GIGO, it's for more than computers...

Let's be honest: I'm great at my job. I've been driving professionally for over fifteen years, never had a moving violation, never had a charged accident, and always do my job. Today, however, had me at my wit's end.

Two drivers were off for a family issue (they're related by marriage) so I covered the Local 2 route. No big deal, it was an exceptionally light day. In fact, I got back early enough that I didn't mind being handed a stack of six hotshots. But then I headed out.

1. Wrong address, and when called, the customer couldn't tell me the address. Instead I got convoluted directions that, had I followed them, would have gotten me a ticket for weight violations.


2. No problems.


3. No problems.


4. Contact phone number goes to a very angry woman who tells me this is the third time we've called her and she's told each driver that they have the wrong number. Since Nobody has the correct number, I have to circle around and ambush the first guy I see from the right company.


5. A hand-written exchange tag. The street name was so badly misspelled that I could not figure out what the person writing it meant. I also couldn't reach the customer to ask him. Of course, no order number for us to track.


6. No problems, but up a goat trail.

After completing that last stop, I finally got the correct street name for this ulrta-important, must be there today!!!, exchange. Get there, and they tell me they were expecting the new tool Monday.

These errors are becoming more and more common. It's not too bad when you are doing your route, and learn to read the company and job name rather than the address. I had one site in Walnut Creek, for example, that had not only an incorrect address, but one that included a non-existent street! The Address given was 123 E St. E should have been East, but that was the main address for the complex, and as I told everyone I could think of telling, the order should have stated that the construction entrance was at Fred St. off Barney Expressway. I knew where this place was, but when I went on vacation, or took a sick day? Back when I had pneumonia last spring I was literally guiding the driver covering for me to each stop over the phone because so many of the stops had bad or incomplete addresses. The core problem is we don't have a mechanism for the drivers to submit corrections and changes that stick in the system.

Like I said, I rock as a driver. But without correct information for my route, I'm going to be wallowing around lost.

The worst part? When I confronted the salescreature who had written the exchange order, he hugged me. Bad touch! Bad touch!