An Incentive Bonus Scheme
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Good Time-keeping, Maintenance of Vehicle Cleanliness and General Praiseworthy Service are Factors Which an Employer May Encourage by Means of Payments Extra to Statutory Remuneration
IHAVE received a :letter concerning how to start a bonus scheme for improving drivers' efficiency,. either , by way of increasing tonnage carried or based 'on the 'cleanliness ofthe vehicles.'
Looking through my notes, .1 found one operator's method which, whatever its merits or demerits, is as corriprehensive as it is possible to be As a preliminary to describing it, . I should, I think, lay down the basic principles on which such a scheme should be built. In my view the essentials to success are that the scheme should be easily understood" by the drivers, should not encourage over-speeding or ill-treatment of the vehicles,' and should be free from the liability to the risk that any or all of the drivers may think that they are not getting all the bonus to which they are entitled.
The preliminary reaction of the reader will be, I am sure, that it is too complicated. It needs careful'exatnination if it is to be fully understood and even more so when it is applied and put into operation. Moreover, its manysidedness, the factor which in the first place makes it seem so complicated, contributes to its effectiveness.
• Bonus is paid first of all on the actual work done during the week: this is subject to an immediate deduction for unpunctuality. The direct bonus can be El per week on that account alone. The second part of the bonus is awarded according to the cleanliness of the vehicle the driver is operating. This can be as much as £.1 per week. There is a penalty in connection with this part of the -bonus that if the driver does not obtain a certain percentage of full marks he is actually penalized. There is a pointer There to the reaction of the owner to this matter of cleanliness: he is allergic to dirt, regarding its presence as a positive .bearer of maintenance troubles—in which I think he is quite right.
The third part of the bonus is a long-term assessment and average of the work in order to qualify for the -first -bonus. The marks gained in qualifying for this first bonus are averaged over a period and a further bonus is paid on the result of that calculation. This is so manipulated that irregularity of attendance reacts against the employee in the form of a deduction from his bonus.
Then there is a bonus payable in respect of certain traffics. There is a Christmas box and, finally, a supplementary over A36 . riding bonus which is paid to the drivers in proportion t their earnings throughout the year. •
I should perhaps; state that the work is, in the mail short-distance haulage, mainly of slag, agricultural product livestock, sugar-beet, ashes, furniture and so on. A featui Of the clerical system adopted by the company is that eac driver enters on his daily log sbeet details of the joume,. completed each .day. Each log sheet is checked by or or other of the directors of the company and is markt good, fair or, poor. For each good or fair the drivi receives a bonus of 3s. 4d. For poor he gets nothing. Tf maximum that a driver can receive, per week of six da■ on this account at 3s. 4d, per day, is El. This part of ti bonus is paid in cash weekly.
To ensure punctuality in starting work in the mornin a fine of 2s, 6d. is imposed on drivers who dock-on aft+ 6.30 a.m. This deduction is niade a rigid rule and heir in the form of a fine it is quite possible for a man who doi poor work throughout the week and is several times la to find that he has nothing in the .bonus.fund.
Over-speeding and over-loading,, which are common! experienced as a result of awarding a bonus on performanc are prevented in this way. One of the directors, responsible for operations. He makes a personal check each run so that not only does he know the time that should take but also where the vehicle should be at hr given moment during a particular journey.
The times are based on fair average.speeds and it is tf habit of this particular director occasionally to check drive and -their times by paying a visit to some point an if road. at or about the time when the vehicle should 1 passing that way. Any substantial variation noted is mac the subject of an immediate inquiry and any action deeme to be necessary takes place at once,
Each, driver is responsible for keeping his vehicle clea and there are no half-measuies about the. requirements that respect. Not only the body and exterior are cxPectt to be kept clean, but also the underneath parts and eve] part of the chassis. That this is no sinecure will be appr dated. when I state that for the major part of its time tl vehicle may be carrying tarred road-making material, ar each winter a large tonnage of sugar-beet is carted.
To put the scheme into effect the services of the drive 2 requisitioned; they serve as checkers. There is a rota, d each week two drivers take their turn to examine all vehicles. They are provided with an analysis sheet pable of accommodating the marks for the whole of the • SL Marks are awarded as follows: front wheels, 1; cab aside), 2; cab (inside), 2;engine, 4; battery, front axle d body, 1 mark each; the chassis. 3; gearbox, 2; rear axle, rear wheels, 2. A total of 20 marks for a perfectly an vehicle.
A study of the marking system confirms the fairness of allocation. Obviously the most difficult part to clean roughly is the engine, and for this the greatest number -_-marks is awarded. Clearly the chassis frame is the it most difficult, and for that three marks are awarded.
e gearbox is more accessible than the rear axle, so that gets two marks and the rear axle only one.
