A reflection of a 4-month experience that ended suddenly. On the surface, it seemed like a bad experience, but by looking at it from a distance, it needed to happen in my journey. I’ll go into how I came to land this job, what it was like and what I’ve learned from doing it that wouldn’t have become clear to me in many other ways. It could help you too in similar experiences.
Landing the job
My good friend Jaco found me this opportunity through some of his connections. Take Alot needed a Caddy delivery driver and paid more than the minimum I needed to cover my responsibilities. It is an easy job to do and on the 7th of February 2024, I pitched up for my first day, starting at 06:00.
Initial Reaction
To be honest, although it is an easy job to do, I had no idea what the role entailed, but if others who seemed less intelligent could do it, so could I. I figured that was what training is for, so I engulfed myself in everything on my first day. Grant taught me how the app worked while delivering parcels at Woodlands Wildlife Estate. I figured I had the hang of it quickly and the next few days of training would be a breeze.
WRONG - The next morning at 06:00 I was given a Caddy to drive with a list of deliveries on the app to deliver in Langenhovenpark, ON MY OWN. The basics were merely introductory while most of it I needed to figure out myself. Needless to say, delivering the parcels didn’t go as quickly and my boss, Murray told me early on to hurry up.
On a basic level, most people are familiar with their residential environment, but we aren’t tuned to learning street names that much. Mostly just those we need to remember. I quickly learned the rest of the street names and became better familiar with my operating environment.
First Hiccup
Probably due to my experience and basically who I am, a lazy guy always looking at more effective ways to perform mundane tasks, I realised that the app isn’t optimized for delivering parcels perfectly efficiently. The algorithm is flawed and can only be improved with a good knowledge of the area and some added human commonsense.
I understood the principle of packing parcels into the Caddy with the “first in, last out” method, but it took so long to sort out the boxes in the morning that I had no time to verify with the app what route to apply to the method. Also, the route and the addresses only become apparent as soon as all the parcels are scanned, and with constant errors on the address stickers, one has to make a meticulous effort to ensure everything is right before leaving the depot.
After a few days, I became more familiar with the street names and the app, so much so that I improvised my delivery route to be more effective and less time-consuming. One of the factors that frustrated me was that when using the app’s GPS locations, they were calculated to go through an area using the coordinates by only considering longitude or latitude lines. Everyone knows that streets are usually in a grid pattern, so when two or more adjacent streets have delivery locations in them and the app’s delivery pattern is in a line crossing squarely across them, the addresses are lined up to jump between the streets.
My solution was to divide the area into blocks and deliver the parcels per street and not the app’s suggested route. Later, my pattern also influenced the way I sorted out the parcels in the morning which enhanced the speed at which I delivered the parcels significantly.
Other Inefficiencies
Although a problem is easily rectified by learning the street names, the GPS coordinates are wrong much of the time. Houses are rarely numbered, just like street name boards are rarely attached to the pole. The incorrect GPS locations affect the delivery route and sometimes can also cause a parcel from another area to be listed under the wrong delivery driver. For instance, there is a Jan Marx street in Langenhovenpark as well as in Pentagonpark.
Clients aren’t attached to their phones, so sometimes it does take a bit of time to get a hold of them. This communication breakdown got me pulling the bit of hair that I had left, especially when they put their phones on silent. Communication with the clients when you need it can make or break your day and it sometimes feels as if they collectively conspired to influence your day. Obviously impossible but it sometimes felt that way.
Just like the previous point, communication greases the wheels for the entire process. Management has a military way of dishing out orders, which is efficient, but the efficiency is lost every time feedback is frowned upon or responded to with cursed yelling and insults.
The app has room for improvement. The map with the delivery indicators is a huge help, but one cannot open the marks directly to see which parcel or delivery address is attached to a specific dot on the screen. As mentioned, sometimes the GPS location is wrong, which makes the map wrong and also has an influence when failing deliveries. Clients can record telephone numbers incorrectly which once again, makes communication difficult.
These are merely the main inefficiencies without getting petty about the company and its management. That isn’t what this blog is about, but rather what can be learned from the entire experience.
