During the Manager meeting in February, we looked at a graph that showed how our 2014 audits compared to the hours worked. What we saw is that as the hours increased, the audits decreased, specifically during those peak season months. We also saw a correlation between hours worked and accidents, with more accidents occurring when our hours and overtime increased simply due to increased exposure.
 
As an analogy, consider oil changes. The frequency of the oil changes should change based on the amount of miles driven in a time period, and not just be based on the time period. If you drove 3000 miles in the first half of the year and you drove 9000 in the second half, you would get more oil changes in the second half, obviously. Let’s say that today you’re auditing each crew every 7 days during a 40-hour work week. How much more frequent should your audits be during foliar season when your crews are working anywhere between 60-80 hour weeks?
 
Simply put, our audits need to more closely match our exposure. Last year on our Supervisor call we identified several hurdles that kept us from auditing at a rate comparable to the exposure. Those hurdles were: Distance between crews, CDL needs, employees quitting and equipment repairs. Knowing that foliar season is here/quickly approaching, please try to make all accommodations necessary to avoid any preventable hurdles.