I posted this story on December 15 in another forum I belong to -- a bunch of mostly music-lovers who mostly live in the same general area. It fits the current topic.
I suspect part of the problem is that shippers, and others, are trying to meet heavy seasonal demand with temporary workers and rented equipment. The driver in this case was definitely a temp worker.
Quote:
Well, this was how I spent part of my Friday afternoon:
My wife, who had been out at the library, came in and asked if we'd just gotten a package. I said no. She then mentioned that there was a delivery truck stuck in our driveway.
It was a long FedEx delivery van. Apparently he had made a delivery to a neighbor and decided to make a U-turn in our driveway. Instead of just nosing in and then swinging out, he pulled all the way in. Since we live on a hill, this meant most of the van (and its mass) was downhill from the rear wheels (of the rear wheel drive van). And the rear wheels were on a patch of ice the town plow left behind. He couldn't back out, so he decided to go a little further down our nicely shoveled driveway and build momentum as he backed out.
Unfortunately, we have a narrow driveway with a bit of a curve to it, and he had a wide van. When he made his first attempt at backing out the left rear wheel (of the rear wheel drive van) slid off the edge of our driveway and into a ditch that runs down the hill alongside it. It started spinning and he couldn't back out. He tried to get the wheel back on the driveway by edging right as he came down the driveway ... but he was still in the ditch as he got to the bottom of the driveway.
At the bottom of the driveway we have a spot where the driveway makes a 90° turn to the right to face the garage doors on the side of the house. There were just two problems -- aside from the wheel still spinning on the packed snow in the ditch. First, the "turn around" was only about 4 feet longer than his delivery van. Second, he was now right behind my van, which was parked at the bottom of the driveway.
First, I had him pull as far forward as he can get -- bearing in mind he was about 12 feet away from a 10 foot drop off. Then I was able to wiggle the Dodge around his van and get it up the hill.
It took us about 10 to 15 minutes to rock his van back and forth and get the rear wheel to "hop" back onto the pavement.
Then, a few more minutes to "scissor" the van back and forth until it was facing back up the driveway.
He backed it as far back as he could, got a good running start, and got up the driveway. (There was one point, where the driveway curves, that I thought he was going to go back in the ditch, but he just skirted around the edge. The back wheel only spun a little bit before he got it back on the pavement.)
And that's what we do for fun here.
In spite of the paint job, I suspect the van was a rental for the holiday demand. The tires looked like general purpose truck tires -- the tread was probably legal, but definitely looked worn.
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