One thing I notice is that when I talk on the radio, I pick up a noticeable Southern accent. This is probably the result of watching too many movies featuring stereotypical truckers.
That said, I bet it's linguistically useful. The long, drawn-out vowels of Southern speech probably do a lot to aid listening comprehension over staticky channels.
Well, they would, except this is a digital radio, so the sound either gets there intact, or doesn't get there at all. Still, the sound quality is not great, and when I'm driving down the highway with the wind blowing and the tires running along the pavement, a little boost to my ability to hear things doesn't hurt.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Failure to communicate
Appropriately, the day after I wrote about the usefulness of our radios, the server for all the job information went on the fritz for most of the day, crippling our dispatchers.
During the day, we have three to four dispatchers, some for cars and trucks, some for tractor-trailers. They have to figure out which drivers to give which jobs so that all the jobs get done, all the drivers stay busy, and nobody has to drive around a lot with an empty vehicle.
Of course, doing this successfully is totally dependent on the jobs we have that day, which is really just random. Airline dispatchers have a much easier time, since their flights are scheduled months in advance. Our dispatchers rely a bit more on luck. Sometimes they'll ask me to make my way towards a certain part of town, because they know from experience where most of our jobs originate. Although usually the cause is that I just completed a delivery in some out-of-the-way location.
I'm not sure what the dispatchers did while the server was acting up; when I stopped in the office, they had access to the jobs, but couldn't edit them to mark them as picked up or delivered. They printed them out on paper so I had all the information.
During the day, we have three to four dispatchers, some for cars and trucks, some for tractor-trailers. They have to figure out which drivers to give which jobs so that all the jobs get done, all the drivers stay busy, and nobody has to drive around a lot with an empty vehicle.
Of course, doing this successfully is totally dependent on the jobs we have that day, which is really just random. Airline dispatchers have a much easier time, since their flights are scheduled months in advance. Our dispatchers rely a bit more on luck. Sometimes they'll ask me to make my way towards a certain part of town, because they know from experience where most of our jobs originate. Although usually the cause is that I just completed a delivery in some out-of-the-way location.
I'm not sure what the dispatchers did while the server was acting up; when I stopped in the office, they had access to the jobs, but couldn't edit them to mark them as picked up or delivered. They printed them out on paper so I had all the information.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Walkie-talkie-drivie
My second lifeline as a courier is my radio/phone, which I use to talk to Dispatch, and to get details and update status on jobs.
The one we use is a Motorola Nextel radio, which is large and heavy, looks like it may cost a good bit, and has lots of buttons (a couple of which I'm afraid to press because it's not clear what they do).
Nextel is the technology Motorola bought for cellular push-to-talk technology. Push-to-talk (PTT) is what most people think of as a traditional walkie-talkie—when you want to talk, you push the button, and you let go when you're done so you can listen. It's a very simple and very effective way to handle one-way (a.k.a. half-duplex, if you're a nerd) communication.
The Nextel version is cellular, meaning the range limit is "you must have cell reception" instead of "you must be within 5 miles of the other walkie-talkie or repeater". It's also directed; you get a phone number just for PTT, which has stars instead of dashes in the number. To use it, you choose a contact in your phonebook, then, y'know… push to talk.
My one complaint is that while it's great 90% of the time to not have to listen to everyone else's conversations with the dispatchers, sometimes it would be useful, like if someone is reporting a traffic jam we should all avoid. I suppose it's a fair trade, though: I get to drive in relative peace and quiet.
The other part of the phone we use a lot is called "Net Alerts". I'm honestly not sure what technology it is behind the scenes, although I'm pretty sure it's HTTP or something similar. (Oops, my computer science background is showing.) With this I can use a menu system to update jobs; I can accept (or reject) a job, let my dispatcher know when I've completed pick-up or delivery, and enter the name of the person who signed for receipt of the item.
The job comes to me with all the information I need: job number and type; pick-up name/address; delivery name/address; contacts and phone numbers for both; notes on paperwork that the job requires, if any; etc. I copy most of the info on to my paper clipboard, which is much easier to look at while I'm driving, but I do occasionally come back to it for reference.
