I've got one customer with a downtown location. Their building is good because it actually has a loading dock and I'm allowed to leave my truck there while I'm working. That's the good. The bad is actually getting my truck into their loading dock. It's off a small sidestreet where parking is legal on the one side. It's illegal to park on the other side because that only leaves one lane available for the two way traffic. Worse than that, when there are cars illegally parked, it is between extremely difficult and literally impossible for me to make the swing to get my truck into the dock. This is a problem because there are illegally parked cars there about 90% of the time.
Well the easy solution here is to tag and tow the illegally parked cars. That's where it gets complicated. These cars always have handicapped stickers on them, and the city has an (un)official policy of never tagging or towing handicap vehicles.
I don't want to sound like I'm unsympathetic to the plight of the handicapped, but these are people who are abusing the system. There is more than enough ample parking in the immediate area, but those are pay lots. They use this policy to get away with free illegal parking.
I've brought it up with the customer multiple times, and he gives me a shrug and a mumble of "whatcha gonna do?"
So the last time I was at his place, as usual there were the illegally parked cars blocking my swing. I probably could have gotten in but it would have involved a 20 point turn, with only an inch or so to spare from hitting something. So I said fuck it. I called him to let him know that I can't get into his dock because of the illegally parked cars. We'll have to sit and wait until these cars move. I called my shop to let them know the same. In both cases they freaked - "you've been able to do it before". Yeah well, can't do it today, we'll have to wait, or geez, maybe somebody can get off their ass and put in a complaint to have the authorities deal with it. Oh no, they can't do that. Well fine, I can't get in either.
A charged and paid hour and a half later, this "handicapped" person came out and moved her car. (The quotes around "hadicapped" are just based on my observations, while I don't know what non-obvious ailments she may be suffering from, there was nothing obvious, and she had no difficultly lifting a large briefcase into her trunk). Anyways, now I could get into the dock and get to work. I talked to the client about it and got the usual shrug. Yeah, we'll see if you feel the same way when you get the bill.
And now I'm back there tonight, I'll have to see if the last run got his attention or if it's just going to be the same routine. I have no intention of even attempting to pull into the dock if there is a single illegally parked car in the area.
Well the easy solution here is to tag and tow the illegally parked cars. That's where it gets complicated. These cars always have handicapped stickers on them, and the city has an (un)official policy of never tagging or towing handicap vehicles.
I don't want to sound like I'm unsympathetic to the plight of the handicapped, but these are people who are abusing the system. There is more than enough ample parking in the immediate area, but those are pay lots. They use this policy to get away with free illegal parking.
I've brought it up with the customer multiple times, and he gives me a shrug and a mumble of "whatcha gonna do?"
So the last time I was at his place, as usual there were the illegally parked cars blocking my swing. I probably could have gotten in but it would have involved a 20 point turn, with only an inch or so to spare from hitting something. So I said fuck it. I called him to let him know that I can't get into his dock because of the illegally parked cars. We'll have to sit and wait until these cars move. I called my shop to let them know the same. In both cases they freaked - "you've been able to do it before". Yeah well, can't do it today, we'll have to wait, or geez, maybe somebody can get off their ass and put in a complaint to have the authorities deal with it. Oh no, they can't do that. Well fine, I can't get in either.
A charged and paid hour and a half later, this "handicapped" person came out and moved her car. (The quotes around "hadicapped" are just based on my observations, while I don't know what non-obvious ailments she may be suffering from, there was nothing obvious, and she had no difficultly lifting a large briefcase into her trunk). Anyways, now I could get into the dock and get to work. I talked to the client about it and got the usual shrug. Yeah, we'll see if you feel the same way when you get the bill.
And now I'm back there tonight, I'll have to see if the last run got his attention or if it's just going to be the same routine. I have no intention of even attempting to pull into the dock if there is a single illegally parked car in the area.
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