FreightVineMarch-2019

The Costco Water Adventure By: Bill Bess, Carrier Development

Shaun Leiker (Orlando) and I assisted in the salvage of 36,768 bottles (45,379 pounds) of Kirkland water from a trailer that went over a Jacksonville bridge and landed on its roof in about four feet of muddy water. The trailer could not be lifted with the bottles in it because it had been compromised from flipping off the bridge. The environmentalists were all over this and our #1 customer was getting negative hits on social media as a few of the bottles with labels began floating down the river. This was a full blown emergency that involved the entire ALC executive team, Costco’s upper management, Captain Hook (Shaun) and of course, Captain Nemo (me). In less than 24 hours we arranged for six men in wet suits, two 28 foot flat bottom boats, two 30 foot roll out dumpsters, and supplies (knives, trash bags, and dry suits). It was raining with strong winds and the water was 55 degrees. We estimate that each man cut and bagged over 7,000 water bottles filling 214 trash bags! After 20 hours of cutting bottles I finally cut the neck off the last bottle and drank it dry, it was truly refreshing. Our #1 customer had to be impressed with ALC’s response time and effort. What an excellent example of team work and good old “ALC American Ingenuity”!