The drivers at my work have either a route sheet/map combo or a list of service tickets that they fill out and sign after completing the task/s. If they run into a problem they are supposed to call the office over the radio to see if we can straighten things out while they’re there.
Seattle, having been built on a shoreline, is rather hilly and sometimes our radios aren’t up to the task. In situations like that, the driver is supposed to move on to his next stop and call us when he can get out on the radio. Sadly, this doesn’t always happen and one of my tasks is to read through all that crap and find the missing pieces so that the next day’s business can be sorted out when/if the customer calls in wondering why their pick up didn’t happen the day before.
If there is parking lot resurfacing going on, obviously the customer would know this and we’ll come back and get them as soon at we can without messing up their new asphalt. If there is something in the way of the box, usually a car, and the driver cannot call it in, they are supposed to write down what is blocking it (make model, license plate number, etc.). You get the picture.
When they don’t do this, I usually end up putting something about the driver not specifying what was blocking, but last night was different.
Last night was ‘Bigfoot Night’
There are currently a half dozen customers in the system that have notes in the that go something like this;
“Route driver reports box was blocked, possibly by Bigfoot.�
My name is connected to note in the system. The customer service reps know me and know not to read that to the customer unless absolutely necessary (like if the customer needs a calming down moment).
I’m sure to have an even more full than usual email box when I go into work tonight.
It is tactics like this that I use to get the driver managers get off their butts and remind the drivers that we need more information every time, all the time. Just asking never works.
Your driver training tactic won’t work.
I can see it now….(fades to a TV screen with the KOMO-TV4 logo)
TV Talking head: “We interrupt our normally scheduled programming to bring you this (shouted) BREAKING NEWS…(the Breaking News logo is displayed).
There have been SIX reports of Bigfoot sightings overnight in Seattle. Our source indicates that regularly scheduled Trashco dump box pickups were physically interrupted by Bigfoot…(screen cuts to old, faked movie footage of Bigfoot rambling through the woods)…(ANNOUNCER SCREAMS)…Oh, the humanity! We have just learned that top management in Trashco, tasked with verifying these sightings, has just confirmed ALL SIX! We’ll get a reaction from City Hall, Gov. Gregoire and FEMA shortly. Now back to “Six unhappy fat guys try to lose more weight than six neurotic fat women”.
You can imagine the rest yourself, AK. Always look a little farther down the track for the next train. It’s never the one in the yard already that will kill you, it’s that express you can’t even see yet, or so an old, retired brakeman told me once.
Heh. Betcha a nickel you get one witty driver who ripostes, “Well, now that you mention it… I DID see a Bigfoot. Had those big ol’ knobby tires and 3 lift kits on top of each other, parked right in front of the box!”
Kind of like the time I put “waylaid by vampires” in the notes of one of my service calls… My boss called me and asked me about it. Funny how he never calls me when I note that I’m having other difficulties… BTW: Red Cross was having a blood drive, so I gave ’till it hurt… 🙂
Heya RD, I can see that happening, especially in Seattle. As for the trains, I’ll be ok so long as the engineer doesn’t back up for another pass at me.
Heya Dave, if the truck ‘Bigfoot’ was blocking a box, I think that most of my drivers would get out for a look and that would pretty much be the end of the day for him, especially if the owner of it offered him a ride.
“Waylaid by Vampires� I’m stealing that!
See http://www.blackfive.net/main/2003/08/spicing_up_tech.html for more of this type of fun…