sensible margins for once. Perhaps Christmas has come early.
But why does every other customer have a sick mother or
newborn? Or both....
plummet... Maybe Christmas has gone... sigh.
quiet, so wrap things up at the office at lunchtime and wish
everybody a happy new year, and look forward to a quiet
evening in. At about 3pm, get a call from the office phone
divert from what can only be described as a screaming banshee
of a female accusing me of ruining their new year because they
have run out of oil and need to collect some and the depot is
closed ahead of the normal time. She lists the things she is
going to do to ruin our reputation and to appease her I agree
to get round to the depot and open up. On arrival, her rather
henpecked-looking husband is outside and wants to buy just
15 litres. I explain this will not fix their problem, so he manages
to scrape together enough to buy 30litres, then wave him off
knowing his chance of success is small. Phone rings again at
6pm and a very polite lady (with a familiar sounding voice) asks
buy some oil as they can't get their boiler started. I advise not a
chance and polite lady reverts to screaming banshee... happy
new year!
too good to last. Fed up with customers moaning over the last
0.2 pence/litre so decide to let a regular take his chances
elsewhere. Have the last laugh when he rings up a few days
later still waiting for his 'cheaper' delivery but has now run out
- charge him 3 pence/litre extra for same day delivery, warming
the Kerr heart a bit.
Have a chat when he comes in, turns out to be a farmer from
just a couple of miles away. Apparently he has run out so I
offer the advice that we could get to him with a tanker today.
Not to worry he says, ordered through a farming group at a
price above that we are charging, but they won't deliver for a
few days. Suggest he could call us for a quote, but he says it
takes too much time to ring round. Suggest it would take him
less time than coming in to collect fuel and then pouring it in
his tank. He leaves with the hump, I add him to my hit list to
turn off the pump next time he shows up...
them when they can't even get their cars off their driveways?
Explain to one that a lack of planning on their part does not
necessarily mean an emergency on mine. Doubt they
understood what I meant.
decision, do a rapid sell-off of the remains of our rock salt
mountain, lay off the temporary driver and de-tax the winter
truck. Warm feeling knowing I have wisely saved overheads
coming out of winter.
celebrate Mrs O'Scene's selfless contributions to coffee
shopping. Get a 'golden ticket' call
out delivery that will net £500! A
quick call round the drivers finds
all of them committed to mother's
day celebrations. There is no
alternative but to tell the family to
enjoy themselves whilst I go and
make a few pounds. On my joyous
at the most expensive restaurant in town... lesson learnt.
return with a vengeance. Phone winter driver to see if he can
come back but he already has another job. Try a few agencies
and whilst waiting for them to call back discover the truck
needs a service and the repairers can't get it in for three
days......arrghhhh. At least the FPS Expo is just around the
corner so I can stock up on free pens again....
safety helmet with
integral visor
safety helmet with
LO
KERR O'SCENE, the MD of a hard-pressed independent
distributor somewhere in Britain.