Thursday, October 18, 2012

Confessions of a Courier: Running on Empty


As a courier company, we have many different clients with different needs. Quick courier service in the Los Angeles entertainment industry is not always easy. Many of our clients have deadlines to meet and need direct service, while other are in no hurry so they use the 4 hour service. We also offer round-trip service. The tricky part is when the client calls near the end of the day with a strict deadline.

One driver told me a story of one of his experiences with round-trip service. It was 2:30 P.M. and the driver got a run sent to him and it was a round trip to pick up some documents to be signed and brought back with a deadline of 4 P.M and a total of 40 miles! It was going to be close, but from where he was at he was pretty sure he could meet the deadline. 

He arrived at the pick-up location and was in and out with the documents in no time. He heads toward the second location and gets stuck in some traffic, which was to be expected anywhere you drive in L.A.

He arrived at the second location, brought in the papers and waited for them to be signed and returned. As he was walking out he realized that it was 3:30 P.M. and he had to hurry if he was going make the 4 P.M. deadline. 

Less than 5 miles away, he realizes his tank is on empty and he has no idea how long he has been on empty. He only has 10 minutes to get there so he doesn’t have time to stop for gas if he wants to be on time. A few blocks away the car starts to slow down and by luck he makes it there with a few minutes to spare running out of gas right in front of the destination. He ran in to deliver the package and came back out to call AAA. He got lucky but learned his lesson to check his gas before he leaves and not to risk driving on an empty tank. 


No comments:

Post a Comment