When I enter the name of the signee, I use multi-tap… the old system where you press 2 once for 'A', twice for 'B', thrice for 'C'. I haven't used multi-tap in about 10 years—come to think of it, did I ever own a phone that didn't support T9?—but I picked it up like I had never stopped.
Motorola's implementation of multi-tap confuses me a bit. Backspace is on * instead of a dedicated "backspace" or "clear" key. I can't figure out how to capitalize letters. Fortunately I don't really care, but it bothers me that I can't figure it out; I don't think I'm strange for wanting to spell people's names using both uppercase and lowercase letters.
The one we use is a Motorola Nextel radio, which is large and heavy, looks like it may cost a good bit, and has lots of buttons (a couple of which I'm afraid to press because it's not clear what they do).
Nextel is the technology Motorola bought for cellular push-to-talk technology. Push-to-talk (PTT) is what most people think of as a traditional walkie-talkie—when you want to talk, you push the button, and you let go when you're done so you can listen. It's a very simple and very effective way to handle one-way (a.k.a. half-duplex, if you're a nerd) communication.
The Nextel version is cellular, meaning the range limit is "you must have cell reception" instead of "you must be within 5 miles of the other walkie-talkie or repeater". It's also directed; you get a phone number just for PTT, which has stars instead of dashes in the number. To use it, you choose a contact in your phonebook, then, y'know… push to talk.
My one complaint is that while it's great 90% of the time to not have to listen to everyone else's conversations with the dispatchers, sometimes it would be useful, like if someone is reporting a traffic jam we should all avoid. I suppose it's a fair trade, though: I get to drive in relative peace and quiet.
The other part of the phone we use a lot is called "Net Alerts". I'm honestly not sure what technology it is behind the scenes, although I'm pretty sure it's HTTP or something similar. (Oops, my computer science background is showing.) With this I can use a menu system to update jobs; I can accept (or reject) a job, let my dispatcher know when I've completed pick-up or delivery, and enter the name of the person who signed for receipt of the item.
The job comes to me with all the information I need: job number and type; pick-up name/address; delivery name/address; contacts and phone numbers for both; notes on paperwork that the job requires, if any; etc. I copy most of the info on to my paper clipboard, which is much easier to look at while I'm driving, but I do occasionally come back to it for reference.
When I enter the name of the signee, I use multi-tap… the old system where you press 2 once for 'A', twice for 'B', thrice for 'C'. I haven't used multi-tap in about 10 years—come to think of it, did I ever own a phone that didn't support T9?—but I picked it up like I had never stopped.
Motorola's implementation of multi-tap confuses me a bit. Backspace is on * instead of a dedicated "backspace" or "clear" key. I can't figure out how to capitalize letters. Fortunately I don't really care, but it bothers me that I can't figure it out; I don't think I'm strange for wanting to spell people's names using both uppercase and lowercase letters.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Suspicion
Driving down a surface street, I passed a cop who was pulling out of a shopping center. As I watched in my rear-view mirror, he pulled up behind me and followed me for a mile or two. I could tell he was checking up on me; he was entering data into his computer and talking on the radio, all while keeping a close eye on me.
I'm not sure what got his attention. Was it my damaged hood and front bumper, the cosmetic remains of a low-speed highway fender-bender over two years ago? Was it the company signs with a DOT number on my doors? It couldn't have been the out-of-state license plate, which he wouldn't have seen until he was directly behind me. In truth, the license plate is what worries me the most, because I misplaced the annual registration sticker, although I have the correct paperwork (somewhere, still paperclipped to the sticker). Having an out-of-state plate, though, cops tend to not notice that the sticker is the wrong color and a year or two out of date.
Then again, maybe it was the damaged hood. I think it's a law that you have to report all accidents, no matter how minor, although in practice this is not followed and is largely unenforced (and arguably unenforcable). Not that he would know from looking at my car whether I had reported the accident. (Like I said, unenforcable.)
I made sure to stick to the speed limit religiously while keeping a keen eye on the officer in my rear-view mirror. He talked on the radio, then got on his cellphone for a while, then went back to the radio. Eventually, he looked disappointed, and when I turned in to a parking lot he kept going past me. I guess he was hoping to bust me for something, and felt put out when everything checked out okay.
