914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
1/26/19 6:19 p.m.

Driving cars on-off the stage for an auction.

Most retirees get a job withing 6 months of retiring, took me 4 years to get this bored.  $12/hr, one day/week but could be five if I choose.  Preflight, station cars on Wednesday, auction is Thursday; it's an organized train wreck for Dealers only.  9 lanes, 10 employees per lane, thousands of cars moving in & out.  Lots to learn.

Looks like fun

Dan

Pete Gossett
Pete Gossett GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
1/26/19 6:52 p.m.

In reply to 914Driver :

Don’t get run over. Seriously. I know of at least one instance when an elderly gentleman was doing this & lost control(presumed stroke) and hit several people. 

Appleseed
Appleseed MegaDork
1/26/19 6:54 p.m.

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
1/26/19 7:07 p.m.

/\  /\ Yeah, Alain Decadent has his moments....

travellering
travellering HalfDork
1/27/19 8:55 a.m.
914Driver said:

/\  /\ Yeah, Alain Decadent has his moments....

Probably the only acceptable misspelling of that man's name...

BoxheadTim
BoxheadTim GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
1/27/19 10:28 a.m.

Inquiring minds want to know - do you get an employee discount?

Congrats!

NOHOME
NOHOME UltimaDork
1/27/19 11:08 a.m.

Took a few secs to see  what went wrong in that gif!

 

Pete

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
1/27/19 12:18 p.m.

Gut that interviewed me took me down to the lanes ( 9 of them) and described what happens.  There were 8 or 10 cars there.  He explained these cars are here for a post sale inspection.  If there's something there that the auctioneer did not describe, it goes back to the seller.  If the seller doesn't want it back, it gets off loaded at a loss.

We stopped in front of a newish Toyota extended cab 4WD, nice gun metal grey.  He pointed out a scuff on the driver's door, "This is a $20-22,000 truck, if the seller doesn't want to fix it or the hassle; we dump it for $12-13,000".

Whoa, whoa, whoa, lets not be hasty here!

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
2/1/19 8:21 a.m.

Worked 8-4:00 Wednesday & Thursday.  I was told Wednesday would be Orientation Day; read procedures, manuals, safety stuff blah, blah blah.  That was incorrect.  Right out to the yard in 20 degrees  moving cars.  (wasn't dressed for it)   Move 80 from here to there, plow, move 'em back.  Did well until that squall blew through around 3:00 with 35 mph breezes.

Thursday was Auction Day.  There's a language.  No keys in the car, leave the wipers up.  Won't start, pop the hood, leave it up.  If it's running, turn the left blinker on.  If it needs jumping so don't turn it off, put the flashers on.

Cars are stickered, this week's color was purple.  Sticker shows a sequential number, miles and a bar code.  They get line up in a matching numered spot; imagine a mall parking lot times four.  I went with another driver twice, then was put out on my own.  My second car was a Jeep Patriot with a stick and the flashers on.  Rut Roh, I'll be the guy that stalls it on the stage....

Imagine an international bazaar-family reunion-garage sale.  People walking in front of the moving cars, opening doors for a peek, asking questions and bitching.  Saw one guy punch another in the chest hard enough to put him on his butt.  Hispanics, people from east Africa, some dialects (and questions) I don't understand.

It was all over by 1:00, some cars got run through twice.  Later we moved cars to the detail shop, out to have a mechanic & body guy write up a report, pulled some repo cars out of Siberia for next week's show.

I got invited back for next week.

Fun stuff.

 

Dan

 

 

AngryCorvair
AngryCorvair GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
2/1/19 8:50 a.m.

i'm sure you're gonna get a whole new level of education in this job...

Pete Gossett
Pete Gossett GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
2/1/19 10:17 a.m.

In reply to 914Driver :

That actually sounds like it could keep you entertained and busy for a while. Well, minus the arctic temps. 

Professor_Brap
Professor_Brap GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
2/1/19 10:53 a.m.

I am a buyer at that auctions. They are a whole different animal. 

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
2/9/19 10:48 a.m.

My second auction event, saw two accidents in 5 minutes.

Guy pulls out of a slot in a crew cab long box Ford, rolled the back tire right over the hood of a Miata!

Short on help, they hire Temps that are guaranteed 4 hours of work.  "I'm going out for a smoke" and you never see them again.  Large woman temp driving a Ram truck nicked a new Mercedes SUV not 20 ft. & 5 minutes after the first one.

Both cases, they are sent to a local medical shop for a piss test right away.  Fun so far.

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