I told the guy who works on my lawn mowers I would be in today to pick my favorite mower up that he just got finished with. I was excited as it is not only my favorite most useful lawn mower and close to 25 years old and falling apart but he had supposedly rebuilt it and replaced all the broken parts. I was ready to see my new/old mower so even though this has been a busy week so far I got everything done so I would be free this morning.
Well I guess we actually got a rail delivery in from Mexico last night and by this morning I was getting all kinds of "on their way" delivery emails. Which of course included 1, count it ONE pre-ordered Maverick. Now I had planned on that event cause I just knew it had to happen on the one day I had something time sensitive to get done of course so I went in early to get it completed and then go pick up my mower. I was on the final line of data for this new Maverick when all of sudden the world literally blew up around me.
At this point look at the picture above. Notice those two black boxes on the top back of the cab on that raptor? Right at the end? Remember them.
So my cell phone is blowing up, I got service writers running through my parking lot in panic, the electric lines for an entire block are shaking like it's an earthquake or something but the ground is not moving and I didn't hear any tornado noise but this new delivery truck pulls up from our normal delivery company that has the contract except I notice right away has the wrong color carrier/trailer on the back.
I don't know if color coded trailers are industry standard or not but I do know the company we get most deliveries from use orange for long haul trucks and blue/grey ones for more local areas near their terminals. I use the colors to quickly identify trucks as being ones that are my immediate responsibility because any color other than orange is almost 100% guaranteed to not be my responsibility. My coworkers delight when I get interrupted by a delivery while doing something important so being able to tell that some green trailer is someone else's problem while they laugh at me is important ya know.
I drop what I am doing, answer my phone and find out that this new driver has pulled into the parking lot, contrary to contract directions, and drug the electric wires hanging across the drive way along the top row of vehicles he had loaded. Somehow every one lost power, the line started shaking and the power lines managed to remove the black boxes off the top all the f-150's on the top layer of his trailer. Happens to be we were getting the entire top layer.
Turns out those black boxes are the internet and geo-location antenna on the F-150's
Great another two hours of paperwork.
Eventually I find out that this is the first time this particular driver has ever been on the road delivering vehicles by himself. SO I showed him how to write the codes in for his notebook device and made sure I had pictures of the whole thing. He told me they are so short handed he wasn't given an option about taking on the job he was not trained for yet or anything and there were plenty of others in the same situation as him that were just recently fired. This following a mass lay off of most of the old drivers too.
My thoughts tell me we are going to see more issues from reason such as this going forward. The company may have saved a bit of money laying off experience employees but they lost a bit of that due to inexperience because of it. This new driver than drug the trailers airbags for probably 20 feet leaving the parking lot but luckily did not blow the bags out. Bet he will do that sometime soon too.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
I like reading about 'work' posts. Mr. Coffee is due to get a truck sometime fairly soon as we don't know how long his car is going to continue to hold out. We are looking/researching/pricing and pondering. I read with interest your posts since you are on the 'other side' of the sale.
ReplyDeleteMer - Thank you for your kind words. Until recently I never wrote much about work especially so in depth but it seems to be more important in some way now as financially vehicles are being used against people now more than I ever thought before. I have never had expensive tastes in vehicles myself so I do not understand how they can be so important to so many people that they are willing to ruin their financial lives for them. Despite what experts say these days I do feel prices are going to fall drastically soon but not because of or how so many people seem to think. I am sure you will find just what you need soon as far as vehicles go.
DeleteCare to share your thoughts on why you think prices will drop?
Deletesbrgirl - They are already dropping prices. It's just going to be much slower and much less than many people hope. I am already seeing vehicles with base features that have not actually been used since the scamdemic started like no keyless entry on some models.
DeleteIf business experts don't know how to manage their businesses it doesn't say much for the experts.
ReplyDeleteLeigh - Seems as time goes by all businesses are more willing to just let things slide or do really stupid things for minor gains that would not have been tolerated for long a few decades ago. I just don't understand it.
DeleteIt's like this everywhere. No matter which business, enterprise or government entity, the bottom is being scraped just to get bodies to fill positions. It's not even a matter of training or competence, as those that used to work the jobs are unavailable due to reasons.
ReplyDeleteThey may have got better jobs (or WFH jobs), they might have retired, they might have been vaccine-injured, or just burnt-out and realizing they don't need a high-pressure job to keep the bills paid, right down to a high-pressure fast-food job.
Many jobs have become so specialized that only a Unicorn-levels of applicant can fill it, but for most I've seen the people being hired don't have the basic skills nor the intellect to learn said skills over time.
I look at this as a good thing, as the people still keeping things together are disgusted more every day. It will only be the pain of remembering "how things used to work" and "when there was an abundance of cheap food" that will spark a backlash, if that is possible given the actions that have not taken place already.
MN - Good points you have there!! I suspect you are 100% correct although I will add that it has been my experience that OT vehicle carrier drivers commonly work alone for a reason as they seem to have the personalities that flock that way. Of course I get along with most of those types better than others.
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