Operating in this environment: It’s hard
Thankfully, we are still operating.
But… wow. It is hard to make good long term decisions right now – some days it is impossible. Each morning is a new challenge – it is not abnormal to have very significant changes last second. We pride ourselves in excellent operations and it is very difficult to be excellent when we can’t pivot like normal. Why can’t we pivot? One example: Due to COVID we are trying really hard not to change crews – so that if someone is infected it minimizes the fall out. But that means that one driver, or one foreman can easily stop an entire crew’s work. Additionally, if one person has a cough (generally not a big deal at all) we stop that person from coming to work as a precaution (and we pay them). All of this is killing our productivity. How do you measure success in this environment?
Perhaps success is just keeping the doors open. We are tremendously blessed.