Saturday, January 31, 2009
Spending $6.25 to save $2.00
So WINZ and ARC staff are forbidden to use the new Northern Toll Road, unless of course they wish to pay for it out of their own post-tax incomes. (Which I'm guessing they probably don't).
Note that use of the toll road saves, on average, 10 minutes (each way) on a north-south journey in the Orewa/Waiwera area.
Some conservative assumptions suggest that these numbskull organizations are paying $6.25 in wages/salaries in order to save $2.
Given an average hourly rate of $25/employee and an average of 1.5 employees/vehicle, the "extra" 10 minute diversion costs $6.25 in wages. Each way.
So a return voyage in which using the toll road would save 20 minutes actually costs these organizations $12.50 in unnecessary labour costs, while saving them a mere $4 in tolls (and perhaps a little more in adminstration costs). So a net cost of about $8.50 then.
I'll not really consider the administration costs, as I'm not considering the extra fuel costs either. By cutting out 4km of driving - specifically over that break-neck hill around Waiwera, and through the interminable stop-start roads of Orewa - I'd wager the tunnel saves on average 0.5L/fuel per trip. Let's cost that at $0.75 ($1.50 for a return). And then there's the wear and tear, and depreciation of vehicles to consider too.
The break-even point (considering only 'lost' wages) is a single employee in the vehicle earning $12/hour (Calculation: $12*(1/6)=$2). In a curious coincidence, that's the minimum wage. And I don't think these organizations employ too many people at the minimum wage (despite the best intentions of, e.g., Rodney Hide).
It's one thing for private organizations to waste money and act like idiots, but WINZ and the ARC are funded by taxpayers and ratepayers respectively.
Smarten up, morons.
Note that use of the toll road saves, on average, 10 minutes (each way) on a north-south journey in the Orewa/Waiwera area.
Some conservative assumptions suggest that these numbskull organizations are paying $6.25 in wages/salaries in order to save $2.
Given an average hourly rate of $25/employee and an average of 1.5 employees/vehicle, the "extra" 10 minute diversion costs $6.25 in wages. Each way.
So a return voyage in which using the toll road would save 20 minutes actually costs these organizations $12.50 in unnecessary labour costs, while saving them a mere $4 in tolls (and perhaps a little more in adminstration costs). So a net cost of about $8.50 then.
I'll not really consider the administration costs, as I'm not considering the extra fuel costs either. By cutting out 4km of driving - specifically over that break-neck hill around Waiwera, and through the interminable stop-start roads of Orewa - I'd wager the tunnel saves on average 0.5L/fuel per trip. Let's cost that at $0.75 ($1.50 for a return). And then there's the wear and tear, and depreciation of vehicles to consider too.
The break-even point (considering only 'lost' wages) is a single employee in the vehicle earning $12/hour (Calculation: $12*(1/6)=$2). In a curious coincidence, that's the minimum wage. And I don't think these organizations employ too many people at the minimum wage (despite the best intentions of, e.g., Rodney Hide).
It's one thing for private organizations to waste money and act like idiots, but WINZ and the ARC are funded by taxpayers and ratepayers respectively.
Smarten up, morons.
Labels: $6.25, arc, auckland, money, motorways, northern toll road, winz
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Bank Wank
Fucken tell me about it.
My bank has really given me the shits in the last week. I got an unnarranged overdraft (thanks to some money going out for our electricity bill and then me buying a couple of things) a week or so ago and BANG, a $20 over-draft fee is taken out.
I nearly shat my pants, because when you get an overdraft of $38 or whatever it was I hardly think stealing $20 off somebody is justified. So I sent them an angry email and they explained my options (all shit) and then said that they would refund the $20 as some sort of commercial relationship thing or some thing or other. So I do suggest those whinges as they often get results. It's not the first time it's worked for me with these leaches.
Anyway, what really gives me the shits is that I can arrange to have overdrafts charged at a special rate like 0.12% of the amount the account is overdrawn but to do so I have to pay $2 a month for the privelege. So that's $24 annually plus however much on top of that. The other thing which really fucked me off was that in years gone by if there was no money in my account I couldn't get anything out. It would refuse the transaction. That can be a pain in the arse but it's not the end of the world. I have a credit card and can simply use it instead. They say they give you an overdraft to avoid the embarrassment of a declined transaction but I'm more embarrassed to get molested by the bank for $20 than to have to pull out my credit card or use my fast saver account instead of my cheque account. I mean for fucks sakes, don't tell me it's it hailing while pouring sheep droppings on my head.
