If I remember correctly, BS even stated that more frequent AEs would work better, but they continue with the larger/infrequent bids because it saves them a few pennies. It's really our own fault for not having better contract language...at a previous job, you knew before you even bid what month you'd train and what month you'd hit the line. Award on month one, train on month two and hit the line on month three. This part of our AE language and nearly all of our initial training language is really pretty terrible.