Long live the King and Queen

Here's something interesting: one of my deliveries took me to the King and Queen.

The King and Queen are the local nicknames for an iconic pair of high-rise buildings adjacent to a busy highway intersection. Both buildings have decorative lattice tops: one square, one round. Whence the names.

They are not cheap property.

Example: On my way out, I told the doorman, "Have a nice day," and he replied, "Yes sir." I guess that's how rich these buildings are, that couriers get to order the doormen around.

Unexpected clients

One of the deliveries I made today was some pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. (We do a lot of these; taking bundled medical supplies from the independent provider to the patient's home.) The patient lives outside a small town about 30 miles south of the city. Since I was coming from the north, this meant it was almost an hour's drive for me. Oh well. That's a courier's life.

I couldn't tell from the initial map my satnav displayed where the final location was, so I was mildly surprised when it had me keep driving, and keep driving. Only mildly, though; I may be in a metro area of 5 million people, but there's plenty of open land farther out.

I finally ended up on the correct road and started looking for the house number. After I had gone a mile past it's supposed location without finding it, I turned around and tried again. Even with a better idea of where it should be, though, I still couldn't find it.

Fortunately, there was a contact number given in the job, although my previous attempts to call and let them know I was on my way had just given me a busy signal.

This time, though, the phone call went through. The man on the other end told me to come back the way I originally came, and look for a big black fence on my left with a stone gate. I remembered seeing the fence and the gate, but I brushed it off as being a farm, or a mansion, or both.

As it turns out, I was right… it was a mansion, and also a farm. The driveway was about a quarter-mile long, and edged with pavers. There was a tiny pond on one side, which fed into a stream that crossed the driveway; rather than a bridge, though, you have to actually ford the stream. Heaven help anyone in a low-slung sports car, because their bumpers would get stuck on the edges of the ford.

I parked and brought the delivery to the front door, which had an iron gate in front of it; I had to reach through the gate to get at the latch. I was pretty sure that was the intention, though, given that the doorbell-intercom was located behind it. Except that the button was missing, leaving two exposed wires. Touching them together didn't seem to do anything, so I knocked.

Nobody answered, and after knocking again, I started to wonder if I was at the wrong building; maybe I should have taken the other fork in the driveway? But then the patient showed up, creeping along using a walker.

As I was having him sign the paperwork (most of our medical deliveries come with several copies of paperwork from the medical supplier, in addition to my own delivery manifest), another car pulled up, and a nurse got out. I decided I should wait for her to come in before leaving, just to make sure everything was settled and I had done everything I possibly could.

As the man and I talked, the subject of my hometown came up, and he mentioned that he owns a large shopping center in my hometown. I know that shopping center; I went there a couple of times a year to shop, as well as every time I went to the movies. He owns it. This is not someone I expected to meet.

…Actually, I hate that shopping center; it's on the opposite side of town from my home, so it's a bit of a trek. Worse than that, it's what's called a "power centre"; there are a lot of big anchor stores, but they're not connected; you have to drive from one to the other even if they're practically right next to each other. Imagine a strip mall, only the strip is broken in to half a dozen small strips and distributed across as big a distance as possible. The traffic is also terrible, as it's quite crowded and there are only a few small roads into the centre.

I refrained from telling him any of that, though.

First run

After completing the hiring paperwork, I showed up at 8:00am for a training delivery run. My "trainer" was the same guy I had been doing paperwork with yesterday afternoon. He seemed somewhat laid back, maybe a touch of a fratboy, but at the same time someone I would want to think twice before crossing… someone I wouldn't particularly get along with. But I didn't care, because I probably wouldn't see much of him, being out doing deliveries all day.

We got the job notification, and he walked me through accepting the job on my radio. Then we jumped in my car and headed off. Along the way we made some expected small talk about girlfriends (and boyfriends), jobs, weather… the usual. It was actually a bit of a quiet drive, compared to other co-workers I've shared a vehicle with.

We arrived at the pick-up site and got the goods. He coached me to take the time to be polite and talk to people. Introduce myself and my company, be friendly and talkative, that sort of thing. Don't just rush in and say, "I'm here, where's the package?"

Another 10 minutes and we were at the delivery site. The recipients didn't know who the package was intended for, through which I learned to check my job details and any invoices from the sender for clues. But it only took a minute to sort things out.

My trainer, I had learned, was the son of one of the three owners of the company. He ran deliveries for a couple months, just to make sure he pulled his own weight and didn't give the appearance of landing a cushy job at daddie's company without putting in any work, but now did a mix of things for the company. Before that he had spent some years with the army, but left (partly due to girlfriend pressures, I think).

Stop for gas, back to the office, and then go outside so my trainer could have a smoke and go over some company procedure. Some of it was routine stuff—be in uniform and look clean and neat, fill out paperwork, turn in paperwork on time—but there were a couple items that were particular to certain customers or jobs.

After that, he said see you later. Not just because I was now fully trained and on my own, but also because today was his last day at the company. He wasn't really interested in following in dad's footsteps; he was off to work at a financial company downtown.

Suddenly I felt a connection with him, more than I thought I'd ever feel. He'd gone from being the fratty-dressing tan guy at the office to being my sole source of training and help. Initially I had brushed him off as working for HR, and thus evil (I've never met an HR person I liked); now he was a bit more human and personable. And as I realized I would never see him again, that by itself made me feel that much more attached to him.

Hiring

I got hired today. I really didn't expect it to happen so fast.

Yesterday I was making my rounds to a couple of places to drop of my resume. I figured doing it in person would help show my dedication to the job to any potential future employers.

I found one company where the boss-man, in a weird sort of rambling discussion, explained how terrible it was, because business was booming there, and he had taken on 10 new drivers in the last month. And while he would always love to have one more driver, he wasn't sure whether it would make sense to take me on given the unpredictable nature of the work.

However, when I told him that I'm willing to work any time of day, and don't care whether I work in-town or long-distance/out-of-town deliveries, he said they might be able to use me, and that he'd talk to his dispatchers about it.

This morning, he called me up and asked if I wouldn't mind coming in to fill out an application.

I made it there around 2:00 in the afternoon. I met the boss-man, and he said that when he told the dispatchers about my availability, and where I live in town (apparently I'm really close to a client who does a lot of after-business-hours deliveries), they said "Bring him on."

So it actually wasn't just an application I was filling out; I was getting hired. I spent the next hour or so doing paperwork, and trying to gleam as much as I could about my new job from the hints buried in the legalese.

Welcome

Let's skip over the introduction and get right to details, yes? I found myself unemployed for the summer, with no research to do or classes to TA at my university, and no other job lined up. And I had just realized the month before that my bank account was in bad shape—as in, in two months I would be flat broke.

So, I brainstormed with a few friends to come up with some short-term jobs that I could get hired for quickly, in order to pay the bills until something more permanent and substantial came up.

That's when we hit on the idea of being a courier driver. I actually didn't really think couriers were a big operation; all I knew about them came from Neal Stephenson's dystopian future in Snow Crash, where couriers ride high-tech skateboards and use magnetic tow ropes to get free rides down the highway.

Being a courier driver would suit me pretty well, I think. I like cars and driving, and I know my way around the city pretty well. And I hate to sit still or go slowly (my driving record can attest to that). I also have some experience from internships at doing on-site work—deliveries and such—and I know that I like jobs where I don't have to plan more than a day in advance… and I'm quite good at them.

I'm going into this with no real idea of what it will be like, aside from a bit of on-site IT experience, so I thought, what a perfect thing to blog about.