It was just too tight
Our commercial property had two driveways that were connected in the back by a short turn, only suitable for cars and vans. The area in between had just been landscaped by my dad with shrubs and small trees.
We made sure to tell all delivery drivers that they should take the wide driveway, otherwise they would get stuck in the bend. The second driveway was just for cars. Most truckers didn’t need to be told though; from their cabin they could clearly see which one to back into.
One of them, the driver for a mattress company, was not that smart. He pulled in forward with his sizable box truck and when he couldn’t make the curve he just plowed through the bushes causing considerable damage.
My dad saw it coming but didn’t get there in time to prevent it from happening. The driver got out like it was no big deal. “Why on earth did you do that,” my dad yelled. “Didn’t you see that you couldn’t make the turn?”
The driver shrugged his shoulders. “It couldn’t help it; it is just too tight there.”
Apparently it hadn’t occurred to him that he should have backed out and gone in the other driveway.
A few minutes later my dad was on the phone with the owner of the company, who also happened to be the older brother of the driver. He didn’t seem at all surprised, he clearly knew what his brother was capable of. “Just get if fixed and send me the bill,” he said. That is what happened, and the bill was promptly paid.
A few months later the same driver made another delivery. It happened when our business was closed, and we were not there to help with the unloading and check the merchandise.
When we came back that night we could hardly believe what we saw. It happened frequently that we got deliveries without us being present. There was hardly ever a problem and usually we found the merchandise neatly stored in the covered area designated for it. This time it was different.
There was a jumbled pile of mattresses and we suspected that the driver had just tossed them from the truck with no attempt whatsoever to stack them neatly, or even better, lean them against the wall.
This time I called the company and again the older brother was very understanding. “Don’t touch them,” he said. ‘I’ll send him out and have him take care of it.”
A few hours later the driver showed up in his own car. He mumbled an excuse and started stacking the mattresses in a somewhat organized fashion. The job was not perfect, but good enough.
It occurred to us that the owner must have cared about his brother quite a bit. Why else would he keep him on, causing damage and problems. But to be fair, after that we never had issues again and the guy was always friendly and helpful. He learned his lessons I suppose.