Broke Down 69...The Adventure Continues

I can see you cats are your usual comic selves. Sorry for the absence, I've been working some extended hours trying to prove a point.

Started out like this. I was being regaled by one of the office drones with tales of how drivers would never believe how hard they worked in the office. Mind you, I was being told this while the individual in question was standing in front of my desk drinking coffee and generally being almost as useful as a burnt out light bulb. Fast forward to lunch time, where everyone except me disappeared for over two hours and of course thats when the feces hit the oscillating cooling device. One of our primary customers loads had not been covered and they called, rather irate, that they had a load that had to go that was refusing to get up and deliver itself. Now this load wasn't on my board but obviously I had to do something since I was the lone soldier in the fort. I must point out at this juncture that diplomacy, while not completely unknown to me, ain't my strong suit. However, in this case I put on my best diplomatic efforts and assured the customer all would be made right in one big, hairy hurry...of course I had no freaking idea how I was going to pull that move off, but I bought myself a little room to maneuver. About now, a benevolent God intervened in the form of a driver, supposed to be off for two more days, showing up to say he was ready to go out if we had anything. Hallelujah and Amen. Brother do I. So off he goes and my stress level drops for a minute until I start wondering who dropped the ball. Did a little digging to find out it was the previously mentioned drone. Finally everyone shows back up from lunch and I let the boss know what had happened and what I had done to make it right and then things went really nuts. Drone accuses me of trying to undermine them and then told me I was just a driver and had no business stinking up the office spaces. Diplomacy and injury completely forgotten, I get up from behind my desk to show this snotwad the error of their ways...it was going to get bloody. Then the boss's phone goes off as he's positioning himself between drone and death. Primary customer on the pipe. Wants to know who the new dispatcher is. Says he's the only one he's dealt with there that got results. Asked for me to be assigned to his account. Now we're on speakerphone and the drone is looking surprisingly like the guest of honor at a lynching. I thanked the man for his kind words, explained I was just a driver recovering from an injury and would be returning to the road roughly 3 minutes after the doctor said I could. Little more talk between owner and customer and the call ended...as did the drones employment with us. Boss calls me in, closes the door, sings my praises and asked if I had any ideas to streamline the dispatch side. One or two I said and proceeded to elaborate for an hour and a half. At the end of it all he told me to work out the fine details and let him see the whole plan.

So, for the last few days I've been doing 16 hour days going over the way we book, schedule and Bill loads and I gotta say I can't believe we are still in business. Total chaos. A Charlie Foxtrot of the highest order...and little old me, with a week in the office with a mandate to fix it all. After this, I take on hunger and peace in the Middle East. Stay tuned.

More later...

 

Screw that. I just want things to move. Drivers with loads on them don't have time to complain...or much reason to.