Beating the System

When you entrust trade show equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a truck driver for transport, he better be trustworthy. And it doesn't hurt for him to be capable of defending himself - and your stuff - if your delivery is ever threatened by bandits. Unfortunately, sometimes truck drivers are neither of those things, and you just have to pray your shipment gets to the show.

My company has a long-standing relationship with Hewlett-Packard Development Co. L.P., providing storage and maintenance for its exhibit properties and demo computer equipment. A few years ago, HP was preparing to exhibit at the Autodesk One Team Conference in Las Vegas, and had also been contracted by the show to supply all the computer technology it needed for classrooms, demo suites, and presentations.

At our Madison, AL, warehouse, we preloaded more than 100 high-end computers with the necessary software, and then packed them into a truck for the four-day jaunt to The Venetian-Las Vegas. We also loaded the truck with the HP booth we had in storage, and sent the trucker on his way.

We had used this shipping company many, many times, and though we seldom saw the same driver twice, the service was very reliable. That's why I was a little surprised to get a call from the Autodesk folks four days later when the truck had missed its Las Vegas arrival deadline. With a quick call to the shipper I learned that it had no idea that the truck was not on schedule, but the dispatcher I spoke to promised to track down some information and call me right back. It didn't take long before I had some answers, but they weren't the answers I wanted to hear.

"The truck driver is in the hospital in Oklahoma," the dispatcher told me. "He's been robbed." As I thought of the nearly $200,000 in computers on the truck, I felt a little nauseous. Any thieves opening the back of that truck would think they had won the lottery. The units were specially configured with wildly expensive technology, and they were essentially brand new. Selling them would be a breeze, and someone was going to be very happy. But if we didn't come up with 100 more computers and another exhibit for the Autodesk show, it certainly wasn't going to be me.

After a moment of stunned shock at the warehouse, all hell broke loose. People scrambled to the storage area to see how many HP computers were left in stock, while others started working through scenarios for how we would get more, and get the software loaded onto all of them. Another group scoured the exhibit properties we had on hand to see what could be configured for HP. I had the unfortunate duty of calling HP reps to advise them we had a little "situation." Without providing details, I informed them that we had an issue with the truck, but we were resolving it. I must have sounded calm because the client didn't get upset, but the truth was that I was already upset enough for both of us.

We continued in full panic mode for another hour or so at the warehouse until the shipping dispatcher called back to say she had more information. According to the police, she said, the truck was locked and unharmed. The driver, on the other hand, was still in the hospital after taking quite a beating, and he told the officers his assailant took all of his travel and gas money.

I'm sure I sounded like I was being sympathetic when I asked how long before he would be released from the hospital, but actually I was trying to find out whether he was going to drive this truck to Las Vegas, and if not, who was.

The dispatcher, who was speaking intermittently with the police, the driver, and the hospital, called several times over the next couple of hours with updates. The police had the keys to the truck and trailer, she learned, and were keeping an eye on it as they conducted their investigation. The driver was to be released later that day, but the company put a manager on a plane to take over transporting the truck the rest of the way.

We appreciated all the updates, and particularly the part about our truck being safe and having another driver en route. But then we got the bombshell phone call. According to the dispatcher, the driver had been released from the hospital, but he was promptly arrested by the police, who had determined he made up the whole story. It seemed he had stopped at a casino, gambled away his travel funds, and then became desperate when he realized that he was going to have to come up with a plausible story for why he needed more money.

So he drove to a desolate stretch of road, got out of the cab of the truck, and beat the hell out of himself. He punched himself in the face. He threw himself on the ground and rolled around. He hurled himself into the side of the truck. It must have been bizarrely comical to watch him fight his invisible enemy, because by the time it was over, the driver had roughed himself up pretty good.

Then he did what anyone would do after such a vicious robbery - he called 911. Perhaps police had seen this type of thing before near the casino, or perhaps the driver was not a convincing liar. In any case, officers located a witness who placed him at the casino, and found signs of only one person in the area around the truck. So once he was cleaned up at the hospital, the cops threw him in the clink for filing a bogus report.

About the same time that we heard the outlandish tale, the manager from the shipping company landed in Oklahoma to retrieve the truck. Infinitely calmer this time, I called back the HP reps and nonchalantly told them all was well. The truck would arrive two days late, I said, but it would be there a day before the show opened, and we would bring in all the people needed to make sure the setup was completed in time for the show.

As for the truck driver, this was definitely a gamble that had gone wrong in just about every way possible. Not only was he broke, beat up, and under arrest, the shipping company cut him loose on the spot and told the police they could have him.

When I look back on that fateful day, I can't help but laugh when I think of the driver losing a fistfight with himself, and I'm glad to know my staffers can spring into action the way that they did. The experience ultimately taught me two things: We learned we can inventory our warehouse in two hours or less, and nothing good happens when you beat yourself up over something.

- Dean Dexter, owner, Gizmojo, Cheyenne, WY