I'm not sure what got his attention. Was it my damaged hood and front bumper, the cosmetic remains of a low-speed highway fender-bender over two years ago? Was it the company signs with a DOT number on my doors? It couldn't have been the out-of-state license plate, which he wouldn't have seen until he was directly behind me. In truth, the license plate is what worries me the most, because I misplaced the annual registration sticker, although I have the correct paperwork (somewhere, still paperclipped to the sticker). Having an out-of-state plate, though, cops tend to not notice that the sticker is the wrong color and a year or two out of date.
Then again, maybe it was the damaged hood. I think it's a law that you have to report all accidents, no matter how minor, although in practice this is not followed and is largely unenforced (and arguably unenforcable). Not that he would know from looking at my car whether I had reported the accident. (Like I said, unenforcable.)
I made sure to stick to the speed limit religiously while keeping a keen eye on the officer in my rear-view mirror. He talked on the radio, then got on his cellphone for a while, then went back to the radio. Eventually, he looked disappointed, and when I turned in to a parking lot he kept going past me. I guess he was hoping to bust me for something, and felt put out when everything checked out okay.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Roads
The city planners in this wonderful city have really done a number on street names. (Although it's not as bad as Japan.) Here they have a penchant for creating many streets with similar names, all right next to each other. There might be Sesame Boulevard, Sesame Parkway, Sesame Road, Sesame Drive, Sesame Circle, Sesame Court, all close to each other… and only one of these is the correct one.
They'll also sometimes prefix it with a cardinal direction. That's not difficult to mess up, because people usually put it in the address.
However, almost all the roads here are suffixed with an intermediate cardinal direction (that is, NE, NW, SW, or SE). I assume this indicates what quadrant of the city the road is in, but it's not clear where the division lies from the suffixes I've seen.
Almost nobody includes the suffix when giving their address, so I usually have to guess in the satnav which one is the correct one. That might not be so bad, except that sometimes the same building number is valid on more than one of the roads (for instance, 287 Yeti St NW and 287 Yeti St NE). That's usually when the iPhone comes out for some sanity checking.
The end result is that I have to be very careful when looking at addresses, because I never know which parts of it will be vitally important. Just the other day I copied down "Parkway" instead of "Boulevard" and turned a 2-minute drive into a 10-minute goose chase.
They'll also sometimes prefix it with a cardinal direction. That's not difficult to mess up, because people usually put it in the address.
However, almost all the roads here are suffixed with an intermediate cardinal direction (that is, NE, NW, SW, or SE). I assume this indicates what quadrant of the city the road is in, but it's not clear where the division lies from the suffixes I've seen.
Almost nobody includes the suffix when giving their address, so I usually have to guess in the satnav which one is the correct one. That might not be so bad, except that sometimes the same building number is valid on more than one of the roads (for instance, 287 Yeti St NW and 287 Yeti St NE). That's usually when the iPhone comes out for some sanity checking.
The end result is that I have to be very careful when looking at addresses, because I never know which parts of it will be vitally important. Just the other day I copied down "Parkway" instead of "Boulevard" and turned a 2-minute drive into a 10-minute goose chase.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Global Positioning System
GPS. These three initials are my lifeline as a courier.
In the bad old days, couriers would carry around one or two maps that detail every street in the greater area around their city. The dispatcher would have the same map, and could help the driver pinpoint the location they were being sent to.
Today, I have a satnav. (Most people would call it a GPS, but strictly speaking, that just implies that it tells you where you are. I prefer to call it a satnav to specify that it also tells me where I should be going.)
Mine is a refurbished TomTom I bought a few years ago. Most people prefer Garmin models, but I find I like the TomTom interface better. It's really a wash, though, so long as you know how to operate the unit and it gets you where you're going.
I know my way around the city fairly well, so I ignore 90% of the directions it gives, since they consist of highway directions that I don't need help with. I just glance at the overview map it gives after I input my destination, and then make my own way there following highway signs and my instincts. It's only as I approach the destination that I start paying attention to its turn-by-turn directions.
