messy trucks

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growler said:
You may merely be "anal retentive" or have a more serious "obsessive-compulsive disorder". I think I would have that checked out.

I find that the neatness of my work vehicle is inversely proporional to the amount of work I'm doing at the time.

If I'm working lots of hours things are not going to be as neat as if I have lots of time on my hands. Monday morning things are much better than Friday afternoon.

I once knew a maintenance mechanic that always bragged about how clean and neat his tools looked ( as far as I know he never used them). :D
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keep telling your self that, but really who cares I was just making conversation. What ever floats your boat, or in my case the starship Enter..... um I mean my van.
 
I may be somewhere in the middle here. Being in the Air Force and working on jets you had strict tool control and the most annal retentive guy in the world was best for the job. Things were kept neat and clean and organized and controlled it had to be that way. I find I am not so good at it anymore but my van is clean and organized, it is easier to work out of it that way, but on friday at 5 PM when your done and tired of the week the van doesn't look so hot.
 
tonyou812 said:
keep telling your self that, but really who cares I was just making conversation. What ever floats your boat, or in my case the starship Enter..... um I mean my van.
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Scotty likes engineering spic and span. She's a fine ship... um van eh? Like me own mother she is.:)
 
This topic is close to me. 26 years ago I was installing lawn sprinklers for a living. We always had an electrician hook up the 120V to our timers. I remember the location of the job and the red pickup they were driving.

They were digging thru a bed full of materials and debris trying to find a fitting (3/4 x 1/2 reducing bushing). Even to a 20 year old kid who dug trenches for a living, they looked like idiots and that image stuck with me.

As soon as I did my first "contracting" job I realized that time is indeed money. Every minute I saved by being organized meant more money in my pocket.

This is the evolution of many, many truck designs from mini pick ups to the current 16foot box vans.


To answer the post, we dispatch from a shop/warehouse and the trucks are cleaned out and restocked first thing daily or last thing if they come in early.

The trucks look like this every day.

DSC01001-1.jpg



I can't help but say how much affect it has on me as I walk onto an inspection to see an organized truck
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Oh yeah....there's that too. People generally look at the truck and just assume we know what we are doing. Sometimes they are right.
 
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mivey said:
Scotty likes engineering spic and span. She's a fine ship... um van eh? Like me own mother she is.:)
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Scotty.jpg


"Aye, Cap'n. I'm givin' 'er all she's got, but me
dilithium crystals, they won' hold out much longa'!"

Scotty2.jpg


"Aye, Cap'n. I've foun' the problem, and she'll take 24 'ours to fix.
But since 'e don't 'ave 24 hours, I'll 'ave 'er running in two!"​
 
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When I first started in this trade. I worked for a company that on every Friday we had to wash our trucks before we got our checks.This was at the shop and on our time.To this day I cannot stand a disorginized truck. In a service vehicle you have very limited space to stock an entire electrical supply house.Most electrical supply houses are very large buildings.Mine is a Chevy 3500 with side bins. lol Everything has it's place. A place where I can find it when I need it. Example; all you need is a 1 1/4 Meyers Hub to finish a job.....you dig...look...dig.... look....cuss..end up having to go to the supply house.Next week your running 3/4 EMT you open the box of 3/4 one hole straps and you find 10 3/4 one-hole straps and a 1 1/4 Meyers Hub. Drives me nuts!! My helpers know not to mis match my materials cause I will go off for days! lol I'm old and bitter I need Feng Shui not Sanford and Son. :grin:
 
bkludecke said:
Point is; I've seen very little connection between productivity and a messy or neat truck or desk.
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Then you simply havn't tracked it.

I was looking at a truck "system" once upon a time in which the whole rear interior of the truck came out on a pallet and a new, restocked rear interior was replaced at the end of each day. This was a simple, 5 minute operation to refresh the whole truck, all except for any trash in the cab. I still think that was a slick system, and I'm sorry I lost track of it. Mario Maio, maybe?
 
This site points out some of the signs of a mess http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/

They point out how you can buy things you already have, not knowing you have them, do to a piled mess. The lost time looking for items, how can anyone say it does not make a difference, they ned to take a second look.
 
Anybody watch those two British ladies on the BBC show, "How Clean Is Your House"? They need a version of that on a tradesman's channel where they go through a guy's truck and organize it.
 
OMG Dont even get me started. I am so tempted to institute a "pack rat" fee for those people that cant seem to throw anything away. You know the type. They have everything (furniture,magazines,clothes,old cook ware, games, their babys first soiled diapers,) every freaking thing in their lives is stored in the basement,garage, attic, crawl space, shed outside,mothers house.Two months ago I went to a customers house to do a simple install of two scones and a new switch. The house was built in the late nineties so it seemed like it was going to be a pretty straight forward install untill I went in the basement and to the room under the room that was going to get the lights installed. to my horror this was the PACK RAT room that contained every piece of crap these people had been saving. It was physically impossible to even try to walk in there. I spent an hour of my time moving this crap around to do my work.

This is a clear example of why one should not charge say 55-75 bucks per light to install. My price was 150 per and right so.
 
Some of those 'pack rat' basements can be handy. You don't need a ladder. I've already body surfed on top of the junk to drill my holes and run my cables. You hear stuff beneath you creaking and cracking, but dollars to donuts, they won't get into any of that stuff in their lifetime.
 
tonyou812 said:
your kidding right?
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No, what makes you think that? Wait until you're in the next basement with boxes on top of boxes on top of God knows what. That stuff is packed together like building blocks. Just climb up on top and get to work. I'm not talking about your run of the mill junk in the basement. This is more like the once a year, bona fide packrat.
 
If there is one thing that Ive learned is If you havent used it in the last 3-4 years and its not a family airloom or a collectable you enjoy youll probably never use it, and the only person that is going to have to deal with it is some family member when their cleaning your house out for the estate sale after you pass on. Why live like oscar the grouch. Simplify your life. Ive seen people hold on to old radios, tvs, game systems, thinking that someday it will be on the Antiques road show and worth alot of money.

I love it when you ask people to clean out a certain walk in or hall closet because you are going to instal a light of something and when you get there theres usually more crap in their than the last week. And they just look at you with that dum look on their face, Ohh you want me to take everything out? ugh yea unless sheet rock dust is a nice look for your fur coat or your Prada purse. I really dont like touching other peoples stuff. God forbid they lose something and blame it on you. There goes your profit or even your payment.
 
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