Ridges and Valleys

Surprisingly, I'm not talking about beautiful countryside that I've been privileged to visit.  No, I'm using these terms metaphorically today, as I reflect on the ups and downs of my courier career.  It's almost ten years since I responded to a newspaper advert which 'looked interesting.'  I had been looking for work, and decided that, while eagerly following up every likely lead, I might supplement my benefits by the odd day's driving.  I had no idea what was involved ... but I soon found out!

The people were helpful and the work interesting.  Above all, it was varied - both for nature and location!  Frankly, I was enjoying myself.  Two days a week quickly expanded to three, and then I got to a point where, as I drove to yet another interview, I said to myself, 'If I don't get this one, I'm going to give up job-hunting and buy a van.'  It would be poetic to say that, from that time on, the only looking back I've done has been in my mirror.  However that wouldn't quite be correct.  I have utilised my accounting skills, for example, in keeping my own records (almost) immaculately.  And my general experience of the management side of business has enabled me often to see the underlying stories behind some of the jobs I've been called upon to do.  I think overall it's made me more useful and sympathetic than the average time-served courier.

So, why this reflective mode - or mood - today?  Quite simply, I'm on the crest of a ridge, as it were, looking over to the next valley.  I've done my last journey in the van that has been my business home for the last 34 months, and tomorrow I shall exchange it for its successor: still white, still Vauxhall, but with a much lower mileage to build upon in the coming months.  Over the (let's call it ten) years, I have had four previous vans, and tomorrow's will be the sixth one.  That's in addition to the initial use of my car for nearly two months, the loan of a van from the firm for a few weeks following an accident, while I waited for the insurance people to settle things so I could get a new van, and the occasional use of a variety of others for single jobs as the need should arise.

In that time, it won't surprise you to know, I've covered just over three-quarters of a million miles, at an average of almost 6,400 per month.  The van I'm now exchanging is the one I've had longest, and in which I've driven the most miles, with its immediate predecessor coming a fairly close second in both aspects, and together these two vehicles account for just over half of the total time and miles.  I have to say that I've felt quite comfortable in both of them, perhaps more so than in some of the earlier ones - but then, you would expect vehicles - even bog-standard commercial vans - to improve over the years.

So, am I celebrating?  It's exciting, certainly, but the excitement will be drowned by the work involved, carting all my equipment and assorted paraphernalia [I do love that word!] into my tiny flat tomorrow morning, going off to complete the formalities and get my radio transferred into the new van, and then home once more to reverse the unloading ready to go off and do my first job.  And to crown the day, my landlord's agent has chosen tomorrow to make her quarterly inspection of the flat, so I'm hoping all the clutter will have been removed (or else successfully hidden!) before she arrives.