The two drivers whose duty it is to check this feature round the fleet. with their analysissheet. and award Lrks according to their view of the, efficiency With which work has been carried out. A certain amount: of latitude allowed as to the day on which the .vehiele 'mist be aned. If for some reasona driver cannot do it at, 'weekend he is allowed until Wednesday of the following ekto carry out that work-. The payment for a thoroughly ' an chassis, that is one which has earned 20 "rharks,.. is ` . per week, so -that, already, we have arrived at the ;akin when a driver can earn Li 10s. per week bdnus, [his second bonus ir not paid in cash but is held up .il the end of the year If the number of marks awarded no .more than 15 out of the 20, not only does he not ewe a bonus but the is fined out of his total bonus other
.
ie gained throughout the year Actually it is rarely.
t the percentage of marks awarded for cleanliness is ; than 90. Usually, in any one week so far experienced lowest percentage-was ,93 and, quite often it is 100.
Jo one can deny, that -this ,is a good way di awarding )onus likely to pay dividends in. respect of. efficiency of :ration. It has often been urged in the 'columns of this rna_l that the first step_ towards efficient maintenance of mechanism of a chassis is that it should be regularly aned. The mere operation • of cleaning often enough utoses incipient faults---the slackening of a nut or the ying of a wire—which might otherwise pass unnoticed
I develop into a serious defect. .
[he getteral effect of-this scheme has been to raise to .a h standard the degree of cleanliness of these vehicles. On
occasion I made an examination of them as they came o the garage in the evening and 1 may say that rarely eed have I seen chassis parts so clean and void of the tat incrustation of dust and dirt which so often covers it of the engine, gearbox, rear axle and other exposed Is of vehicles. The process of education up to this high ndard, I was told at the time, was somewhat slow, but I.e. the appr6priate standard was reached, it became 'pernent and required only a minimum of effort.
here is one more point to which I should give attention !ore terminating this part of my subject. In order to went the victimization, or perhaps. retaliation is the more 3ropriate word, by a disgruntled driver, of one or both
of the two drivers responsible for examining his vehicle on a week, when the percentage of marks awarded was abnormally low, the results of the examination for cleanliness and the award of bonus marks are not disclosed until some eight weeks or so have passed, . by which time the identity of the checkers responsible has been lost.
Now I come to the third part of the bonus—the longterm assessment and the averaging of the marks awarded in connection with the first part of the scheme. The peculiar advantage of this is that it penalizes drivers who are apt to take a day or two off now and again -when they think they will. The period over which this check is-made is eight wbeks-48 working days.
The log sheets are put together and re-read with their. markings of good, fair and poor. This time, however, " gool:V' reports are awarded one rhark; "fair" receives only .orte half;, and "poor" none.
• The total number of marks assessed on this basis relates to 48 Working days, so that a man who has had " good " for every daY of the 48 and was not absent on any of these days would obtain the maximum of 100 per cent., which is 48 marks. His total, however, may be diminished because on some days he obtained only one mark and on others nil.
Suppose a man was absent through reasonable cause, such as sickness, or having had permission from his employer to be absent, he might have worked only 40 days. If he had obtained 40 marks he would still be 100 per cent
because the 40 marks would be put on a basis of 40 days, VMS.. -giving him a fair chance against the employee who Wad had no reason to be away from his Work.
1f; however, he had' been absent eight days without permission, then his '40 marks—assumin-g that he obtained a_mark per day for each of the days he did work—are calculated an a basis of 48 days, so that his percentage, Instead of being 100 as In the other two cases, is calculated as 40 over 48, which is 83-i per cent., That is the way in which this part of the bonus scheme takes account of regularity of attendance at work. For this the award is 10s. per week for each of the eight weeks for 100 marks gained.
There is, however, an addition to -the amount made up as follows—half the fines levied on drivers who have riot properly cleaned their vehicles is put into a fund. This is made up to £10 by 'the employers Ind to that amount is added half the fines levied on the drivers for being late. This additional sum is distributed to the first six men in order of bonus earned on the eight weeks average scheme. Half the total sum is divided between the first two of the six; a third of the total sum is divided among the third and fourth, and the balance, one-sixth of the total, is paid to the fifth and sixth men.
Most of the traffic is carried in tippers. Some of it, however, such as sugar-beet and ashes, has to be manually loaded and unloaded. Drivers who handlc. this traffic are paid a bonus of is.' per load. •
At the end of the year, the company pay a further contribution into the betnus fund of 5s. per -man per week—£13 per annum—and this is divided among the participants 'in Proportion to their total figures for bonus; if a man's total was 90 per cent, of the maximum he is given an extra 90 per cent. of the £13 in addition to that he had already earned. Finally,at the end of the first year's working, each drrver is given a Christmas box amounting to 110. S.T.R. (To be continued)