I also have an iPhone. It comforts me to know that if my satnav stopped working, I could use that as a backup until I can fix my satnav. (This is a legitimate concern, as I've twice accidentally removed the memory card from the satnav while it was running, which usually corrupts all the data on it and turns it into a brick.)
I try to avoid using the iPhone while I'm driving, as it's pretty distracting, but it's good for verifying the location of an address (sometimes it's not quite where the satnav thinks it is) or just looking up the company I'm supposed to be delivering to, as Google Maps often knows its precise location by name alone.
In the bad old days, couriers would carry around one or two maps that detail every street in the greater area around their city. The dispatcher would have the same map, and could help the driver pinpoint the location they were being sent to.
Today, I have a satnav. (Most people would call it a GPS, but strictly speaking, that just implies that it tells you where you are. I prefer to call it a satnav to specify that it also tells me where I should be going.)
Mine is a refurbished TomTom I bought a few years ago. Most people prefer Garmin models, but I find I like the TomTom interface better. It's really a wash, though, so long as you know how to operate the unit and it gets you where you're going.
I know my way around the city fairly well, so I ignore 90% of the directions it gives, since they consist of highway directions that I don't need help with. I just glance at the overview map it gives after I input my destination, and then make my own way there following highway signs and my instincts. It's only as I approach the destination that I start paying attention to its turn-by-turn directions.
I also have an iPhone. It comforts me to know that if my satnav stopped working, I could use that as a backup until I can fix my satnav. (This is a legitimate concern, as I've twice accidentally removed the memory card from the satnav while it was running, which usually corrupts all the data on it and turns it into a brick.)
I try to avoid using the iPhone while I'm driving, as it's pretty distracting, but it's good for verifying the location of an address (sometimes it's not quite where the satnav thinks it is) or just looking up the company I'm supposed to be delivering to, as Google Maps often knows its precise location by name alone.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Independent contracting
Although there are full-time employee drivers at some couriers (especially large ones like UPS or FedEx), I an independent contractor. This means that I'm basically a business entity consisting of myself. Each delivery is a separate job offered to me from the company, and I can choose whether to accept each one. This gives me a lot of flexibility: I can pretty much choose when I want to work.
Of course, if I choose to work at a time when there aren't many deliveries to run, then I won't have anything to do and I won't get paid. It is convenient, though, if I want to end my day early, or finish near a certain part of town so I can go out at night. Or, conversely, when I don't have anything to do and am willing to work for 10-12 hours to make more money.
As my own business entity, I'm responsible for my own tax payments, healthcare, and equipment. Every week I have to pay the company to buy into their umbrella vehicle insurance, to rent my radio, and a couple other things.
I also have to buy my uniform T-shirts from them, my car door magnets with the company logo and registration number on them, and some other equipment I need to do the job.
All of that comes out of my pocket.
In compensation, I'm paid a fixed percentage of each delivery I complete. I'm not paid mileage compensation, flat fees, or salary. Any gas, oil, car maintenance, etc., comes out of my pocket as well.
The end result is that because of the mandatory fees I have to pay the company, I start off each week with negative earnings; if I only worked part-time and didn't take on enough deliveries, I could end up owing the company money come payday. Working full-time, though, this isn't a problem.
Of course, if I choose to work at a time when there aren't many deliveries to run, then I won't have anything to do and I won't get paid. It is convenient, though, if I want to end my day early, or finish near a certain part of town so I can go out at night. Or, conversely, when I don't have anything to do and am willing to work for 10-12 hours to make more money.
As my own business entity, I'm responsible for my own tax payments, healthcare, and equipment. Every week I have to pay the company to buy into their umbrella vehicle insurance, to rent my radio, and a couple other things.
I also have to buy my uniform T-shirts from them, my car door magnets with the company logo and registration number on them, and some other equipment I need to do the job.
All of that comes out of my pocket.
In compensation, I'm paid a fixed percentage of each delivery I complete. I'm not paid mileage compensation, flat fees, or salary. Any gas, oil, car maintenance, etc., comes out of my pocket as well.
The end result is that because of the mandatory fees I have to pay the company, I start off each week with negative earnings; if I only worked part-time and didn't take on enough deliveries, I could end up owing the company money come payday. Working full-time, though, this isn't a problem.
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