You're measuring the wrong thing

[wolfie]

Last week I hauled a high-value load, and the shipper had a form I needed to sign off on. One item was that I had at least 3/4 tank of fuel (I did), presumably so that I wouldn't need to make a fuel stop before my destination.

Of course, 3/4 tank of fuel is pretty much meaningless - day cabs can have a capacity as low as 100 gallons, while it's common for a highway tractor to have 300 gallons. Couple this with the ability to gain or lose up to a third in fuel economy simply by replacing the nut that holds the steering wheel, and you can have a truck rejected for only being half full while still having more available range than another truck with full tanks (and which is accepted).

When you go for outliers, it becomes even more extreme - some CNG trucks have a capacity equivalent to 80 gallons of diesel, while one guy I read about in the trade press a few years back, and who makes his own biodiesel at home, has 600 gallons of tank capacity.

Why would they be adamant about percentage of fuel, but when I told them that I had enough fuel for roughly 1000 miles they said that was irrelevant?

[Deserted]

Bureaucrats, that's why.

I would guess that this started in one of three ways:
1) Company starts with a fleet of trucks that are all the same make-and-model. For that truck, 3/4 tank is what it takes to do their normal jobs.
2) Somebody reported that 3/4 tank was necessary for [something irrelevant]. That info made its way to the paper pushers and became the law of the land.
3) "Because I said so, dammit!"

[dalesys]

In Re Title: That's what he said...

[mhkohne]

Having procedures that no one knows the 'why' of is a time-honored tradition in business. It's reinforced by the fact that if you DO change the procedure and find out (the hard way) why it was done, you get stomped on.

Same applies to old software - if no one knows why it's the way it is, they leave it alone for fear of breaking things.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Actual procedures from a fast food joint I worked at in highschool :
1. Wash tomatoes
2. Use small scoop to remove green piece of stem
3. Slice tomatoes
4. Discard all slices with holes in them from scoop

I asked why we could t just slice the tomatoes and throw out the end slices with the stem in, instead of using an extra step and an extra tool - because you'll get a bad evaluation for not following procedure.
Okaaaaay then.

[An Haddock]

Actual procedures from a fast food joint I worked at in highschool :
1. Wash tomatoes...

It's sort of that same mentality that people have about some "traditions". Like one of my favorite stories:

Newly married woman is preparing her first big Thanksgiving dinner. She suddenly panics because she realizes she doesn't have a dish pan to cover the turkey. (one of those big plastic things you soak dishes in, also used as storage boxes, etc.)

The woman freaks because any store that has a dish pan is closed on Thanksgiving and OH NOES WHAT WILL WE DO?

Her mother says "What's the big deal? We'll get dinner finished and have a nice Thanksgiving together!"

She says "But mom! You ALWAYS put a dishpan over the turkey before you put it in the oven! I HAVE to do it the same way!"

Mom says "But dear.... we had cats."

(mom used the dish pan to cover the turkey so the cats wouldn't try to eat it)

[wolfie]

Traditions such as cutting the end off the roast before putting it in the oven (because oven was too small for a full roast), or putting cotton in the screen door (to plug holes where the screen was broken).

Too many places have "monkey" policies. Get a group of monkeys in a cage. There's a ladder with a banana at the top. Monkey climbs the ladder, researchers spray all the monkeys with water. Other monkeys beat up the one that climbed the ladder.

Remove one of the original monkeys and put in a new one. New addition climbs the ladder, researchers spray the crowd. Again, the climber gets beaten up.

Remove another original monkey and put in a new one. Situation repeats. When monkeys immediately gang up on guy climbing the ladder, stop the spraying.

Keep going. Eventually you have a group of monkeys who have never been sprayed, but who will beat up on a newcomer who climbs the ladder to get to the banana. After all, that's the way things happen around here.

[siskaren]

She says "But mom! You ALWAYS put a dishpan over the turkey before you put it in the oven! I HAVE to do it the same way!"

Wouldn't a plastic dishpan have melted in the oven? But even if it didn't, why put it over the turkey before putting in the oven if the reason for it was to keep the cats from eating the turkey?

[Nunavut Pants]

This is how things become policy:

http://ogun.stanford.edu/~bnayfeh/plan.html

[An Haddock]

Wouldn't a plastic dishpan have melted in the oven? But even if it didn't, why put it over the turkey before putting in the oven if the reason for it was to keep the cats from eating the turkey?

My impression was that they had the turkey defrosting on the counter and they covered it until it was thawed.

[Kristev]

But they're depriving their poor little cats!

[Seanette]

I'm sure the kitties are getting paid appropriate meat tax tribute once the turkey is cooked and served.