Delivery to Montreal

Over the past month and a bit we've been having problems at work. Our supplier for the raw materials that we use to make the wet towels decided we weren't important enough to honour their commitment to deliver to us on time.

My boss, Sid, had placed an order in February for delivery in March. But, our supplier (shipping out of North Carolina) after repeated inquiries told us they wouldn't be able to get our order shipped until the end of May. How ridiculous is that?

So, Sid, had to scramble to find another supplier for this unexpected snafu. He eventually found another one (also shipping out of the U.S.) and they shipped us a truckload of material by the end of April. Unfortunately, up until that point, our plant sat idle for one month. Many of our customers we shorted for that period of time.

One of our biggest customers runs out of Montreal. Normally we would ship them 420 cases (of 1000 wet towels) in a big truck each time. But, since we were so late with our delivery we had to ship them the cases as we made them. Sid would drive up to 90 cases at a time in our Ford van 550 kilometres each way.

He had made many such trips when I offered to do one. It was that or deliver the other driver, Stephen's, route. Stephen normally drives the last half of the week, while making wet towels the other half.

Since Sid wanted him making wet towels to try to catch up on all the work orders we were behind in I offered to drive on the Friday I was off. But, since I didn't know Stephen's route well I thought it might be easier for me to just make one drop off in Montreal instead. The total time on the road would be longer, but it would be simpler overall.

So, after work on Thursday, I loaded up the van with 60 cases of wet towels (that's all that were ready up until that point). I checked Google maps for directions, but also had Sid's GPS. The directions looked simple enough from Google maps - I would just take Highway 401 east. It would change into Highway 20 near Montreal. From there I would briefly go up Highway 30 north then continue east on Highway 40 to Boulevard Roi-René.

The trip for the most part was straightforward and uneventful. Since I was driving so late at night there was hardly any traffic which was great. I stopped once or twice to go to the bathroom or take a little break. The trouble only started when I neared Montreal when the GPS decided not too cooperate.

Instead of taking me the quickest route which I described above it took me into downtown Montreal along Highway 20. So now I was driving through the outskirts of the city where the speed limit was 50 km/h. I was kind of confused because I had no idea where the GPS was taking me (since it was different from the Google map).

Eventually I did hook back up with Highway 40. Though it was brief because they were doing road reconstruction (as they're apt to do in the middle of the night when traffic is lightest). So, along with the other cars on the road at the time, we snaked through the city streets next to the highway at an infuriatingly slow pace.

I also made a few wrong turns because the GPS really wasn't very clear. When two parallel streets are close together sometimes it's hard to see which one you're supposed to go on. Inevitably I ended up taking the wrong one heading off into the middle of nowhere.

Still I made it to my intended destination by 2:00 a.m. Unfortunately it was closed. I had asked Sid if he knew what hours the distribution centre was open, but he didn't. I was hoping they were open 24 hours a day, but they weren't. So I tried to get some sleep in the parking lot. It wasn't very comfortable because the cab (of the van) is pretty small and I'm fairly tall. And I believe the temperature dropped to below 10C overnight and I wasn't wearing anything heavy.

Workers started drifting in around 4:00 in the morning and I was able to unload at around 5:30 a.m. I finished by 6:00 and was back on the road to Toronto shortly thereafter. I was happy about that because I was able to beat rush hour in Montreal.

The drive home was much easier. I ditched the GPS and followed my pre-planned route (in reverse order) of Highway 40 to 30 to 20 to 401. On the way I stopped a couple of times at rest stops along the 401 to take naps. I was pretty sleepy and there was no rush to get back. My job for the day was complete.

I got back to Toronto at 2:30 p.m., got home by around 3:00 and took a short nap before heading out to do an errand and meet up with friends for dinner.

Job?

As most of you know I've been out of work since June of 2009. After going to Imperial Buffet with a few of my friends on Monday night one of them, Dickie, mentioned I should go drive a delivery truck for one of our other church friends, Sid. Sid owns a business called Wet Towel International. They supply hot towels and wet towels to restaurants and dental offices and other businesses.

