Missed opportunities, Part 2 - Transport service

I had written previously about a missed opportunity for people we hired to do a landscaping job at our home. It was supposed to be a straightforward contract that we had thought would allow us to have someone maintain our garden and give the 'small time" landscaping/gardening outfit a break in the business (they didn't seem to have much in terms of resources as we observed when they worked for us). We had to terminate the contract and allowed them to finish only the parts they already were working on when we decided enough was enough.

In a matter of days, a somewhat similar situation happened but for another service that I engaged for. This time, I decided to give an old friend a call to engage their services to drive my father to the airport for an early morning flight. I originally planned to take him to the airport myself as I had many times before but I had another appointment that prevented me from doing so this time. My brother-in-law also could not take Tatay to the airport as he had to take my niece and nephew to school and couldn't travel very early in the morning.

Everything seemed to go very smoothly. I am not a stranger to getting transport services whether it be for projects or for personal use. We actually have a suki company, which is owned by our friends from back in college. However, after I saw my old friend advertising his business on FaceBook, I decided to try them out as they operated in the area where my parents resided and my old friend was a kababata and former neighbor in the same village my parents resided in. We exchanged contact information and their driver contacted my father to confirm the arrangements for their trip. So I was surprised in the morning when I checked on my father and he informed me that the driver never came at the agreed time and he had to take a taxi to the airport. It was a good thing that he got a taxi easily and was not delayed. 

I learned from my friend later on that the driver wasn't able to wake up for his trip. This was definitely a classic case of "you had the one job". While no damage was actually done (my father made it for his flight and I didn't have to pay anything for the undelivered service), I assumed that the driver was admonished for his failure to deliver the job he was supposed to. And my friend was very apologetic and offered to fetch my father on his return trip for free. I just assured him that I would probably hire them again for a project or personal trip. I would do so perhaps and also because I believe in giving business to friends and perhaps help them grow. Not that he needed it but because its a principle thing for me. I just hope that such shortcomings on the part of the driver would not be a frequent thing. That will surely lead to lost revenues and lost customers in a very competitive transport service market.

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