New Computers, New (And Old) Problems

I've felt like quitting so many times in the past week it isn't funny. I've got a list of problems, many related to the new computers. Basically other employees are screwing up and it's costing me money.

Dispatch
On Wednesday, the manager mistakenly assigned my run to another driver. When he was made aware of his error, he didn't correct it. I'm not sure he knew how to reassign the run to the correct driver.

Bad Street List / Out Of Area Deliveries
The street list on the new computer is not as up-to-date as the list on the previous computer was. Due to this, we are taking many deliveries that the computer doesn't think is in our delivery area.

Incidentally, we're also taking more deliveries that really aren't in our area. I took 2 tonight (out of 13) and both stiffed me.

Some people think giving the driver a little money for this will make up for it, but there are many costs involved here, including the cost of the extra gas to drive farther, the time it takes me to drive farther, the other deliveries I could have taken had I gotten back in a normal time.

Wrong Address
Last night one phone girl got the apartment wrong, typing B14 instead of D14. The original driver couldn't find it (of course) and also couldn't call the customer so the order got brought back until the customer called wondering where their food was. I ended up having to take it and we gave it to them for free. Of course they didn't tip. Get the addresses right!

On a similar note, a different phone girl tonight totally butchered the phone number. 474-032-4739. It probably should have been 440-324-739X. Unfortunately the X is important. We ran out of Pepsi and I couldn't call to see if they wanted a different 2-Liter or a credit. Manager Nick had me take a Cherry Pepsi and a Sierra Mist and let them pick. Of course they didn't tip.

History Deleted
Our old computer system had the order history of all of our customers. Last night the same phone girl who messed up the address, took an order and decided arbitrarily, because the customer was laughing and ordered $45 (3 pizzas) that it might be a prank. She and the manager cancelled the order.

Had they asked me, I could have told them that I've delivered to that house at least 20 times in the past couple years. But no, they were too smart to ask for help. So the customer called back eventually, the pizza was over 2 hours late, and do you think I got a tip?

If you've read this long, you deserve a funny story. On one of my deliveries last night, as I stood by the door, I heard a miniature explosion going off behind the house. The guys at the door in their early 20's started laughing. Their younger brother (preteen) then showed up and the guys accused him of "throwing all the fireworks in the fire" and that's exactly what it sounded like.

Saturday I drove 8 hours, took 18 runs, drove 78 miles, and made $46.

Sunday night I drove 6 hours, took 13 runs, drove 67 miles, and made $25.

Note that the night with the 2 out-of-area runs, I got 5.15 miles per run. The other night was a more normal 4.33 miles per run.