UCR.
I Wish You A Merry Christmas And A Very Happy And Prosperous New Year!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Best Practice #4 - Working Smarter, Not Harder
Unregistered Carriers on 12/22/2009 - 1357
Unregistered Carriers on 12/23/2009 - 1342
Illinois - 93.76%
Maine - 93.22%
We have a saying around here, "We need to work smarter, not harder."
Essentially, it means, "let's figure out how to improve our performance of a task in a way that results in expending LESS staff effort than we are expending now."
Tall, order, right? If you think it smacks of "doing more with less", you are correct. Is that possible? Yes!
A great example is our experience with carrier email addresses.
When we first learned of their availability, Kathy would dutifully grab dozens of email addresses every day, plug them into an email and then send out the email. This led to us asking Iteris to build an emailer, which not only removed the need for Kathy to do the labor-intensive email activity she had been doing, but basically put the whole thing on auto-pilot, complete with the capability to conduct multiple emails campaigns, send emails to everybody who is unregistered every 15 days, etc. In other words, we are now doing "abundantly more" in this area --- with less effort.
Interestingly, working smarter for a lot of states would be as simple as subscribing to UCR-Link.
When all is said and done, however, a lot more is said than done. (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)
When all is said and done, however, setting the bar at working smarter - doing more with less effort" - results in a different train of thought than just trying to do a task or an activity more efficiently.
Unregistered Carriers on 12/23/2009 - 1342
Illinois - 93.76%
Maine - 93.22%
We have a saying around here, "We need to work smarter, not harder."
Essentially, it means, "let's figure out how to improve our performance of a task in a way that results in expending LESS staff effort than we are expending now."
Tall, order, right? If you think it smacks of "doing more with less", you are correct. Is that possible? Yes!
A great example is our experience with carrier email addresses.
When we first learned of their availability, Kathy would dutifully grab dozens of email addresses every day, plug them into an email and then send out the email. This led to us asking Iteris to build an emailer, which not only removed the need for Kathy to do the labor-intensive email activity she had been doing, but basically put the whole thing on auto-pilot, complete with the capability to conduct multiple emails campaigns, send emails to everybody who is unregistered every 15 days, etc. In other words, we are now doing "abundantly more" in this area --- with less effort.
Interestingly, working smarter for a lot of states would be as simple as subscribing to UCR-Link.
When all is said and done, however, a lot more is said than done. (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)
When all is said and done, however, setting the bar at working smarter - doing more with less effort" - results in a different train of thought than just trying to do a task or an activity more efficiently.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Best Practice Number Four - Work Smarter, Not Harder (The Parable)
Unregistered Carriers on 12/21/2009 - 1382
Unregistered Carriers on 12/22/2009 - 1357
Illinois - 93.69%
Maine - 93.22%
Once upon a time, in an obscure agency somewhere in the Midwest, toiled a lady named Kayleen. Kayleen worked for a kind and benevolent manager named Dane. Dane was known to be a patient man, for he put up with frequent bouts of whining and sniveling from Kayleen (primarily because other help was hard to find). One day, Kayleen, in her aforementioned sniveling tone, complained to the benevolent Dane that her work was slowly overwhelming her. To her total surprise, Dane did not retort, "Perhaps if you stopped talking on your cell phone and worked a little harder, your workload might become more manageable!" (although he would undoubtedly have been justified in doing so). Instead, Dane demonstrated his vast wisdom by simply saying, "We must learn to work smarter." "Work smarter?" asked Kayleen. "I only know how to work harder." "Yes", replied Dane. "That is why I am the boss!"
What secret knowledge did the wise Dane possess that completely eluded the fair - but somewhat "challenged" - Lady Kayleen?
Tune in tomorrow for an analysis of this great and important parable ....