I went in briefly to see the facilities off Eglinton, east of the DVP on Tuesday. Sid showed me around then gave me a short "road test". It just involved me driving around the parking lot in the panel van and backing it down the narrow path to the door we pick up cases of disposable towels from.

After that we made a run down to Union Station to drop off 36 cases of cloth towels to Via Rail and pick up the dirty ones. That particular run is a little more involved than most. Not only is the volume of towels higher, but you have to navigate a maze of hallways to get to the place to drop the towels off because of the ongoing renovations there. We brought a heavy duty dolly which allowed us to transport 12 cases at a time. A great time saver for sure.

The next day I made my first solo run. It was out to Stratford and St. Thomas. I was to deliver 15 cases of disposable towels to Kings Buffet in each town. Now I rarely venture out of Toronto, and never in that direction. But, we printed out maps from Map Quest online the day before and I went home and drew some more detailed versions out. It helped a lot. I'm happy to say I didn't make one wrong turn.

The weather conditions weren't great when I went out. There wasn't any snow on the ground, but it was really windy. It pushed the van around quite a bit along the highway (401). And when I got out close to Stratford there was a lot of blowing snow which cut visibility to near zero in places. So that was kind of unnerving.

The first run from Toronto to Stratford took about 2 hours and fifteen minutes. I dropped the cases off in the back kitchen area of the restaurant and had the manager sign a receipt saying he received the goods.

Driving outside of the city can be nice. I really don't like traffic at all I have to say. And being this far out you're able to avoid it for the most part. But, it did get boring at times since the drive was so long. I listened to the radio part of the time. The Toronto FM stations cut out after you got too far from the city. So I had to listen to 680 News (AM) part of the time. It was better than nothing. A CD or MP3 player would have been nice though.

The second run from Stratford to St. Thomas was slightly quicker. It took about 1-1/2 hours. I took Highway 7/8 west to Embro Road and headed south to the 401. From there I traveled west to Exit 177A and got off on Colonel Talbot Road which pretty much went straight to the restaurant some 13-14 kms later.

I dropped the towels off where the waitstaff put the dirty dishes just outside the kitchen. I had to cart all the cases through the kitchen to get there. Three trips with five cases each on a dolly. Again I got the manager there to sign a receipt and I was done. I took ten minutes in the van to eat some noodles I had brought for lunch and set off for Toronto.

According to Google Maps, the drive back is 220 kms and is supposed to take 2-1/2 hours. I was pretty close to it because I had gotten a fairly early start in the day. After loading the boxes onto the truck I was on the road by 9:30 a.m. Still I hit some stop and go traffic near Highway 427 coming back into the city. It was probably about 3:30 p.m. by that time. Rush hour never seems to end. I noticed it was worse going westbound, so I shouldn't complain.

I believe I got back between 4:00-4:30 p.m. Sid was still at the office. His son, Joseph, was there too. He was loading some towels into his car. I suppose he was going to go out to deliver them. Dickie was there too. He was doing some work around the facilities. He's been helping out a bit there since he stopped working regularly at the church.

Before I went in I called the guys out to show them something I discovered about the van. The day before Sid told me to be careful with the doors to the back of the van. He said that if they ever closed on you you'd be locked in. He mentioned that happened to him once. And it happened to his son (I believe) and one of the other workers there. When that happened, he said, you had to bang on the window to get a passerby's attention so they could open the door from the outside to let you out.

Well, after looking at the locking assembly on the back door I noticed you could open from the inside by sticking your fingers on this mechanism and pushing it a certain way. I guess it was good news for everyone. No more worrying about a gust of wind blowing the doors closed and anyone getting stuck anymore.

We went back in after and discussed when I might come in next. Sid said to come back next Tuesday (six days later). He was trying to figure a new route out. This one would probably involve a lot more stops, but be slightly closer to Toronto. I might go up to Barrie and do the Union Station run after that.

Sid's other workers have the two vans on other days to make their deliveries. I suppose I'm sort of the back up guy for now. I don't mind. I guess I still feel like I'm in "retirement mode".