Damato of the Day Is... "Guess it Was Just Our Turn"

I could have titled this blog entry “The Friday From Hell,” but in spite of some nastiness it did not turn out all bad. Things started to go downhill as I was getting dressed for work and received a call from my office manager informing me that we were broken into around 4 a.m. A pair (or threesome, we haven’t quite figured that out from the fuzzy video) broke into our yard and drove off with a tractor, flatbed trailer, piggyback forklift ($150K) loaded with roofing. Well, not fully loaded, but enough to ruin our day.

The real bad news is Atlanta may be on track to be the next “hot spot” behind North Texas, which has experienced combined losses adding up to millions and perhaps tens of millions. Some of our competitors have recently suffered similar (actually much worse) losses. It is no coincidence that just earlier this week I attended a Web-based demo of a robust monitored camera system that we are considering. This and all the other options spell one thing: increased operating costs that will ultimately land at the door of the roofing consumer.

We will ramp up our security systems and may even install a beefed-up entry to the yard. We have had it beefed-up twice already but the bad guys keep figuring out how to beat our system. It is scary how good these guys were this morning. They managed to get inside and get the tractor without breaching our alarm system until the very instant they hit the gate. Less than 10 seconds later (by our video system) we saw the taillights of our tractor heading off to who knows where.

So instead of doing some good things to move our business forward I will be playing on the defensive side of the ball next week. Meetings with manufacturers who furnish high-end gate systems followed by WebEx seminars on the latest in high-tech monitored video security systems. Not the first choice, but if we do not defend our business the evil bastards will simply drive away with it and then where will we be?

But I am getting ahead of myself. While still in the middle of dealing with the overnight theft drama I got word around midday that one of our tractors pulling a 45-foot curtainside trailer had rolled and a motorist was calling us from the site of the crash on our driver’s cell phone. The lady calling told us our driver was awake and probably OK but the tractor had to be totaled. Holy crap! Of course we have procedures for dealing with these things and I have learned over the years that first (and sometimes second or third) reports from a crash scene are not always so accurate. Not real proud of my vast experience in dealing with disasters but sometimes it comes in handy.

Turns out, at least as far as the information we have gotten to this point tells us, that our driver was traveling at highway speed down a two-lane road near Vidalia, Ga., when an oncoming car veered into his lane. Swerving to miss the oncoming driver (probably talking on a cell phone or texting), our guy goes into the dirt and loses (full) control on the way to a stand of pine trees. He did not roll. The tractor is not likely totaled and the trailer appears to have only minor damage. Our guy was released from the hospital after a few hours and received some meds and told to rest for a few days. We had people there with him within hours of the crash and were able to help take care of him. Really hate that he had to go through this, and the creepy bastard who’s life our driver saved by swerving to avoid them did not even stop to offer a hand.

Our team really handled it well and by the end of Friday we had our guy headed back home for a good night’s rest and a plan to follow through with the rest of the crash investigation, repairs, insurance adjusters, etc., on Monday. It could have turned out so much worse I do not even like to think about it.

While having one of our folks involved in a crash or having one of our locations robbed is no good; I know we will survive. Thank God our people are all safe. Our tractor and trailer will likely be found, but there is no way of knowing when or in what kind of condition. Pretty sure these guys were mainly after the roofing (less than $10K). We have called customers and competitors to warn them that there are some bad guys out there now well equipped to steal from them also.

The tractor and trailer involved in the crash in South Georgia will probably be back in service within a couple of days to a couple of weeks. Our driver will be back in the seat of a rented tractor by Tuesday. It just so happens that, with over twenty-five years with our company, he is our longest serving driver. This road he ran off of is one he has driven all those years. He has been delivering the same type of material in essentially the same type of equipment all those years. This incident provides a good reminder that things can change in the blink of an eye and a good reminder of just how hazardous driving can be.

Not a good Friday. But we will ultimately look back upon it as one where we did learn a thing or two. We will improve our security systems and work to improve our incident recovery and investigation techniques and technology. In any event we will move always move forward to Monday no matter what our Fridays bring.