I knew what it was going to be and, because I'm not a huge fan of Monday mornings, I wasn't looking forward to it. I've got many stressors exerting their force upon me at the moment and another hour of sleep would have done me good...but I was up at 05:30 for some exercises, a shower and coffee and by 07:00 was ready for whatever may come.
I'd planned breakfast at a café today, a nice way to ease into a Monday and the rest of the working week, but then the phone rang.
I recently won a key account with an international transport and 3PL company. They're a big deal with over five thousand prime movers rolling around pulling their trailers in Australia alone. With the scope and volume of their work they often don't have enough trucks to pull their trailers so they look to what's referred to as outside hire and that's where the transport and trucking company I work for comes in.
I won the account, which wasn't easy, and we've been providing prime movers and drivers to haul their trailers since. It's an incredibly lucrative account and will, if we do the right thing, only get bigger.
Problems on day three
On day three one of our prime mover/driver combos was late by an hour; it was a simple mistake - sleeping through an alarm. He arrived, hooked up the pre-loaded trailer and hauled-ass to the drop off point...but missed the scheduled time-slot and was turned away. He went back to the depot, dropped off the trailer and picked up the next to continue his run which went all day. No big deal?
It meant that my company was not well-represented to our customer and neither was my customer to theirs, the delivery needed to be rebooked and re-done and my company had to pay for that. The cost of the do-over is here nor there, but the potential cost of losing that account due to the tardiness of a driver? That would be massive.
I turned up that day, met with the transport guy and made assurances. He is an understanding guy, if a little full-on-hard-core, and we moved forward. It went a long way towards showing quality that I turned up face-to-face and we have a great relationship.
Since that issue a couple more trucks were booked over and above the existing and I felt we were back on track.
Problems on day six
Today that call came in and when I saw the name, (I program all my customers, actual and potential, into my phone), my first thought was fuckety fucking fuckfuckety fuckballs. You see, these people don't call to say, "hello, I hope you have a good Monday G-dog."
Sure enough, there was a problem.
The driver had arrived fifteen minute late. (Not acceptable.)
The driver had no steel-capped safety boots and had to leave to go and buy some. (Not acceptable)
The driver took twenty five minutes to hook up the pre-loaded trailer. (Not acceptable)
The driver missed his delivery time-slot. (Not acceptable)
The transport guy wasn't well-pleased and told me he never wanted to see the driver again. I get it.
I'll be turning up to meet with him tomorrow morning, (with some lube as it's likely I'm going to get fucked), but my intention is to save the account and show him that this anomaly won't be repeated. I'm not sure how I'll go, I'll be honest with you.
You might think that fifteen minutes late isn't too bad a thing, but it can throw an entire day of work out...A whole week really, as the delivery needs to be done again. The customer of my customer, Aldi Supermarkets, doesn't care why the slot was missed only that the slot was missed. My customer doesn't care why the truck was late and that the driver didn't have the right PPE, only that it was late and the driver was ill-prepared. Fifteen minutes late is a big deal.
Just in case you're wondering about the steel-capped boots and why it's such an issue...Safety is taken seriously here and that's part of it. Only last week a truck driver was killed (by his own truck) not five kilometres from where I sit now. It rolled backwards crushing him between the rear of his truck/tailer and the front of the one behind it. He had twenty years experience and made a mistake. He died for it.
We have a zero-tolerance for safety breaches as does the logistics company I mention here - In fact, they are one of the most safety conscious. When I visit, even I have to wear steel-capped boots and that's just to stand in the office to talk! This driver isn't a ballerina, a ninja, or marathon runner...If he was he'd have the appropriate footwear right? He's a truck driver and the appropriate footwear (these days) is steel-capped boots.
I'm not sure how I'll go tomorrow to be honest, I'm hoping to save the account. What I know for sure though, is that this driver is being fired tonight immediately after his run is over; he will never work for us again. Trucking and transport is a brutal industry and mistakes aren't tolerated - Mistakes maim and kill people.
It wasn't the ideal start to my week and as far as Monday's go it began in a rather fucken shitty way, but that's how life is right? If we let every setback defeat us we'd never get anywhere.
So, I came to café ate ate the breakfast you see in this image then wrote this post. It was a nice way to talk-down my annoyance at this situation I guess, to write it out and put a gap between it and the rest of my day and week. Whatever happens tomorrow at that meeting will happen no matter what; I'll give it all I have, I've got some skills, and hope to retain it. If I do, it'll be awesome. If I do not, I'll know it won't be for my own lack of effort on my part.
It was truly a Monday sort of Monday morning today, but life will go on and bacon, eggs and coffee help pave the way.
Have a good week.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
Any images in this post are my own