President's ColumnSpeed is a crucial issue for anyone who ships products or materials, whatever the distance. Speed is a crucial issue for me, as well.
When I came to Roadway in September, we spent a lot of time discussing what we should be doing right now, right here, in the next hour, next eight hours, next week, and next month to improve our performance in the marketplace.
Our discussions centered on speed—speed to decision, speed to conclusion, and speed to delivering value to you. Out of our discussions came a velocity plan aimed at boosting our real speed in the marketplace—the speed at which we move shipments from point A to point B.
Since September, we have been gaining momentum in our efforts to accelerate network velocity, improve on-time service and enhance reliability. On-time delivery is improving each and every week.
These improvements are due to a new approach to planning which considers available operating hours in short, distinct time buckets to ensure that we have exactly the right resources to match projected business requirements, hour by hour.
Our regional service centers are using this planning approach to match resources to the volume flowing through our system. Our standard transit speed will continue to improve as this planning approach is adopted throughout our system.
We also are changing the way we think about a shipment. From the moment of pickup we are working to compress the cycle time of each process associated with moving that shipment through our system right up to delivery. Our customers will see much earlier pickups in our P&D operations, matched by a much quicker dock cycle, supported by increased speed and improved accuracy in our billing centers.
A third piece to our velocity plan involves a significant increase in direct loading at origin service centers. We will touch a shipment once, which will improve efficiency and reliability. This piece of the plan will be implemented in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Our plan to drive velocity will provide for much improved service, greater reliability and lower cost. As we implement it, we are keeping our focus on versatility in transportation services. Our customers will continue to receive fast responses, flexible service and personalized solutions from their local Customer Care Team.
Mike Smid
