I'm on a horse.
May. 3rd, 2010 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreWhen we last left our hero (me), he was heading back into work after coming home when no one showed up to open the damn place.
Since I was going in during the heart of rush hour, it took a little longer than usual. Once I was finally at work, I did not clock in (they can my 0530 start time.. I was there, and their failure is not my problem) and walked into to find that my route had so little on it that it was being put off and I was originally tasked with covering East Bay.
At this point I should explain. Today we were already going to be short of drivers. The usual Local 1 driver is out with an injury, and the usual East Bay driver is having massive dental work done (much like mine of a few years back) so things were already going to be tight. We had four scheduled drivers and two of us could be reached after we left.
I looked at the EB route and remarked out loud that i had no clue about any of the stops. At which point one of the emergency cover drivers offered to trade Local 2 with me, as he's done East Bay recently and knows at least some of the stops. Local 2 is mostly San Jose, with some stops in west valley cities like Saratoga and Cupertino. I gratefully accepted the offer, and of seventeen stops, had been to four of them before and at least had a clue about another half dozen or so.
Just writing up my trip sheet took forever, since I had to use the Thomas Guide to route things. I honestly had no clue how to set this up, but things fell into place. That should be your guide in picturing this, for most of the day I was clutching a Bay Area Metro Thomas Guide in one hand while driving with the other.
But out on the roads I went; and once out, I kicked ass. Without much knowledge of the sites I was hitting, I made my first five stops in one hour. Company standard is four stops in an hour (not possible on my usual Livermore Valley route.) Using my mapbook and phone, I managed to hit just about every stop with little problem, and even saw an old coworker from the SuperShuttle days at SJC. I even managed to fit in an extra stop in Santa Clara. One of my first stops was a wrong address error, and I had more than enough time to fit them in at the end. Even with the late start I rocked out 17 deliveries in about six hours.
Look at me.
Look at your driver.
Now back to me.
I'm on the mother-freaking horse, baby!
Since I was going in during the heart of rush hour, it took a little longer than usual. Once I was finally at work, I did not clock in (they can my 0530 start time.. I was there, and their failure is not my problem) and walked into to find that my route had so little on it that it was being put off and I was originally tasked with covering East Bay.
At this point I should explain. Today we were already going to be short of drivers. The usual Local 1 driver is out with an injury, and the usual East Bay driver is having massive dental work done (much like mine of a few years back) so things were already going to be tight. We had four scheduled drivers and two of us could be reached after we left.
I looked at the EB route and remarked out loud that i had no clue about any of the stops. At which point one of the emergency cover drivers offered to trade Local 2 with me, as he's done East Bay recently and knows at least some of the stops. Local 2 is mostly San Jose, with some stops in west valley cities like Saratoga and Cupertino. I gratefully accepted the offer, and of seventeen stops, had been to four of them before and at least had a clue about another half dozen or so.
Just writing up my trip sheet took forever, since I had to use the Thomas Guide to route things. I honestly had no clue how to set this up, but things fell into place. That should be your guide in picturing this, for most of the day I was clutching a Bay Area Metro Thomas Guide in one hand while driving with the other.
But out on the roads I went; and once out, I kicked ass. Without much knowledge of the sites I was hitting, I made my first five stops in one hour. Company standard is four stops in an hour (not possible on my usual Livermore Valley route.) Using my mapbook and phone, I managed to hit just about every stop with little problem, and even saw an old coworker from the SuperShuttle days at SJC. I even managed to fit in an extra stop in Santa Clara. One of my first stops was a wrong address error, and I had more than enough time to fit them in at the end. Even with the late start I rocked out 17 deliveries in about six hours.
Look at me.
Look at your driver.
Now back to me.
I'm on the mother-freaking horse, baby!
no subject
Date: 4 May 2010 11:15 (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 May 2010 12:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 May 2010 12:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 May 2010 01:45 (UTC)If a delivery takes longer than 10 minutes, we're expected to explain the delay. The most common notation is "BH" - By Hand, meaning that a load that would normally be handled by a forklift or Grade-All had to be done piece-by-piece. BHA means By Hand Alone. "On Break" is another common one, meaning they were on a union-mandated break and you had to wait.