Port of Call – Chase Sequence 2 – Sandra 33

 

[For back story go here: Story so far at 17 Sept 2020 and more recent Sandra episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

“So,” said Sandra, “Who in the business knows about what’s going on with Felixstowe or Brexit?”

There was a stoney silence from the other end of the line. Then a slight sigh and a chuckle and Bill said, “Definitely not me.”

“OK,” said Sandra. “So let’s find someone who does. What about the CEO? Wouldn’t he have something to say about this?”

“No, no no…” said Bill, “We don’t bother the CEO. Thing is I’m people rather than legal. So I’d say go to Janice first and see what she thinks.”

So Sandra phoned Janice.

“I expect it was Bill who told you to talk to me, right?” she said.

“Yes,” said Sandra, “but given that you’re legal and compliance…”

“There is that side to it,” admitted Janice, “But it’s still not clear for that. Plus this is more a logistics challenge. How to get things moving from one place to another. To be honest the legal things are sort of irrelevant, other than it will take time and clog things up more. What you’re looking at here is capacity. And that’s logistics, not legal.”

“Right,” said Sandra. “How about I contact the CEO…”

“No, no no,” said Janice. “He’s far too busy for that. We don’t talk to him. Go to the head of transport.”

“How do I find him?”

“Bill knows him.”

And so she rephoned Bill who told her quite clearly that he did know the head of transport but didn’t have the authority to disclose his details for contact. “More than my job’s worth,” said Bill. “He’s a busy man and this could hold up whatever it is he does.”

“So…”

“If you get in touch with David, he might have the authority.”

Sandra armed herself with another cup of coffee. 

David explained, in some detail, that yes he did have the authority to authorise contract with the head of transport but that it wasn’t his place to contact him directly. That really was Bill’s job as the HR/people person. He would, therefore, send Bill an email authorising him to make the contact and giving him an email to forward to the head of transport so he could see the authorisation had been properly authorised.

Sandra phoned Bill to ask him to contact her as soon as the email had been received.

Another coffee, slice of flapjack and three chasing calls to Bill and David later, the authorisation came through. 

Bill then sent the head of transport an email requesting a quote. That email rebounded immediately stating he was away, ill, suffering from unconfirmed Covid and unable to answer any queries. Everything could be sent, instead, to the deputy head of transport.

This they did only for Bill to receive a worried phone call from the deputy saying he’d be quite worried about saying anything about the situation right now as he wasn’t sure what was going on. Sandra then called the worried deputy head of transport and after a discussion they decided to ask a market researcher within the transport department. 

“Yeah, it’s not great,” admitted the researcher to Sandra, “But I wouldn’t want to go on record at the moment. It could change next week and then I’d look stupid.”

“But we’re after a quick story,” said Sandra, aware of the day disappearing. “To tie in with what’s happening on the ground right now.”

“Well…” said the deputy head of transport, “If you want to know what’s happening on the ground why not ask someone who’s…. on the ground?”

Lunch, coffee and afternoon biscuit gone, Sandra rephoned Bill.

“You know the people,” she said. “We want someone on the ground.”

“What ground?” asked Bill.

“Felixstowe,” said Sandra. “Or somewhere similar where it’s all going to kick off next. Another port – and someone who’s there and can see what’s happening.”

“A lorry driver?” asked Bill.

“Yes,” said Sandra, now embracing anything that sounded half promising. “Yes. They’re on the ground, they can see what’s happening and maybe they can tell us what they’re worried about and how they think it might work out. Or not.”

It was around tea time when Sandra received a phonecall from a well to do sounding woman, who was a little confused but wanted to help.

“You’re trying to get in touch with Albert, are you?” she said.

“I am?” asked Sandra.

“For work,” prompted the woman. “He’s in his lorry at the moment and stuck in a queue.”

“At a port?” asked Sandra.

“No, the M25.”

Nevertheless, Sandra felt a sense of purpose and satisfaction of a day’s good work nearly done as she dialled Albert’s mobile phone number, connected and took ten minutes to tell him clearly who she was, what she wanted and why, and finally to ask what he thought of the situation at Felixstowe.

“It’s rubbish,” he said and hung up.