The telephone rang in Paul's office shattering his mid-afternoon reverie. The voice at the other end of the line sounded distant, as indeed it proved to be. One of his drivers had unexpectedly run out of fuel in a faraway corner of the country and needed Paul's authorization to fill up at the local petrol station. Grudgingly this was given but, his afternoon routine broken, Paul started thinking.
How irresponsible of the driver to run out of fuel! Surely there must be some sort of checks performed prior to a journey to prevent this sort of thing - and to stop him having all this extra work. He pulled a piece of paper towards him and started doodling.
The next day he called the drivers together and explained his new safety policy to them.
"There has been a serious incident with regards to vehicle preparation leading to emergency refueling plans. These are costly and should not be necessary with the proper pre-task checks. From today therefore, I am introducing the 'Fit To Be Driven' form that each of you will need to fill in prior to each journey. It ensures that you have checked the fuel gauge and are prepared to certify that there is sufficient fuel for the forthcoming journey."
"But Paul!" cried the drivers, who had all heard of the previous day's incident and also knew that it had occurred because of an unexpected and particularly long tailback, "This is just extra paperwork duplicating what we already do. Of course we ensure that our vehicles are fit to go before we start out. It's a part of being professionals."
"It didn't stop yesterday's fiasco," countered Paul, pleased that he seemed to have the upper hand in a discussion for once.
"That was an anomaly. An unusual, unpredictable occurrence. No form on earth will legislate against that. If you made cars instead of hiring them out, you wouldn't start making them without windscreen wipers just because it hadn't rained for a day; or start fitting snow chains on them all after a single night's snowfall, would you?"
"And another thing," they continued. "We're busy enough as it is. This form will just slow us down even more. I suppose you're even going to employ someone to monitor these forms as well?"
"Er, well - yes," said Paul, somewhat taken aback by the responses and this insight. "But we need something to stop these problems occurring again," he insisted, half-pleading. "The form is crucial."
"No it isn't," they replied. "Don't you remember that a while ago we introduced a system whereby only certified drivers could check and release a vehicle for a tasking - no longer the car-washers and others who used to help out? It was precisely to ensure better safety that we did this. This new form adds nothing to that system. It's simply duplication."
"As well as increasing safety, it also lends greater clarity and accountability to vehicle movements on a case by case basis," retorted Paul.
“That’s what this is all really about, isn’t it?” the drivers shot back. “The ability to apportion blame and the lack of confidence in us as professionals based on an isolated, unpredictable case. The buck stops – where precisely? Oh yes: anywhere but with you.”
Paul was nonplussed. Didn't they see that this was for their own benefit as much as his?
But the drivers stalked off, mourning their fate of being managed by people like Paul.
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