Wednesday, January 30, 2008

How's My Driving?

We've all seen those bumper stickers on those company vehicles.

The first time I had one was when I worked for a national children's theatre group and we toured the country.



I used to always make jokes about it..."How's my driving? Call 1-800-Eat-SH**" Yes, I realize this may have reflected a negative attitude, that could have been misunderstood by the parents of these children we were casting in our show. So, they never heard my "joke".



I just thought it was silly to ask people to call and complain about our driving? Does it really work?

Oh yeah it does!! One of our other teams ended up getting seriously busted for weaving in and out of...you're never going to guess...a funeral procession! Who does that?? She was weaving in and out of a funeral procession, with the children's theatre logo on the side, and her tattle tale sticker on the bumper.


I don't suffer from road rage, but I'll tell you, sometimes in my commute I want to call the numbers just for fun. Especially if they're driving like an idiot. "Yes, I'd like to report vehicle number 2369 because he thinks he's on American Idol and can't sing!" How fun would that be?


Ahem...the movie in my mind digresses a bit.

I'll tell you though, somehow that sticker saved my life about 13 years ago. When we had our serious car accident (I'll blog about it someday, I promise) the paramedics kept asking me how to call the owner of the truck. All I could do was repeat, "1-800-Eat-SH**". They thought I had a concussion for sure! They eventually got the point and were able to call the company, who called Mom and Dad.

All Hail the Tattle Tale!!!

12 comments:

Nora said...

Yes, I have fantasies of calling those numbers too. Also the 800 numbers on random food products, ice cream and such. What would I say? This is why I don't call.

Karen H. said...

Good Morning Grandy,
Wow, I have seen alot of those stickers on Big Trucks when I would go out on the road with my DH. Sometimes I would be so tempted to call those numbers because of the way the driver was driving. But, I never did. Now, I have called the Police before on how someone was driving that I thought would cause an accident. I'm a former Dispatcher for a Police, Fire, and Ambulance Department, so I'm still on the lookout for things. Once you have done that kind of job, it stays in your blood. Take care my friend and have a great day. May God Bless You and Yours.

Love & Hugs,
Karen H.

krissy said...

I cannot believe that someone would weave in and out of a funeral procession! That is just down right rude!

I have had the same ideas about calling the numbers. I think the american idol thing would be a hoot! Make sure you blog about it when you finally get the nerve up to call!

Momisodes said...

WOW....that's pretty special to weave in and out of a funeral procession.

Now I'm a little curious about the car accident....at least you're alright :)

Grandy said...

Nora Bee~ First...let me say I love your little pic!! Second... Say you found a HAIR in your food product. ;)

Karen~ Ohhh, I bet you are on the lookout.

Krissy~ It is rude to weave in & out of the funeral procession... she got in trouble, but not fired.

Sandy~ In good time. I like to have fun with the blog...posting about that might make it too serious. ;)

Mike Golch said...

Good afternoon Grandy,the only problem whit calling those numbers are the Idiots that do it for fun and complaine about the driver saying they are doind something that there were not doing. The company I worked for in Ca.had these stickers on their trucks,I was driving and someone called that I was flying down the highway.(which was not true)I was going under the speed limit due to an out of balance tire.the joker though that it was funny to report me spddening since he was riding my bumper and yelling those funny four letter words wt me to spooed up.My truck had a tracking device that showed the speed I was driveing and how mant stops I made and how long the stops were.when the stuff was read and the was how I was driveing and how the other drivers were driveing they decided to pull the stickers off because of the harrassment that wew getting from other people reporting fraudlent information on us.

Grandy said...

Mike~ You crack me up...every time I post a silly thing, you have a serious story to combat it. ;)

Tina Coruth said...

Grandy,

I can't imagine anyone weaving in and out of a funeral procession. Incredible!

Tina

Mike Golch said...

well that is what blogging is about,you can get silly and serious and the fun part is that we keep ourselves entertained with the comments.Desides i know someone just that dumb who would weave in and out of a funeral,needless to say he is no longer a welcomed friend of mine.Not to mention we have 2.5 thousand miles between us.
besides I think some of the phone calls about us drivers were other drivers trying to agrevats the bosses.

Anonymous said...

I call those numbers all the time. Especially now that I got the bluetooth, voice command and GPS going. I just "dial---" and through my car speakers I can have a detailed conversation with the nimrod who decided cutting me off was a good idea.

About 3 years ago, I was driving to a work site and was being dogged by this older Mercedes. He was weaving in and out and causing havoc. If I got out of his lane he would switch lanes to tailgate. That kind of psychotic. Anyway, I fed up with this guy and the entire rear window of his car was an ad and had that "how am I driving" at the bottom. I called it. And got the dang driver! He was spittin' some mad fire yelling at me "Who are you? WHO ARE YOU? Where are you? I'll run you over? Are you the black truck? The red minivan?" I hung up so fast.

The only upside of this is that about 5 miles later, that guy wound up weaving his stupid self into a mattress sitting in the middle of the freeway and hitting the median. People drove by laughing

PaulSafety said...

Hi!

Our company provides this service to about 3,800 commercial fleets in the USA and Canada. The program is typically provided by insurance carriers to fleets since the program cuts collisions by 20-30% (as measured by the insurers own claim data).

The key to success, is for motorists to call in and simply state what they actually saw (no need to embellish), and for the safety director to use the report for "re-training" not punishing the affected commercial driver.

We send training materials along with our reports for this purpose.

About 8-10% of all calls are compliments on drivers "doing it right". About half of all drivers who get complaints respond to the training and never get another report during their entire career. Unfortunately some get repeat complaints and need more formalized training so that they do not get hurt or hurt someone else because of their driving "tactics".

Thanks for keeping an open mind about the call in process.

Grandy said...

Paul~ Sorry for the delayed response to your comment. It sorta snuck in there. Thanks so much for stopping by.

I can certainly appreciate the need to keep your drivers safe and well trained (if you read my bio you'd know I do claims for a living).

I think the service you're providing is a good thing. ;)