But to go right back to the beginning, they caused the whole fucking problem in the first place. I get all the bills I can each month taken from my credit card automatically but received a letter from my electricity company saying that my bank was now going to charge a $3 a month service fee for using it so I thought, fuck that and so got them to take it automatically from my cheque account (no fee) and that's made it a shit load harder to know precisely how much money is in my cheque account at any one time (especially in winter). Mind you, with food, petrol, rates, electricity all climbing skyward by the week that's usually about ZERO dollars and ZERO cents so maybe I should know better.
These pricks though seriously need to get robbed more often. This year so far I have paid them $4,065 in interest on my mortgage, plus monthly account fees, overdraft interest, credit card interest, loading fees, overdraft fees, account service card fees and true rewards fees. That will end up at about $12,000 in effectively straight profit for them from me alone and yet they still find ways of ripping me off every chance they get. And I swear they collude with other companies. My insurance company refunded me $22. And despite me giving it to them through a direct debit (meaning they have my account details), they sent me a cheque in the mail. Of course that means I then lose processing fees and bank teller fees plus wasting my time going there. They could have simply deposited it in my account but they no doubt do a cost benefit analysis and work out that people are less likely to bother getting time off during the day and going to a bank and taking the fee hit and banking it so they end up with it sitting in their account earning interest or the customer loses the cheque or can't be fucked and never gets the money.
Seriously. Is there ANYBODY out there that is going to stop ripping us plebs the fuck off?!
My bank has really given me the shits in the last week. I got an unnarranged overdraft (thanks to some money going out for our electricity bill and then me buying a couple of things) a week or so ago and BANG, a $20 over-draft fee is taken out.
I nearly shat my pants, because when you get an overdraft of $38 or whatever it was I hardly think stealing $20 off somebody is justified. So I sent them an angry email and they explained my options (all shit) and then said that they would refund the $20 as some sort of commercial relationship thing or some thing or other. So I do suggest those whinges as they often get results. It's not the first time it's worked for me with these leaches.
Anyway, what really gives me the shits is that I can arrange to have overdrafts charged at a special rate like 0.12% of the amount the account is overdrawn but to do so I have to pay $2 a month for the privelege. So that's $24 annually plus however much on top of that. The other thing which really fucked me off was that in years gone by if there was no money in my account I couldn't get anything out. It would refuse the transaction. That can be a pain in the arse but it's not the end of the world. I have a credit card and can simply use it instead. They say they give you an overdraft to avoid the embarrassment of a declined transaction but I'm more embarrassed to get molested by the bank for $20 than to have to pull out my credit card or use my fast saver account instead of my cheque account. I mean for fucks sakes, don't tell me it's it hailing while pouring sheep droppings on my head.
But to go right back to the beginning, they caused the whole fucking problem in the first place. I get all the bills I can each month taken from my credit card automatically but received a letter from my electricity company saying that my bank was now going to charge a $3 a month service fee for using it so I thought, fuck that and so got them to take it automatically from my cheque account (no fee) and that's made it a shit load harder to know precisely how much money is in my cheque account at any one time (especially in winter). Mind you, with food, petrol, rates, electricity all climbing skyward by the week that's usually about ZERO dollars and ZERO cents so maybe I should know better.
These pricks though seriously need to get robbed more often. This year so far I have paid them $4,065 in interest on my mortgage, plus monthly account fees, overdraft interest, credit card interest, loading fees, overdraft fees, account service card fees and true rewards fees. That will end up at about $12,000 in effectively straight profit for them from me alone and yet they still find ways of ripping me off every chance they get. And I swear they collude with other companies. My insurance company refunded me $22. And despite me giving it to them through a direct debit (meaning they have my account details), they sent me a cheque in the mail. Of course that means I then lose processing fees and bank teller fees plus wasting my time going there. They could have simply deposited it in my account but they no doubt do a cost benefit analysis and work out that people are less likely to bother getting time off during the day and going to a bank and taking the fee hit and banking it so they end up with it sitting in their account earning interest or the customer loses the cheque or can't be fucked and never gets the money.
Seriously. Is there ANYBODY out there that is going to stop ripping us plebs the fuck off?!
Labels: arseholes, banks, money
