It’s been a hard day on the tools today. The job was an hour’s drive away without traffic, we were undermanned and my rental ute was performing in a very subpar way. It is so weird driving a car that isn’t my own. I’ve had to put mine in for service because it was way overdue, and now I remember why I put it off for so long. Not having my car is annoying and makes it very hard to work efficiently. I can’t believe all ute’s don’t have 4×4 aluminium canopies as standard. How do people survive without one?
I haven’t got one for the next week whilst I’m using the rental, and it’s an absolute mess. My tools are spread out on the backseat and I have to keep digging through them to find what I need. It’s frustrating beyond belief and has really slowed me down today. Add a stressed boss and a fast deadline and it has been an extremely rough day. The drive home will be over an hour and a half and I’ve already done an hour overtime. I just can’t wait to get home and kick back for the rest of the evening.
It should be a given that any tradie hiring a rental is given something similar to their current ute canopies. Melbourne tradies are used to a certain level of efficiency, and having that taken away makes the whole work day harder for everyone. We work on a tight schedule, often with multiple jobs listed in multiple locations each day, and that means we need to get our jobs done quickly.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. I’ve been a plumber since 2012 and I’m constantly moving up the ranks and learning the tricks of the trade. Bad days happen, and today was a bad day. I expect next week when I have my good old ute back, the days will be significantly better.