The Joys of Same Day Deliveries
Bern and I have been in the freight industry for many years and have worked successfully together for most of those years.
The freight industry is very stressful and it takes a certain type of person to handle the constant rush and urgency of deliveries. Having a good sense of humour helps in the turbulent times during the festive season. Everything that can go wrong usually does. Vehicles delayed, customers realize too late that there are shut off times in December and the inevitable Traffic Officers looking for that little extra bonus.
The staff are constantly putting out fires and dealing with one crisis or another.
One crisis we did not expect was a phone call from one of the assistant managers who was busy with a Same Day Express to Mpumalanga.
Globus phone the office and asked to speak to Bern, he explained that he had a flat tyre on the Uno and there was no spare wheel in the boot. Bern was not impressed and told him he should have checked before he left the offices. She duly made a plan to send a tyre to him with the jack and all the necessary equipment needed for changing the tyre.
A half hour later, driver duly dispatched to deliver the tyre, Bern received another phone call from Globus.
“Bern, I have a problem” said Globus
Bern and I have been in the freight industry for many years and have worked successfully together for most of those years.
The freight industry is very stressful and it takes a certain type of person to handle the constant rush and urgency of deliveries. Having a good sense of humour helps in the turbulent times during the festive season. Everything that can go wrong usually does. Vehicles delayed, customers realize too late that there are shut off times in December and the inevitable Traffic Officers looking for that little extra bonus.
The staff are constantly putting out fires and dealing with one crisis or another.
One crisis we did not expect was a phone call from one of the assistant managers who was busy with a Same Day Express to Mpumalanga.
Globus phone the office and asked to speak to Bern, he explained that he had a flat tyre on the Uno and there was no spare wheel in the boot. Bern was not impressed and told him he should have checked before he left the offices. She duly made a plan to send a tyre to him with the jack and all the necessary equipment needed for changing the tyre.
A half hour later, driver duly dispatched to deliver the tyre, Bern received another phone call from Globus.
“Bern, I have a problem” said Globus
“What is the problem Globus?” Bern asked in her exasperated voice as this was the busiest time of the year.
“I have had an accident” he said
She exploded at him “How can you have had an accident when the tyre is still about forty five minutes from being delivered to you?”
“DO NOT TELL ME you have been driving the Uno on a flat tyre!” “I will kill you when you get back to the office”
“DO NOT TELL ME you have been driving the Uno on a flat tyre!” “I will kill you when you get back to the office”
Bern’s has very diplomatic skills of a skunk at times. She has this way of raising her one eye brow that is a clear message to everyone to stay away – there is trouble brewing! Take heed this eye brow of her has a life of its own! Cait tries to copy it and she gets her face all screwed up but to this day she has not managed to perfect the Death Stare.
“No Bern, you don’t understand, I now need Four New Tyres!” He was extremely excited as he explained this with tremors in his voice.
“What do you mean, you now need for tyres. Have you lost your mind?” (In truth she used more descritptive words) Bern shouted down the phone.
So Globus went into panic mode and went into great description of why he needed four tyres.
“You see Bern; I was waiting outside the car for the tyre to be delivered. I was getting hot so I climbed into the car and put the radio on and was listening to my favourite station. When suddenly there was this flash of blue lights and sparks and the radio stopped working and there WAS SMOKE!”
He went on to explain further while Bern included the odd, “Yes and then what happened?”
“Well I got out the car and all the tyres are flat and melted. And Bern, the lighting, it hit the car and burnt out the radio too!”
When Bern phone Michael who owned the company, he thought she was fabricating the whole story, but when she explained the situation he had a good chuckle at the incident, asked how Globus was and said they had better make sure the radio was fixed as this is clearly what really mattered to Globus as he drives long distances for SAME DAY DELIVERIES.
This never happened as things got so busy and it was only when he was sent on his next Same Day Delivery he mentioned that the radio was still not functioning. “Prioritize Globus - be thankful you have 4 new tyres and added ventilation thanks to the Lighting strike” joked Michael. It could have been a fatal situation and even though we giggle at the story Globus missed being electrocuted by minutes
As funny as the story is, thank goodness Globus decided to get into the car to wait as the 'now melted tyres' saved his life. What is amusing though is that he was more concerned about a R350.00 car radio and not the cost of replacing 4 new tyres.
When he finally reached the office he was still very shaken up and could not wait to show us where the lightening made a direct hit on the aerial which carried down to the roof of the car and had burnt a small hole in the roof of the Uno. The evidence of the lightening strike left quite a black mark on the roof, about the size of a person’s hand.
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