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In my last entry I was going to cover some odds and ends but jon1jt expressed honest concerns regarding my mention of getting a tow driver fired. For this he is to be commended and his concerns I hope to put at rest.

Old time readers will know I often do a newspaper style of an attention grabber sentence that is technically true but ultimately means something quite different. Yes I took an action that resulted in a man losing his job. Now lets review the situation as best we can:

Now some AAA clubs have their own fleet of trucks and drivers that work directly for them. The club I toil for 'rents' a fleet from a contractor and we can use and abuse the four assigned drivers as we please--translation--the police won't up and grab them for accident calls at the drop of a dime. Otherwise AAA has contracts with local towing companies agreeing to run AAA calls for so much a call (average is about $15 a call but they can make some money on tow miiles for instance or in many cases talk the member into bringing the malfunctioning vehicle to their place of repair.)

Now the drivers we dispatch in theory are accountable to us at AAA when we run a call but their ultimate loyalty and responsibility is to their station owner. He/She pays their salary afterall. About 95% of the drivers are hard working professionals; charming in customer service relations and actually enjoy the challenge and the day to day madness that goes with the territory.

But the 5% are constantly switching stations (looking for better pay/hours/conditions) with the view that what benefits THEM is more important then doing the job. I have one station for instance (two actually) where Junior works for dad but if Junior doesn't feel like it he'll turn down a call without a qualm of conscience for the fiscal health of the business. Some stations do not LIKE to do long distance tows (usual in fear of missing the more lucrative police calls).

Last Sunday I had the 2-10 pm shift and I was guarding the Dayton area primarily and partner Bob was overseeing Greene county and nw area of Dayton. There is a company that runs Englewood and Brookville and they usually have only one driver on call for weekends. Said driver, Jeff, had had only one call that day and he had fussed at day shift about going on it.

We hear grumbling all the time. I can let it in one ear and out the other--sometimes doing the AWWWW poor baby routine or Gee life sucks do it anyway and get by. Today was going to be different. Now Jeff used to work for a station in Moraine that is one of our busiest contractors--Sta 0010 is NOT satisfied is he doesn't get 90 calls a day. You would amazed how close he gets. Jeff had made no major impression on me while working there but when he moved to the Englewood company #0159 I noticed a tendency to whine and question each call. One time he flat out said he didn't want to do one because a mere tire change just wasn't bringing in the money. My answer to that was my patented something is better then nothing. My other partners in dispatch definitely did not like him and not afrraid to say so. I like to feel I can take an awful lot before I react. And have. Both ways.

Around 6:30 pm a tire change on the interstate came in and Jeff was paged by Bob and the paged time noted in the computer. Usually the station answers back in 5 minutes. Sometimes though 0159 needs a second page but it took Jeff 20 minutes to respond. In the meantime a short tow also came in. Bob was busy on the phone so when Jeff decided to check in I pounded the phone over and the conversation went something along the lines of:

Driver: This is Jeff, you paged?

Me: Yes, I had a tire change but now we have two calls holding for you. (I worded it this way as a dig at the poor page response time.)

What I expected next was along the lines the lines of Let me have the info.

What I got was:

Driver: I don't have time for this stuff.. I have a lot of s*** to do. I can't be out there doing all this I have stuff to do.

There was a bit more to it then that but the tone is what got me. This was not the fine I'll turn off my Brady Bunch rerun I was watching and go help the helpless change a tire -- darn one of the rare Jan episodes too. No this was heated excitement bordering on mild hysteria.

I attempt to remind him that: "Ah but this is the profession you have chosen." The use of the word profession was deliberate to bring him to proper decorum.

Response: Man I'm not doing weekends anymore. I have stuff I have to do. (Broken record by now and the grizzley is starting to awaken.) His manner was like a person who has an overflowing toliet and can't figure out how to turn the water off.

I decide then and there I don't want him touching a tire and maybe he just needs a time out. I start to mention this when out of the blue he goes;

"Who's Bob???"

Well Bob is my partner and what has he got to do with any of this. I'm the dispatcher he is dealing with. This put the nail in his coffin. I don't want him in his truck right now going anywhere soon.

I quietly but firmly say--"I'm covering the calls we're done." and hang up.
Again quietly. Been awhile since I have slammed a phone. Always fun when Tonya does it.

A minute later Jeff calls Bob and says he was just going for a pencil and why did I hang up like that?! When Bob starts to go over the fallow ground Jeff abruptly hangs up on him.

Bob and I chat a bit and he suggests that Jeff's boss, Ron, be informed of a 'situation' to which I in my heart of hearts agree with but dislike going to that level. Bob makes the call.

Five minutes later Ron calls and says Jeff is history and apologizes for his behavior. I can honestly say I did not take it personal. I hope never to be smug about another man's fall.

I called his old station and talked to Liz and was discovered he was not liked at all there and his integrity was in question. We'll leave it at that.

I ask manager Debbie about it Monday and she assures me my actions were justified. Again--complaining about work--getting incoherent about it--two different things. She felt (and I agree) Ron would not have let him go on the basis of one bad afternoon. If that were so I wouldn't have a job at AAA--many afternoons worth. It was probably the final straw to a lackluster work performance.

I left the parking lot that evening carefully looking around reminding myself that I may be a military retiree but I was never a really brave man.

So Jon1jt--hope this puts your fears to rest. I took no pleasure in his downfall. No glory this day.