During our recent employee meetings, I shared how this year, operations will focus on protecting the cycle and increasing capacity. I think it’s a message that bears repeating as we look for any opportunity to improve our productivity and take care of the customer. Every time we bump a dock or answer a call, we should be asking for more freight. Doing so will allow us to add daily swaps.

Along with this, operations will focus on improving our inbound closedown while working to improve density, with our drivers input. 

In case you missed it in the video, our stated goal this year is to deliver, on average, 90 percent of our freight by 2 p.m. If we can do this, we’ll be able to get the majority of our drivers down for lunch by 2:30 p.m. When lunches are done by this time, we’ll improve our appointment on-time percentage. Then, we’ll be on the front side of the pick-up window. This will give us the opportunity to ask for another shipment at each stop.

Improving our cycle in the city will help us have the majority of our shipments back by 1800 hours, or 6 p.m., so that they can be loaded damage-free and with an on-time departure to the breaks.

It’s no mystery. In order to be on time to our customers, we must be on time within our own network.

From a productivity standpoint, we need everyone to help control costs — even as we look to grow in both our existing markets and in new ones. Improving cost is not about running wide-open, it is about what we can do to work as a team to reduce steps and work more efficiently - together. Most of us underestimate how some of the small things make a big difference.

For instance, how about the maintenance employee that gets a truck fixed properly and timely for operations to be able to use it? Or, the dock employee that correctly loads and scans freight to the right loading zone of a trailer? How about the city driver that communicates with dispatch and utilizes his tools to run the route in the most optimal way possible? Or, the line driver that works accident-free and makes it to destination timely? Everyone doing their part, every day, will make the difference.

In closing, this year is shaping up to be another landmark milestone in Saia’s history. Don’t forget to start every day by focusing on safety, working to take care of yourself and your fellow employees; providing quality service by taking care of our customers; and meeting our productivity goals, which will improve our profitability. 

Thank you for all your hard work. I sincerely appreciate it. Let’s keep the momentum going!