tlady Posted June 18, 2008 Report Share Posted June 18, 2008 ^I would have thought doors and windows and large objects would be the exception rather than the rule, and the majority of the time a small van would be adequate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Posted June 18, 2008 Report Share Posted June 18, 2008 Efficiency is a hard thing to deal with. What would be the optimum ratio of van sizes? How would you distribute and control the vans to make sure the use was optimum? How would you allow for vans being out of action or in the wrong part of the county? Do you end up needing more men to make best use of the van setup? Most working systems that have evolved over time are actually fairly efficient. There may be ways of improving them, but each improvement tends to bring it's own costs in terms of effort or complexity. If the optimum van system replaces 50 transits with 44 small vans and 10 transists, and a full time van controller, to save £500 a year..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medziotojas Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 This government (as is the case with most) tends to kick downwards, and the SIC is quite happy to follow suit! People who actually provide vital services often get the sharp end of the stick. Maybe some kind of carpool scheme could be organised where councillors must uitilize county vans (wherever possible) in an effort to cut down on taxi expenses from the public purse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 A setup with county men driving the councilors?Or a setup where work would have to wait until the councilor brought the van back?Or a setup with more vans than at the moment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medziotojas Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Yes , I was being facetious. but not about the government kicking downwards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlady Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Efficiency is a hard thing to deal with. How would you distribute and control the vans to make sure the use was optimum? and a full time van controller, to save £500 a year.. I would have thought that would be the job of the Clerk of works who is supposed to oversee the job from the outset.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moorit Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 ^I would have thought doors and windows and large objects would be the exception rather than the rule, and the majority of the time a small van would be adequate? ^^ This must be a wind up. Different vans to carry big stuff and small stuff. I don't think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shetlander Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Obviously services could not function if none of them were there, but I'm not sure that front line workers should be any more exempt from reviews in staffing levels than those employed elsewhere in the Council. It seems to me that the perception that they are the good guys and that many office staff are overpaid, pen pushing bureucrats administering unpopular regulatory functions is the only justification some folk have in forming their views on where the axe should fall. Schools in Shetland have a large staffing compliment per pupil compared to those in to Orkney and the Western Isles for example. Whilst I'm sure they all do a great job, the question has to be asked if they are all necessary, particularly in light of dwindling school rolls. Absolutely, look at culling numbers where possible but do so across the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Styumpie Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 I'd hate to say that I support any part of the council, but most of their 'yellow van' workmen do a good job. Especially those who are on call for emergencies 24/7. And I'm sure that there are many council tennants here who have been delighted by 'yellow van man' turning out for duty at odd hours, (albeit, most likely on double time), to sort some emergency. I agree, the workers at the end of the line providing the service often get the lowest wages, coontie joiners/plumbers get a poor wage. Most of the money gets ploughed into high paid people sitting in offices shifting around unnecessary piles of paper. I talked to a coontie employee a year or so ago, part of his job was to log each individual black essy bag that the building produced, he had to log them into a file system, then the file periodically had to be sent to the coontie offices to be analysed, I presume there were a squad of highly paid people employed to process the data into some form of usable statistics, what did these statistics aim to achieve? Now why should I have to pay money out of my hard earned living in council tax for this nonsense? This sort of thing seems to be rife in the SIC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepshagger Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 It certainly seems that someone at the SIC is sitting on his/her ass somewhere going here's a rule now lets employ someone to enforce it someone else to ensure that it is enforced properly someone else to make sure it does not conflict with any other rules and someone else to figure out how to spend more money if it does. and all getting an island allowance on top of an already over inflated wage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muckleflugga Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 But thats what I meant muckleflugga I could only think of 3 trades that would be needed ... joiner, plumber and sparkie. And if it has to be just for one guy, why does it have to be a transit van? well plumber, sparkie, joiner, mason, painter, general foreman, labourer and slater, there's a quick 7 straight away, and as for transit van that's a laugh, I think you'll find Building buy the cheapest of the cheap. The citroen relay I used to have sure wasn't built for comfort. I'm sure the difference in cost of a Relay and a Dispatch is fairly minimal so why not buy a van that joiners can carry sheets of plasterboard, sparkies lengths of trunking and conduit, plumbers can get a water tank in and in my days the painters mostly had wee vans to try carry ladders on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Just move everyone to Lerwick, council wouldn't needs vans, ferries or roads. Now that would be a serious saving Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohanofNess Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 ^I would have thought doors and windows and large objects would be the exception rather than the rule, and the majority of the time a small van would be adequate? It's not just the materials that need a bigger van. Stihl saws, generators, compressors, tool boxes all have to be in our vans before any of the materials to do the work are loaded. You have a small van then the van is already full with all the small plant. At what point would you issue the van to the squad, they'd all have to travel to the depot, decide on the work that needs to be done and who could get away with the smallest van to do it. And the difference in cost between a transit and a transit connect is not as much as you think, sometimes it makes no financial sense buying a bunch of smaller vans. I do see your point but there are good reasons why a larger van makes more sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trout Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Big van .. big van ..yeah big van ... peerie van, peerie van .. mootie ting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlady Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 ^^ Take mair water wee it troot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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