Unregistered Carriers on 12/22/2009 - 1357
Illinois - 93.69%
Maine - 93.22%
Once upon a time, in an obscure agency somewhere in the Midwest, toiled a lady named Kayleen. Kayleen worked for a kind and benevolent manager named Dane. Dane was known to be a patient man, for he put up with frequent bouts of whining and sniveling from Kayleen (primarily because other help was hard to find). One day, Kayleen, in her aforementioned sniveling tone, complained to the benevolent Dane that her work was slowly overwhelming her. To her total surprise, Dane did not retort, "Perhaps if you stopped talking on your cell phone and worked a little harder, your workload might become more manageable!" (although he would undoubtedly have been justified in doing so). Instead, Dane demonstrated his vast wisdom by simply saying, "We must learn to work smarter." "Work smarter?" asked Kayleen. "I only know how to work harder." "Yes", replied Dane. "That is why I am the boss!"
What secret knowledge did the wise Dane possess that completely eluded the fair - but somewhat "challenged" - Lady Kayleen?
Tune in tomorrow for an analysis of this great and important parable ....
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Third Best UCR Best Practice
Unregistered Carriers on 12/18/2009 - 1378
Unregistered Carriers on 12/21/2009 - 1382
Illinois - 93.58%
Maine - 93.18%
As threatened, I'd like to talk a little about another UCR Best Practice - statistics.
How important are statistics? I think they're really important for several reasons. Statistics tell you:
1) Where you are
2) Where you've been
3) Where you're going
An old business adage suggests that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." For the most part, I'm inclined to agree - at least as far as UCR goes. Unfortunately, you CAN supervise it - which, I believe, is causing some states - and the rest of us - a lot of problems.
What's the difference between management and supervision? Here's my ten-second, oversimplified version: a supervisor makes sure that you are doing today exactly what you did yesterday - maybe a little more efficiently. A manager makes sure you're doing important stuff.
If you are driving a car towards a cliff, a supervisor (no clue about the cliff) makes sure your steering technique is good and that you are maximizing your gas mileage ... while a manager tells you to make the necessary changes to get the car rolling in a more productive direction....away from the cliff. Big difference. Many times, supervisors are not even aware that things are going awry ("that's not my job"), let alone what to do to fix it.
Why do I bring this up? Because managers manage - often, to numbers - while supervisors supervise.
Managers know that the numbers paint a picture. Managers know that numbers create a perception. Managers know that if you point to a certain number and say, "This is where we are ... and this is where we want to be", a good staff (which I'm fortunate to have) can intuit a certain amount of what needs to be done and maybe even provide ideas on how to get there.
Let's face it ... even if you don't use numbers, other people are looking at your numbers and forming perceptions about what kind of job you're doing.
Try using the numbers ... you won't go back.
Unregistered Carriers on 12/21/2009 - 1382
Illinois - 93.58%
Maine - 93.18%
As threatened, I'd like to talk a little about another UCR Best Practice - statistics.
How important are statistics? I think they're really important for several reasons. Statistics tell you:
1) Where you are
2) Where you've been
3) Where you're going
An old business adage suggests that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." For the most part, I'm inclined to agree - at least as far as UCR goes. Unfortunately, you CAN supervise it - which, I believe, is causing some states - and the rest of us - a lot of problems.
What's the difference between management and supervision? Here's my ten-second, oversimplified version: a supervisor makes sure that you are doing today exactly what you did yesterday - maybe a little more efficiently. A manager makes sure you're doing important stuff.
If you are driving a car towards a cliff, a supervisor (no clue about the cliff) makes sure your steering technique is good and that you are maximizing your gas mileage ... while a manager tells you to make the necessary changes to get the car rolling in a more productive direction....away from the cliff. Big difference. Many times, supervisors are not even aware that things are going awry ("that's not my job"), let alone what to do to fix it.
Why do I bring this up? Because managers manage - often, to numbers - while supervisors supervise.
Managers know that the numbers paint a picture. Managers know that numbers create a perception. Managers know that if you point to a certain number and say, "This is where we are ... and this is where we want to be", a good staff (which I'm fortunate to have) can intuit a certain amount of what needs to be done and maybe even provide ideas on how to get there.
Let's face it ... even if you don't use numbers, other people are looking at your numbers and forming perceptions about what kind of job you're doing.
Try using the numbers ... you won't go back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)