Companies that are handling "The Panic" well....or not...

[flenna]

Speaking as an employee the BNSF Railway has handled this crisis poorly from my view.

From the standpoint of employee safety the company has been recalcitrant to change any operations practices, or improve sanitation conditions on equipment or on company property. We’re still required to ride around in dirty equipment owned by the company, and even filthier third party transportation to and from our filthy equipment. For train crews desiring a clean locomotive it’s been on us and out of our own pockets to clean, up until this week. This week the company grudgingly supplied bleach, shop towels, and water with instructions on making our own wipes. Hand sanitizer is still not supplied.

Treatment of employees has deteriorated, because the RR never misses an opportunity to abuse employees when they can. With this goal in mind no allowances have been made for attendance, unless quarantined by doctors orders. If we get quarantined it is without pay for train service employees, and we get to jump through our own asses to get cleared by the company to mark back up to work. So obviously no one who gets sick will admit it because no one wants to go a month without pay. Great way to spread disease, I’m sure they don’t care although they will discipline anyone they can “prove” goes to work knowing they might be ill.

The company has also seized on the reduction in business to furlough as many people as possible, and threaten to furlough even more. Discipline cases are on the rise because a surplus of man power gives them the opportunity to outright fire as many people as possible for the most minor reasons. This has made our local management very happy because some of them genuinely hate subordinate employees.

In the meantime they’re touting to the public how we are doing our part to keep the lights on, medicine, food, fuel, and other goods delivered. Good corporate citizens. Blah blah blah. Don’t look behind the curtain!

Sounds like how the railroad treats me as a customer.

[AKDoug]

Sounds like how the railroad treats me as a customer.

I just thought it was our railroad up here. It's no wonder why they can't compete with trucking.

[jsbhike]

I can see that but one thing I will not tolerate, especially right now is a company that pulls that bullshit of shipping by UPS/Fed Ex etc...and then passing off for final delivery to USPS. That easily adds, 3-4 days to the process resulting inevitably in the delivery falling on a weekend etc...when I'm not at my office.

That also adds to the cost versus simply shipping USPS. Another thing about it that grates is people hopping online to laud UPS/FEDEX while stripping the bark off USPS.

[Coal Dragger]

Sounds like how the railroad treats me as a customer.

LOL, yeah the only people RR managers hate more than their operations employees are their customers. At least it sure seems that way.

[Coal Dragger]

I just thought it was our railroad up here. It's no wonder why they can't compete with trucking.

Can’t compete with trucking. Yeah sure.

Go move 16,000 net tons of grain or coal with your little toy semi, let me know how many trips that takes. By tonnage RR’s still haul a lot more than you think.

That said RR’s know that most of their customers are realistically captive due to the cost of bulk shipping by other methods. So they treat them like shit.

[flenna]

Can’t compete with trucking. Yeah sure.

Go move 16,000 net tons of grain or coal with your little toy semi, let me know how many trips that takes. By tonnage RR’s still haul a lot more than you think.

That said RR’s know that most of their customers are realistically captive due to the cost of bulk shipping by other methods. So they treat them like shit.

If tanker trucks alone could handle the volume I need then I would do it in a heartbeat, but they cannot.

[Coal Dragger]

What liquids are you shipping?

[flenna]

What liquids are you shipping?

Wheat and corn products.

[JediGuy]

Also, I have been really impressed by Rogue Fitness. Not so much for them shipping out workout equipment, which they have been doing when possible, but they have retooled to make PPE and vents when they could be making tons of money using those resources for workout equipment.

This has stood out to me. I ordered my squat rack before the panic truly set in, and it was delayed a couple weeks, and it was missing a page from the instructions, but I appreciate that they stopped taking orders for a while as they worked to catch up, rather than pulling a (G) and just continuing to sell what they knew they couldn’t produce timely.
Also, how they have geared up to make PPE is truly the American example. Not sure if you see them asking for sources for parts and material on social media. Cool to watch.

[Pacific5th]

Speaking as an employee the BNSF Railway has handled this crisis poorly from my view.

From the standpoint of employee safety the company has been recalcitrant to change any operations practices, or improve sanitation conditions on equipment or on company property. We’re still required to ride around in dirty equipment owned by the company, and even filthier third party transportation to and from our filthy equipment. For train crews desiring a clean locomotive it’s been on us and out of our own pockets to clean, up until this week. This week the company grudgingly supplied bleach, shop towels, and water with instructions on making our own wipes. Hand sanitizer is still not supplied.

Treatment of employees has deteriorated, because the RR never misses an opportunity to abuse employees when they can. With this goal in mind no allowances have been made for attendance, unless quarantined by doctors orders. If we get quarantined it is without pay for train service employees, and we get to jump through our own asses to get cleared by the company to mark back up to work. So obviously no one who gets sick will admit it because no one wants to go a month without pay. Great way to spread disease, I’m sure they don’t care although they will discipline anyone they can “prove” goes to work knowing they might be ill.

The company has also seized on the reduction in business to furlough as many people as possible, and threaten to furlough even more. Discipline cases are on the rise because a surplus of man power gives them the opportunity to outright fire as many people as possible for the most minor reasons. This has made our local management very happy because some of them genuinely hate subordinate employees.

In the meantime they’re touting to the public how we are doing our part to keep the lights on, medicine, food, fuel, and other goods delivered. Good corporate citizens. Blah blah blah. Don’t look behind the curtain!

Maybe because I work out of a major refueling station but I have found the engines out of there to be decently clean even before this started. However my AFHT mainline trains have always been a issue. What really pisses me off is other crews that are still leaving the cabs trashed. They have been doing a good job of providing us locally made hand sanitizer as even they are having issues getting mass supply’s.

The Vans are what scares me. All it is gonna take is one sick person to get in one and it’s gonna spread fast. Our hotel van in Pasco sees probably 4-8 guys per hour. Some of the drivers are doing a good job of sanitizing the vans and others are not doing shit.

As for the time off issue. They make god knows how many billions and the best they can do is 4 days paid if you get it and you are own your own afterwords. I know there are and will be guys that have a symptom or two that will not get tested because of that. Hell both myself and my last conductor were joking that we both had sore throats and maybe it was the Rona. Neither one of us have any other symptom but it’s gonna be a real issue with some people.