Personality Contrasts
A militaristic approach is efficient and most people would agree. However, the delivery of communication is one-sided. One can see it in the attitudes of the other drivers. Shoulders and heads aimed to the ground, few smiles and everyone only pitching up and taking the abuse to make a buck.
On a psychological level, I found my direct superior quite interesting. Yes, our personalities clashed for a number of reasons, but I still wonder how his personality formed. Maybe, sometime in the future when I’m back on my feet, we could have a discussion about it. I have my theories but I would very much like to include his mannerisms in one of the characters in my book or short stories.
The reason it fascinates me, is because although he has a rough communication style, it is clear that he doesn’t like to be challenged. Feedback also has no value, but I can only imagine that circumstances made him that way. That assumption is based on my experience as a Payroll Supervisor at SBV, where a certain management style is catered to the job requirements. I genuinely think that he could be a nice guy outside the work environment, but he is extremely dedicated to his job, working very long hours and finds pleasure in running, which is naturally his breakaway time. Not bad personality traits, but building relationships lacks some longevity.
I feel sorry for the guy because he probably adapted his personality after working in such an environment for a long time. On his social media page, I noticed a brother and a father, but no pictures of a mother. This could be an indication of a rough childhood, especially since the dad also looks kind of rough around the edges. There is no question that he is a biker and that biking could be a major motivation, together with running.
The first odd behaviour I noticed was when he explained about the huge amount of distance running he does during training. I joked that he was insane to run so much, based on the perspective of a non-runner. Basically, I was relating to how others outside of his relationship circles would react, expecting a dedicated athlete-type response. Something like, “I find my peace out on the road”. But no, he responded, “I am not insane, I have the papers to prove it”. To me, if that is true, it means that his sanity was in question at some point, making him so much more interesting.
Confirmations
During my high school career, we had some aptitude tests. At the time, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I still love animals, but back then, I answered all the questions that related to animals in favour of taking care of animals. The results came out that I should work with people. I did not believe it at the time since I consider myself a loner and quite happy to work alone with numbers that don’t lie. Or art and writing. Interacting with people wasn’t something I looked forward to.
Take Alot made me realize that the aptitude tests had some merit. Just because I didn’t like working with my superior, it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy working with the clients. I saw them the majority of the day, so it’s like swallowing a bad pill at the beginning of the day so that I can enjoy the rest of the day. It is also fair to realize that the situation isn’t so straight forward and some reality check should be considered since the clients were basically all acting like children on Christmas morning waiting for their presents. They would be nice to anyone, but it did feel as if I formed some relationship with my regulars. There was the odd experience but they were few.
I also loved client’s dogs. Even got to know some of their names. It was the highlight of some days to pet them. Maybe I’ll publish some stories at a later stage, because I feel that these stories will stick with me for a very long time.
Also, while studying management courses, I realized that my superpower is to solve problems. Making processes more efficient becomes an activity that I don’t need to think about since it happens naturally. For instance, breaking my delivery day into blocks helps to include time to proverbially sharpen my axe. This helped to break a huge amount of work into manageable chunks and the breaks, however short they were, allowed me to plan and execute the chunks effectively.
Getting Perspective
I am privileged to have friends and family who care for my well-being. They were there before my Take Alot job and although an unfortunate incident probably caused me to be let go, I feel that I let them down for sticking up for myself. I know I haven’t lost their support, but disappointing them is worse than me accepting my misfortune.
That said, I try to figure out what life taught me through this experience and found some confirmations on what I like and don’t like. What my talents are and to be honest, like the man sharpening his axe before chopping trees, I feel that this temporary break from financial insecurity was designed to gain perspective and focus on what I need to do forward. How I need to take control of my future if you will. Basically, another chance to live my dream life.
Conclusion
Everyone who knows me knows that I’m not bothered about having a significant amount of wealth. That could be because I never had it, but I did confirm my talents, likes and was pleasantly surprised how much fun it was to perform a great service to appreciative client, even when I’m not in control of the product.
I think that the experience confirmed that my perspective and future trajectory was muddied by trying to do too may things just to make a buck. Yes, available money is necessary to survive and beggars can’t be choosers, but nobody hits a target without aiming at something. I was shooting my arrows at anything that could lead to some form of income. There are plenty of factors against me, and the road forward isn’t going to be any easier, but I feel that this experience was needed to gain focus.
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