The bonus disconnect (if I could fly)

Outside of the standard posted bonuses anyone can accept, sometimes I try to ask certain MSCs for higher bonuses.

I work about 20 miles north of my home. The majority of the shops I take on are based on the proximity to my job, not my home. It is more inconvenient for me to shop clients near my home.

When bonuses are available, most MSCs look at the travel distance from my home address when considering the maximum they will consider. This of course benefits me in cases for opportunities closer to my job.

At the same time, it frustrates me when a MSC refuses to accommodate the same bonus (for the same client) just because they are near my home address.

This disconnect also happens related to the MSCs looking at distance based on a straight line versus actual route of travel. Because of the Potomac River, many client locations in Northern VA are less than 10 miles from my home in Maryland, if I could fly. Traffic wise they are a nightmare to travel to. I used to try explaining this to schedulers. I have given up on that.

My posts are solely based on my opinions and for my entertainment, contact a professional if you need real advice.

When you get in debt you become a slave. - Andrew Jackson

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2019 11:55PM by isaiah58.

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Yes.

I get tired of it, too. Google says it's 48 miles -- but I've driven it, and it's 88 miles.

Pfui.

@isaiah58 I remember those days well when I lived in the DMV. A scheduler would call and ask me to do a shop and tell me it was only 20 miles away and it had to be done at 6 PM! I would then explain that your 20 miles on Google Maps could quite possibly be an hour and a half in my car! No thanks!

The bonus system is flawed. Broken, maybe...

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

I'm in California (obviously, lol), and I remember being very surprised when I went to visit a friend back east. He said the restaurant we were going to was in another state. Another state! I'm used to the West where another state was usually hundreds of miles away. I can see how someone not familiar with an area wouldn't know that a shop 20 miles away might take 90 minutes to get to. Can you ask the scheduler to put in driving directions from your house (or work) to the location to get a more realistic idea?

I remember a story someone told about a scheduler who told them on the phone that Arizona was right next to California, so it probably wasn't that far.

Shopper in California's Bay Area

I get the same thing with DE. I'm basically at the tippy bottom of NJ, which is 25 miles from the DE coast, which isn't bad, but you have to take a 70 minute ferry either way. I get calls all the time offering a bonus and they don't seem to get why I won't jump at it.

Shopping the South Jersey Shore

When I was doing a regular grocery store audit, the scheduler would ask me to pick up an additional shop in Maryland. That was no problem since I could get there by 9:30 am.

She once told me she was in a bind. She needed me to go to a DC store by a certain time. She said that Google Maps said I could make it there by 9:25 am.

Yeah, okay.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

I deal with this all the time, also. Living outside a city at the end of a peninsula on the lake, and they wonder why i won't go 5 miles to a store. Probably because its on the other side of the lake and a 45 minute drive each way! I hate the milage they show 'as the crow flies' instead of like google maps.

I have never seen a bonus around here for only 20 miles. Any shops in Los Angeles which is really 50 miles wide and 40-50 miles north to south is considered in my area. And like others have said, the time element in some places is much more important than the miles. And then if you add in the 10 minutes of driving to find a spot to park...who would ever consider that as work time? I remember clocking the miles in a parking garage once and it was a full half mile of driving to get to the top of the lot where I eventually found a spot...at 5 mph, I have at times driven up and down and then started up again in a parking garage before finding an empty spot. There is no flexibility in whatever formula they seem to use.

sandyf, I would ask for a bonus anytime I had to get on the 405.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

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The bonus disconnect (if I could fly)

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