A truck driving job in Phoenix, AZ wouldn't be too bad by most standards. Driving truck through the mountains can get a little hairy at times, but overall the weather is great, the DOT won't bother you much, and the scenery is nice. But a city is a city, and trucking in Phoenix is still trucking in a city, and anything can happen.
The one time I had a load of office furniture that was being delivered to City Hall. They were renovating the place and it was time for the new decor. They had the delivery scheduled for 6:00 pm on a Friday.
Unbelievable.
Really? 6 pm on a Friday? Just perfect. So anyhow, they told me that when I'm getting off the interstate to call ahead and let them know I'm coming. They were going to have to block traffic so I could back in. Apparently it was pretty tight down there.
So I get off the exit, make the phone call, and they tell me "Ok, when you get to the building a police officer will be waiting there for you. He'll give you instructions." Ok, seemed simple enough. So I get to the building and the officer says, "You'll be backing in to that dock over there" - as he points to the corner of the building down the street from me. "You'll have to go the wrong way on these one way streets and back in under the building. We have traffic blocked so go ahead."
OH MY GOD.....so let me get this straight....they have all of the roads blocked off around city hall? All of them??? Ok, wonderful. Well, here goes.
So sure enough I'm all alone on the streets around City Hall as I circle the building. There are flashing lights everywhere and traffic on every road leading to the streets around City Hall are stopped dead. Traffic is at a standstill as far as the eye can see!
So I come around the building and see the docks. As I'm pulling up, I see that along the sidewalk there are tons of people standing around talking. Tons of em. Turns out 6:00 pm was shift change for the workers doing the remodeling and seems not one of them had anything else to do but watch me try to back this thing in. Good grief!
It wasn't bad enough that they shut down the entire downtown area and every car within a half mile of city hall was stopped and really p*ssed off. Now, every worker in city hall was gonna watch the show too!
Insane!
But as calm nerves prevailed, I nailed it the first time. Took me 30 seconds and I disappeared under the building and traffic began flowing again. For a few minutes I was the most hated man in Phoenix...and yet, nobody had any idea who I was. It was better that way I'm quite certain!
If you're on the road long enough you're going to have some crazy things happen. Tons and tons of them in fact, so be prepared. Do not throw up all over yourself when everyone is watching! :-)
Until next time - here's more resources for ya:
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