Originally Posted by
Bluedriver
I think you have it nailed.
Most of the die hard DTZ at ***ALL*** costs are either protecting their own personal scam or are conflating the legitimate QOL benefits they have been feeling from the red/green grid rules with that of DTZ. Most of the "I swapped my whole line" and "I got Christmas off" comments can be done with the "swap" function of FLICA assuming the GRID IS GREEN. Never did they need to go to ZERO to do these heroic things...
My position on the other board was CLEAR. I'm fine with the starting position being "best of everything in the industry", including DTZ. But if and when trimming needs to happen in the package, there are countless things that need to be improved, most which the entire group would benefit from, and if to get those other things (profit sharing, rigs, top of industry pay, retirement improvements, healthcare improvements, PAID time off improvements, etc...) which benefit the entire list there needs to be some COMPROMISE on DTZ, then so be it.
And I'm not talking about compromise on red/green grid rules. That's a separate discussion and one I FULLY support keeping 100% in tact.
As Excargo said, a very small percentage ever use the FULL drop to ZERO. As in, line cleared to ZERO, so to have a modest compromise of DT40, or DT50, or even DT25, something, to get everything else we want which would benefit nearly everyone, at the expense of a very small percentage of people who ever go to full ZERO. That's reasonable. That's moderate. That's looking at the big picture and greater good. That's looking for a more equitable distribution of ***OUR COLLECTIVE*** negotiating capital.
The thing I think you’re missing about DTZ is the degree to which it primes the open time pump. If everybody were to rely on the swap function in Flica, what you have is a bunch of pilots waiting for something to drop in open time to swap with, which would rarely happen without DTZ. With DTZ, guys are much more willing/able to drop trips into open time, knowing that they will be able to rebuild their line easily in Daily Open Time (DOT) throughout the month. You should see our Initial Open Time (IOT) trading period. It’s worthless. Just a few trips leftover from PBS that nobody wanted. But the real action takes place after IOT when DOT starts. A cornucopia of trips, some good, some bad, some in between, find their way into DOT because of DTZ. Because guys KNOW that the pump will be primed and they aren’t nervously holding on to their uncommutable high credit 4 day because they’re worried something better won’t come along. Somewhere out there there’s a guy who lives in base who is nervously holding onto his lower credit commutable 4 day. Without DTZ these guys most likely will never end up having anything worthwhile to swap with. With DTZ they both confidently drop their unwanted trip into the DOT pot. It’s really hard to appreciate this without experiencing it firsthand. It’s not just the system, it’s the mentality that it creates.