P&D and Customers(rants and funny stories).

Worse.

I was in NC. Hit a road that was the last of my directions. I knew I was close but stopped at a firehall.

They say: Baptist church on left turn left there.

I get down there there are three Baptists Churches, two on left with two possible left roads.

Hmmm.

Another.

Eastern Shore. Im trying to get to Lewes. Lowes delivery. Reach a fork in the road above US50. Two lane little roads since before we were America covered in some sort of 30's work program from the Roosevelt Era.

HMMMMM>.....

Local came up. YA lost?

Er... trying to get to Lewes.

Ach, go that way *Waves vaguely towards the rising sun.

HUMMM>>..

Ennie miney minne moe I go this road.

What a trip. I bet it's still there to this day.

 

Showed up at a construction site once in the late afternoon with a single pallet of some lightweight plastic pieces that only weighed 200 lbs. total.
Walked up to the superintendent and told him about it. He replied "It's a little late in the day for me to unload any deliveries. I don't really have the equipment now". I looked around and saw a forklift and a telehandler parked nearby. I replied "that's ok, I can break it down and unload it by hand, it will only take a few minutes. Just sign here, and tell me where you want me to leave it." "No", he said. "If you do that it will mess up my parking lot paint." I could tell right then that the guy just didn't want to deal with the stuff that was being brought to him, so I just politely said, "that's fine, we can do a re-delivery tomorrow". I told my dispatcher and they charged $250 for the re-delivery fee plus a construction site accessorial. I guess the guy called the office later and complained about the fee. Maybe next time a driver shows up with his freight, he will be a little more interested in getting it...

 

One fine Monday morning after it had been snowing all through the weekend, I had to do an inside delivery for a store with an alley back entrance. I was fairly new to the route and had never visited this customer before. I pulled into the back alley and saw a large parking lot behind the store that looked like a cut through from the next street over. I thought it would work out well if I used the parking lot to swing out and straight line back the trailer up to the double doors for easy unloading.
After I parked the truck, I got out and realized that I had ran over a couple of parking blocks that were buried in snow... It turns out that the owner of the lot did not want people cutting through from the alley.
As this dawned on me, I looked up and saw a man in the parking lot giving me the evil eye. I went about my business, finished the delivery, and thought it would be a good idea to take a few pictures, and call it in to the boss. I just wanted them to know what happened, and that it was a minor issue, but the guy might call and complain.
As I was pulling out, I got stuck(go figure), and was spinning out for awhile trying to get my trailer over the blocks.
When I finally got free, I wanted to get the hell out, and struck some low hanging branches on my way...
About an hour later, my boss called me, and said that the guy called and complained that as I was leaving I took out his internet cable for his office... He was pretty pissed! I didn't get in trouble for the incident because of my honesty. My company doesn't typically hold city drivers at fault for hitting low hanging wires in alleys etc.
Later I found out that the guy who called in claimed that he warned me not to drive through his lot...
The a-hole deserved to lose his internet just for being a liar...

 

I must be lucky to have a good office staff, because the rare COD deliveries I've done have been notified beforehand to avoid the fiasco of waiting.

 

There is a tiny place in Mt Holly Springs PA in the land of milk, apples, and honey. Close to the Dutch Country.

A very long time ago one of my first loading assignments to go there and load a empty reefer full of Snapple drink.. (WTF is a snapple?) Anyway I get there. Nice little tidy warehouse plenty for docking.

Show up at the window. Bright, early 7 am alls well with the world.

MORNING! Imahere for your snapple whatever the hell it is.

Silence....

Sir did you not understand

Yes, you are stupid. Do you understand that?

?

Comes around grabs me by the arm pulls me into the bay doors and stabs a angry finger skyward indicating the entire building full of pallets upon pallets 6 high and millions of snapple drinks.

Tosses me out with a bad word and wait *&^%.

It was evening before they loaded me. I had a great sleep in that bunk getting ready for that night run.

Fast forward many years later. SOmething like 2001 -2002 or so. Get dispatch orders. To the same place.

Oh no. Maybe the old firebrand is dead god rest his soul. I back in to their dock, walk in present papers.

"YOU!"

I thought he passed on by now.... Lucky for him it was my very last revenue run to the south with it and I knew about it because College was to start in a few weeks for me. Either way I was finished with them.

its been 18 years or so since then. I wonder if he will outlive us all...

 

Medicines are coming on again. Not a good day today.

I'll leave you with this thought a happy day of loading.... (I'll explain.)

Dispatch smiles at me and says you go to this place called Cristfield (Spelling?) And load up for the ship tonight you have to have this box on that ship. Check that reefer fuel etc (Container reefer)

Show up at the Baltimore seagirt grab chassis, they plopped a empty Hamburg Box on me (Interesting...) checked the reefer fuel, find the power cord completely cut. To the corner fix it man who is actually good at this work. Wait 40 minutes all fixed. Inspection and out before 8 am.. imagine that.

Cross the US50 bay bridge soaking in the Tidewater. Found this little Crisfield place by the water. Mawning where you want this?

oh, leave it. We'll get it rights soon.

Turned out to be a bay crab processing place. Blue Crab to be particular and many reds. Mounds of them. Makes me wonder all they had to do is make one snip and all of them back in the water...

So I sit. And sit. And sit. Little After lunch I sit some more.

I go in to check on the people about maybe loading, ship is leaving that night.

I hear singing. Spirituals.

They are working on it. A crab at a time. Fast. They asked if I was ok, I said sure sitting on the dock of the bay....

that offhand line was enough to get the room going again all over again.

Its safe to say I forgot about the time problem. It was loaded. Eventually. What a happy place that was.

If I went to many places that were tough in my lifetime and they all got that happy, all of them would be drug tested instantly. But on the eastern shore Im pretty sure they are still processing crabs and singing even today.

 

I had a residential delivery once in a small town when I was new to P&D. It was a couple pieces of office furniture that were fairly heavy. I called ahead and arranged for the customer to meet me at his house. When I arrived, I parked out front on the street. A nice couple in their mid to late 50's came out and asked me if I could pull through the alleyway behind their house and the guy would help me with the unloading. There had been a decent snowstorm recently and needless to say the alley was not plowed. I walked around back and looked it over, but I must have had more faith than I should have in the ability of a single screw with a light trailer to navigate through deep snow.
I got into the alley just fine, but I took out a low hanging cable to their neighbors house going through. I was a little worried about it, but it turned out that the customers were also the landlords, and it was an old disused t.v. cable, so they were really cool about it....The guy helped me to unload, but then I got stuck in the deep snow as I was trying to pull out. He brought his shovel out and I tried chaining up, but it's a little tough to do from a complete spin out. Finally, he went and got a big tow strap and his newer Dodge 4X4, and we hooked to the ICC bumper on the trailer. He was able to pull me out to the street with no problem. They were really helpful people and felt bad for asking me to get into the mess that happened. Once I was free and clear, the guy wanted to take a pic of his pickup hooked up to the trailer, so he could show it to his Ford, and Chevy loving friends. He got the bragging rights on that one!
It turns out they also owned a local burger joint in town, and they invited me for a burger and fries. If I hadn't been running so far behind, I would have liked to take them up on the offer, but down the road I went.
It sure is nice to deal with good ol' down home friendly folks, rare, but nice!

 

That's SOP for us Purple People. If a COD goes out without being absolutely resolved, there's gonna be a rash of butt-kickings. (We might be weird in your eyes, but we are doing a few things right...! )