Well, have I got a story to tell you.
Hey guys!
Grab a cup of tea, I've got a story.
This happened a couple of days ago.
I've been sweating on stock to arrive so that we can send out the big batch of pre-orders that are due.
It's been weighing on me for weeks.
For no reason other than I know a lot of people are waiting for their pre-orders and I want to make sure they get it in time.
It's Tuesday morning.
The delivery was meant to arrive Thursday - nothing.
Friday - nothing.
Saturday - nothing.
Monday - nothing.
Friday - nothing.
Saturday - nothing.
Monday - nothing.
After so many calls with the courier company, someone finally tells me Tuesday morning that I need another piece of paper to confirm the delivery address.
Unfortunately that would take another day at least to process, and I'm probably going to miss the pre-order dispatch date.
I said 'Look, this is really urgent, is there anyway I can come and pick these up'.
'Sure you can' she said.
So it was settled. I was going to go pick them up.
Wait.
Hang on a sec.
I don't have a truck.
Or know anyone with a truck.
Nevertheless I was determined to get it that day so our customers could get their pre-orders on time.
In my car it would probably take me about 5-6 trips, a full tank of petrol and a day and half to get it done.
The problem is, you have to take it all at once, or not at all.
There was only one solution.
I jumped on AirTasker, posted that I needed someone with a truck to meet me at the courier depot, load the goods and drive with me to the warehouse.
I found someone straight away.
Perfect.
I meet them at the depot an hour or two later.
But he's lost.
I see him from the across the massive parking lot and I'm waving at him like I'm at the football trying to get someone's attention sitting in another stand.
He comes over, doesn't say much and I go in to sign out the pallets of goods.
When I come back out he's acting a little on edge. Erratic even. Pacing a little bit.
A staff member comes up to me and says 'do you know this man? I had to ask him to stop taking pictures of the facility'.
It pops into my head all of a sudden if this guy can be trusted with this precious cargo.
I don't know anything about him, but he's about to drive away with a huge delivery of stock.
I quickly realise his English is fairly limited.
I ask him if I can have his phone number just in case.
He says something along the lines of 'no, my mobile phone is not for work purposes'.
To be honest, there were red flags galore here. But this was my only way to get the stock into the warehouse today so that we can meet our deadline.
I took a deep breath.
Okay. Alright. As long as he knows where we're going and everything fits in the truck, we're good.
Okay. Alright. As long as he knows where we're going and everything fits in the truck, we're good.
We load it all up with no issues and he races in the truck and starts backing up.
Woah woah woah.
I knock on the passenger window.
Before you take off with thousands of dollars worth of stock lets just make sure we're on the same page about where we're going.
I ask if I can ride with him, just to make sure.
He doesn't understand so he gives his wife a call and we've got her on loud speaker doing some translating.
He's got to go straight from my warehouse to another job, so he'll just follow me.
Another deep breath.
We take off nice and smooth.
He's driving at a really comfortable speed behind me in the left lane and for the first few km it was going really well.
We pull up at a major intersection where you can basically join three different freeways and highways.
All of a sudden I look in my rear view mirror and he pulls out quickly into the right lane, goes straight past me without looking at me and there's now three trucks and two cars between us.
I couldn't believe it.
Is he making a run for it with my stock?
Is this really happening?
Luckily he goes straight and after five minutes of trying to weave in and out of cars and trucks I finally catch him.
I'm behind him again.
I can see the stock through the back window.
We're good.
I trail him closely all the way to the warehouse.
My heart rate is higher than the last kilometre of a marathon.
We pull in to the warehouse.
We made it. The stock is here.
There's a huge weight off my shoulders.
The orders get stocked and the processing of pre-orders begins.
From what was meant to be a normal day, turned into an exciting, exhausting and frankly nerve-racking one.
Credit to my new AirTasker friend.
A job well done. Five stars.
KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR INBOX SUNDAY 👀
This Sunday I'm going to be showing you something brand new.
I can't say too much more just yet, but it's exciting!
Stay tuned!
COMMUNITY
A few community updates & links;
🏃 Join TEAM RUNLY on Strava here.
👋 Read some of our awesome runner stories here.
🔥 Last Chance - amazing pre-order deals on now.