Yesterday’s running sheet is more honest than last month’s summary

A monthly utilisation figure can be true and still useless at 05:15. It will not tell a relief supervisor whether fleet 2418 actually left, sat as spare, or spent the afternoon on the washer.

When we visit a depot we ask for seven days of running sheets as they were filed, not a cleaned export. Crossed-out duties are often the only record that a school duplicate was covered by a borrowed coach. If you tidy the sheets for our benefit, the board will look calm and the night shift will not trust it.

Utilisation, for the briefing, is a set of yesterday’s verbs: ran, sat, VOR, waiting on parts. A percentage for the period can wait for the finance meeting. The wall has to survive a Monday when three drivers are late and the inspection bus is still over the pit.