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This happened to me a long time ago, probably 10 or more years ago.
I was "in-between jobs" so I was working part-time for the local news paper picking them up. See, the small towns in my area stopped printing their own papers back in the early 90's when, one-by-one, they were all bought out by a regional printing group. This made sense because the costs were growing and some smaller towns were losing their papers to attrition. So my part-time job was driving an hour and a half to pick up the papers from one of the only working printing presses left in the the area. Crazy part (to me anyway) I was the only hourly wage person in the office, everyone else was salary. They literally had to dust off the old time clock and search for time cards. Before me, they rotated writers making the trip. Why, is still beyond my understanding. I also don't understand why I was hourly wage, perhaps that was to compensate if I fell behind scheduled or something. I always thought it would have made more sense to pay a salary for the trip.
The truck they gave me was a piece of crap though. Reliable, but that is the only positive thing I can say. No cruise control is the worst. Sounds minor, but just the extra effort it takes to maintain your speed drains a person.
Fortunately, they did have the good sense to always have good tires on the truck, rotated regularly, so I did not have a terrible time in the winter. 180 miles, three times a week, they did change them often.
(side note: best thing about a small town, everyone knew who to blame if the paper was late. Might sound bad, but if the vehicle was not maintained they would not blame the part-time driver, they would all blame the boss
I love the old hens and roosters, and I do mean that as a compliment. I pray I will be like them in my old age)
I had one flat tire in my 8 months driving. Fortunately, growing up in the middle of nowhere meant i knew how to change my tire. Still, nice that three different people stopped to ask if I needed help.
Sometimes I miss those long drives, then I turn off the Cruise Control and say "NOPE" don't miss it in the least.
I was "in-between jobs" so I was working part-time for the local news paper picking them up. See, the small towns in my area stopped printing their own papers back in the early 90's when, one-by-one, they were all bought out by a regional printing group. This made sense because the costs were growing and some smaller towns were losing their papers to attrition. So my part-time job was driving an hour and a half to pick up the papers from one of the only working printing presses left in the the area. Crazy part (to me anyway) I was the only hourly wage person in the office, everyone else was salary. They literally had to dust off the old time clock and search for time cards. Before me, they rotated writers making the trip. Why, is still beyond my understanding. I also don't understand why I was hourly wage, perhaps that was to compensate if I fell behind scheduled or something. I always thought it would have made more sense to pay a salary for the trip.
The truck they gave me was a piece of crap though. Reliable, but that is the only positive thing I can say. No cruise control is the worst. Sounds minor, but just the extra effort it takes to maintain your speed drains a person.
Fortunately, they did have the good sense to always have good tires on the truck, rotated regularly, so I did not have a terrible time in the winter. 180 miles, three times a week, they did change them often.
(side note: best thing about a small town, everyone knew who to blame if the paper was late. Might sound bad, but if the vehicle was not maintained they would not blame the part-time driver, they would all blame the boss
I love the old hens and roosters, and I do mean that as a compliment. I pray I will be like them in my old age)I had one flat tire in my 8 months driving. Fortunately, growing up in the middle of nowhere meant i knew how to change my tire. Still, nice that three different people stopped to ask if I needed help.
Sometimes I miss those long drives, then I turn off the Cruise Control and say "NOPE" don't miss it in the least.
