Shipping Frustration
Quite a few years back I was in Brussels, Belgium monitoring a renovation project for a client. A requirement of this renovation was to have testing performed before the project could proceed. The local laboratory was backed up and it would take a least a few days to process the samples.
I was in contact with a laboratory in Pittsburgh, PA USA that could analyze the samples on an expedited basis. At the time, the commercial shipping services were unable to meet my requirements to ship the samples to the within my time constraints.
I then went to each of the cargo offices at the airlines to direct ship it to Pittsburgh. After an hour or so, I realized that this was not possible, so I tried shipping it to New York City where we had an office, so I could have someone pick it up and put it on plane to Pittsburgh.
At British Airways, I had my solution. Even though they had to fly to London 1st, they offered to put the samples on the Concord (Like I said, it was a while ago) from London to NYC. I faxed the flight numbers to our Office in NYC. They were going to pick up the samples and put them on a plane to Pittsburgh (or so I thought). I was expecting the results when I arrived the next morning.
Overnight, I got a few faxes from our New York Office. They didn’t want to take a cab to the airport because of the cost and by the time they got to the cargo office of British Airways, it was closed. Then they were waiting for some one to pick them up to take them to the airport. They decided to put the samples on a FedEx flight to Pittsburgh that 2nd evening.
Travels and Tribulations – Part 1
I was once called for a meeting in NYC by a client for some negotiations with on a litigation matter. Being from the Albany, NY area, I would normally take Amtrak to Penn Station. Due to some flooding of the track, Amtrak was not operating. I decided to drive down to Poughkeepsie and take the Metro North commuter train. The meeting in NYC was completed.
After the meeting I received a call, that they needed someone in Alabama to document a 1-2 day project. I took a flight to Alabama, arriving sometime after midnight for the project next day. I went to the nearest all night department store to pick up some clothes, tools and supplies that I need to document the project. The project was completed in 1 very long day and I was ready to fly back to NYC to take the train to pick up my car.
I boarded the next morning flight in Mobile and we took off. A short time later, the aircraft had a bird strike. We immediately went back to Mobile, resulting me to miss my connection to NYC. The next flight to NYC was sold out so I was rerouted through Cincinnati then to NYC. It was late when I arrived in NYC, but the sold out flight that had my luggage was further delayed and had not arrived yet. I waited for that flight to arrive and took a taxi to Grand Central Station just in time to take the last commuter train to Poughkeepsie.
I arrived in Poughkeepsie and started to drive the NYS Thruway home. I stopped at a rest area to pick up an iced coffee, but the cashier did not know how to make one. I said forget it and drive to the next rest area. The next rest area only had decaffeinated coffee available. At this time, it was after midnight on a Labor Day weekend.
Travels and Tribulations – Part 2
I once got called to an emergency inspection and meeting in San Francisco. I took the morning flight out, arriving in San Francisco at 11:00 am. I talked with the client on administrative matters and completed the inspection. I took the red-eye flight the same day back to Chicago and then a morning flight to Albany. As the administrative matter needed to be resolved, I drove to the office and took care of the issue. Later that afternoon, I drove home for much needed rest.