Whistle While You Work

The CitiWide couriers voices crackled over the radio headphones in the dispatch room, where a dozen dispatchers managed a fleet of hundreds of trucks, cars and bicycles crawling all over the city of New York and its surrounding areas. The base of operations was located in a huge warehouse with excellent freeway access. The owners boasted that their company handled more urgent local deliveries than all the big national carriers combined. The company had great benefits and even better hours, since most workers were on their way home to their families by 4:30 p.m. every day. The best thing was the flexibility in the promotion system. Most drivers were eligible for promotion after a year in deliveries with an excellent service record. Smart, educated people like Harry Denby, however, could be promoted in six months with superior customer reviews.

“Who’d you sleep with to get into dispatch at six months?” cackled Bernice from the cubicle on Harry’s right.

“Your sister,” replied Harry, not missing a beat.

“My brother, you mean,” Bernie shot back.

“Line ‘em all up, I’m ready,” volleyed Harry. All he heard next was a chuckle. “Oh, Bernie! Don’t let me down! You mean I’m serving aces here today?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Hubert. I haven’t had my coffee and cigarette yet. Just give me time to warm up, and I’ll have you squirming under me, crying uncle by noon.”

“Harry,” he chuckled, shivering a little at the thought of finding himself pinned to the ground beneath the 300-pound woman who smelled of cigarette smoke and stale coffee.

“Whatever,” Bernie said, then resumed speaking to someone else in a lower monotone voice. A call.

Harry’s phone rang, and he pressed the button on his keyboard that answered the call and brought up the customer’s record on his screen at the same time. The computer found the existing customers’ records using DNIS database lookup software linked to the phone system. Harry liked working with the advanced technology in this somewhat sophisticated distribution system. With all their money, Harry was surprised that drug traffickers hadn’t purchased a sophisticated distribution system like this long ago. The network marketing model seemed to work best for that kind of product, however. And it was harder for authorities to break up a distributed market than a centralized distribution system.