You Missed A Stop

Our Trucks used to be pretty reliable. Like...of course there were times when the truck would go AWOL and we wouldn't know why it was late.

But it seems like with the pandemic...our Trucks tend to be AWOL more often. 

Especially our Friday trucks. 

They can show up anytime between 7am Friday morning...to 9pm Saturday night.

Which can cause a bit of havoc...as our Fish shipments come in on the Friday Truck.

Because if the truck comes late...or sits there for hours...and the temperatures fluctuate too crazily...well....we end up with a lot of dead fish.

And with a lot of unhappy customers who come in wanting to buy new fish only to find out our fish haven't arrived yet. 

In any case.

Today was one of those days.

Where the online tracking system was....being wonky. Showing the driver basically going in a big huge circle in the next state over....but no real estimated time of arrival.

But we finally got word that it would be showing up around dinner time...you know when we get slammed with the 'after work' rush of customers.

Surprisingly, the truck did show up on time. 

However.

There was a slight tiny issue. 

Our shipment wasn't the only shipment on the truck. 

There were two stores worth of product on that truck. 

And our store...was supposed to be the second store the truck visited.

But guess which store the truck came to first?

Yes. Ours.

And Our stuff? Was in the Front of the Truck. Which would mean we'd have to unload the other store's stuff first, get our stuff out...and then load their stuff back on.

But there's also this thing where the Truck needs to be sealed....and the seal on the truck...was for the other store. So the other store should break it. 

Which meant that the truck had to go BACK to the other store...which they had driven passed in order to reach us in the first place.

*shakes head* 

No idea how they managed to drive pass that store without realizing they needed to stop there. 

Like I would think the drivers would know that they had 2 stores worth of product on the truck.

In any case.

They had to drive a good hour back the way they'd come to unload the truck there.

And like unloading doesn't take that long, maybe half an hour or so?

Well...it took long.

Because apparently while in route...the truck driver had to swerve to avoid hitting a car that cut him off...and then later had to slam on his brakes to avoid another car.

Which meant....alot of the pallets had been well...thrown around. They were toppled, crooked...hard to unload.

And what should have maybe been a couple of hours round trip??? Ended up taking longer. 

The truck didn't return to us until we had closed.

And it took like an hour to unload the truck because of how messed up the pallets were. There was broken glass, spilled product, liquid everywhere....it was a mess. 

But hey...at least the truck showed up....and our fish actually ended up doing alright despite the crazy journey to our store.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi