Hello Holiday Inn — Damn, that was a close call!

At the beginning of my days at UPS, a supervisor was riding along and training me on a delivery route. We were also covering that route for the driver who was on vacation. Holiday Inn turned out to be the first commercial delivery of the day, and at the time, many of these motels had awnings or covered driveways around the front door. I'm nervous as hell trying to remember all the stuff he was throwing at me, and while driving up I'm trying to determine how to park as close to the front door I'll use when delivering the package — "the UPS way."



As I approach the front door, which appeared to have a newly constructed covered driveway that read, "12'2" Clearance." And the UPS truck is 12'6" tall, so you can see the catastrophe unfolding before me.

The supervisor starts screaming, "Stop, stop, you're going to hit the overhead awning!"

I recognized the problem before he'd finished the first "stop" and slammed the brakes, bringing the truck to a dead stop. I thought the supervisor almost cut his skull in half considering how hard he hit the window and flat dash on the passenger side. But at least I didn't get fired. There are no second chances with UPS. One "preventable" accident and you're gone, period.

For the next seventeen years I did not forget about vehicle height, and kept myself off the front page, off of sites like Fark.com, and clear from the police blotter.