By Jennifer Stultz
Tri-County Tribune Editor
jstultz@cherryroad.com

I delivered a load of shingles to Sioux City, IA. Once I was empty, my next load was from Ft. Dodge, IA, to Fridley, MN. Where the heck is Fridley? If you’re wondering the same thing, it’s on the north side of Minneapolis.

I picked up the load and searched all over the paperwork for a phone number but couldn’t find one. There was one listed in the load information sent to my Elog. I called the number—it rang about 20 times before going to voicemail.

The message was standard at first: leave a brief message and a phone number. But then came the shocker. “Messages are checked twice a day,” the lady said. I figured I’d get a call back before 5 PM. Nothing. I thought maybe I’d hear from them the next morning before I arrived. Still nothing.

When I mentioned this to the forklift driver, his response caught me off guard. “The phone is almost obsolete around here. It’s all done over the computer. That lady wasn’t even here yesterday.” How do you run a business when a driver can’t even contact you about a delivery?

This wasn’t the first time this had happened to me. I once picked up a load of rebar in Muskogee, Oklahoma, bound for a lumberyard in Kalona, IA. I called multiple times as I headed north, but it just rang and rang.

I tried again the next morning since the address was on a gravel road. Still no answer. I turned onto the road, not knowing for sure if I was in the right place. To my surprise, it was a fairly busy lumberyard and hardware store.

The forklift they used had steel wheels. The men all had beards. Young boys, dressed in overalls with blue shirts and black hats, rode their steel-wheeled wagon barefoot down the hill as fast as it would go.

I had entered Amish country.

I told one of the men that I had called numerous times to let them know I was coming, but no one ever answered. He explained that they had only one community phone, and rarely was anyone inside the building to pick up. That one, I could understand.

Truck drivers have relied on phones for years. I’ve used a pay phone plenty of times to contact a customer. You’d think today it would be easier. But what am I saying? “Press one for English. Our menu has changed. To talk to a live human being… well, good luck.”