Driving Rollback

The following is an email from a fellow rollback driver that hauls cars/trucks. It is kind of comical yet it does tell the tale rather accurately at times. Enjoy!

A week in the life of a rollback driver - I am on call 5 days a week, 24 hours a day. I am not paid by the hour, but commission only. Therefore, if I do not have a call, I am not making any money. It's great, for a number of different reasons.

1. I no longer have to mow the grass. I can't hear the phone while mowing.

2. No longer do I have to start all those little jobs around the house. The phone "might" ring, and then the job and tools are just dropped, in favor of running a call.

3. My wife's "honey-do" list has suddenly vanished. She finally realized that anytime I just about get started on a project, the phone rings, and then the job gets left unfinished. Therefore, she no longer asks me to do anything.

4. It saves me money. I no longer have to take the wife out to eat during my 5 days on call, because, the phone "might" ring, and I'll have to leave immediately.

5. It saves me even more money. I no longer have to take the wife shopping, because, as above, the phone "might" ring and I would have to leave without finishing shopping.

6. No longer do I have to go grocery shopping with the wife. The phone "might" ring, and we can't get the groceries home before the butter and ice cream melts, and the milk spoils.

7. Not only that, I can't be very far from the truck at any given time.

8. It helps me to lose weight. While I am headed home after what I thought was my last call, I figure I can grab a bite to eat when I get there. About 1/2 mile from home, the phone rings, and I have another call in a different direction and I don't get to eat.

9. At the end of a day when I have only had 2 calls, and have sat around all day doing nothing - I no longer have to feel guilty about not getting anything accomplished. After all, the phone "could" have rung at any time and I would have had to leave.

10. On those weeks when things are busy, I then spend 75% of the first day off sleeping, trying to catch up on all the sleep I missed during the 5 days I was on call, so nothing gets done on the first day off. On the second day off, I only sleep 40% of the day, trying to catch up on the sleep I missed during the last 5 day run. Unfortunately, I sleep too much, and then can't sleep well that night, and feel like dirt the next day, (which is my first day back to work for another 5 days).

11. It's also fun when I try to call the people needing help, to verify where they are, and what the problem is, and they do not pick up the phone for one of the following reasons.....

a. I turned my phone off, because the battery was going dead.

b. My phone was on vibrate, and I didn't hear it ring.

c. I don't take calls from phone numbers I don't recognize.

d. My phone was inside the car, while I was outside sitting on the bank of the road, watching the traffic go by.

e. I was on the phone talking to my (whomever) and that call was more important than talking to the person who is actually going to pick up my dead car and haul it to the garage.

12. Of course, the interesting ones are when we are given a wrong number, to contact the customer,and dial it, at 3:00 in the morning ..... Oops!

13. Also interesting is when the customer gives us the wrong phone number, and we have no way to contact them.

14. Another one is when the customer tells us they are at mile marker xx on the interstate, and after searching for 40 minutes, we find out they are at mile marker xx in the next state.

15. Then there is the one where we have no call back number, and the customer is not where they said they were, and we cannot find them.

16. Getting run out of bed at 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday morning to take a car to the garage, when the garage doesn't open until Monday morning at 8:00 am. or being called out on a holiday, when the garage won't be open until at least the next day, and there was no emergency. while the car is sitting in the garage, or along the street, and could have been picked up at any time during the next business day.

Ah, yes, life in the rollback is great, don't you think?