Hiya peeps,
Believe the Telewest service techs meetings today are around changes to their working practise, shifts etc. Welcome to the big 5 hahaha.
Contracting out service techs has undoubtedly been looked at, and i wouldn't rule it out.
Rates (aug 05) paid to local contract co were just over £21 per hour. This is the contract company, not the tech. Typical day (7.5 hours) will see between 10 and 12 jobs completed. @11 jptpd this equates to just over £15 per truck and doesn't require the cable co to pay sickness, holiday, pension etc etc.
Of course the bean counters do not factor in the cost of maintaining the network that they are letting all and sundry play with. Here up north the lack of a disconnect policy, the removal of the role of jumper tech, the lack of quality inspections etc means that, if things continue as they are at present, the network will need knocking down and building again.
I dont blame contractors for doing what they can get away with, but the idiot who decided that contractors are the way forward needs his head looking at.
If you think Im exaggerating about the state of the network take a look at these piccies - see if you can guess which ones were taken before contractors were let loose
