Adventures in PODS

It's a white box.  Not just any kind of white box.  It's eight feel tall, eight feet wide and either seven, twelve or sixteen feet long.  Among it's many features the box is weather resistant, close to indestructable (unless you plan on digging a forklift into the side of it which has been known to happen), it has a steel frame with aluminum skin panels, the top is translucent durable polymer allowing for light to come in, and it has a light-weight steel roll up door. 

No, I did not make any of that up.  What I just described was a POD.

I almost forgot one of the most defining features: each one has a red and white sign prominently displayed on each side of the container. 

People move for many different reasons and at various stages throughout life.  I recently moved to South Carolina from New York City.  Seems like quite a move, and it definitely was.  What did I move for?  PODS.  Those big white containers are now my livelihood.  So what do the containers do? Well, you can use them for storage on your property, or in our warehouse.  Or, you can use the containers to move to another town, city or state.  Sometimes the best ideas are the simple ones.

Since Eric and I took over the PODS franchise in Columbia, South Carolina, we have encountered many challenges, scenarios and downright funny happenings.  Example #1: just how do those big white boxes make it off the truck and onto a driveway? There is one word - PODzilla.  And no, I didn't make that up either.  PODzilla is one crazy and ingenious invention.  It basically works via hydrolics to lift a container up off the truck, the truck then drives away and the container is very slowly lowered down to the ground.  Reverse this process and you have a game plan for getting a container off someone's driveway or street and back onto the truck.  By using the lift, the POD always stays level so whatever you have packed inside will have minimal shifting.  Pretty neat idea.

It sounds simple, but in fact operating the machine is really an art form of sorts.  I'm convinced that just as someone can master jujitsu, one can master the PODzilla.  I for one, have decided it's probably best I leave the mastering up to Eric.  However, I often ride along on a delivery to offer him moral support.  Just the other day we were delivering a donation POD - actually to the apartment complex we live in.  Now this POD was to be placed in a parking lot.  Wide open space = piece of cake with the PODzilla.  Well they wanted it in the last parking space in a row, right up against the curb.  Eric and I arrived in the big red PODS truck with POD on the back in tow, ready to tackle the task.  As Eric meneuvered the PODzilla via five joystic controls I bent and ducked and leaned (yeah, this is the moral support part...) and every so often shouted - "you're doing a great job!".  All seemed fine after some pretty difficult maguiver moves - we were ready to drop the POD and take the PODzilla off.  But as Eric walked the machine off the POD there was a moment.  Albeit a brief moment, but we looked at each other with slight panic in our eyes - oh no... there isn't enough room between the POD and the dirt wall behind us, which leads up to a busy street, to get the PODzilla out.

I'll make a long story short.  It might not seem like a problem, but the PODzilla weighs something ridiculous.  I'm not sure any jujitsu move, let alone superman or any other form of brute strength could help a person move it and most of the machines have a mind of their own, if it doesn't want to move that way... well it doesn't.  It took about twenty minutes of sweating, maneuvering, running back and forth to retrieve any kind of runner to free the machine.  At long last, Eric was able to jimmy it through to a clearing and we were safe! Two hours later that is...

Making these deliveries is just one small facet we are learning as new business owners.  Aside from the challenges of learning to operate the PODzilla machine - delivering a POD to someone is really a fun task.  Whether someone needs the storage because they are remodeling their home, or maybe the customer is moving across town, the constant revolving of white containers throughout the Columbia area is quite interesting.  I suppose there is always someone moving, or changing something that requires furniture to disappear, or has some need to clean out their attic but has valuables they aren't quite ready to part with.  What I've come to realize it that these white boxes can do much more than they might seem. I'm looking forward to the many more adventures that PODS has in store for me.  Until next time, I'm off to offer more moral support - and maybe I'll even take up a little jujitsu...