On the road

It’s an occupation where the range of possibility from day to day varies so widely that it’s unsurprising so many of Fair Food’s drivers are philosophers, comedians and practicing stoics.  

Besides anything else that happens the weather can make a driver’s day singingly glorious or grindingly miserable.

Drivers can start at dawn on a bakery run or finish searching in the dark for an elusive street number.

There are random encounters with dogs and cats, toddlers and chooks, spiders and sometimes sheep.

Deliveries are most often straightforward but people will open their doors to drivers in the midst of their happiest times and their hardest.

Back at the warehouse at the end of the day, customers’ various lost possessions fall out of returned packaging and will be redeliverd tomorrow.

Delivery manager, Robyn Lasker, keeps a list; cameras, phones, kids toys, clothes, a plastic shark and the many parcels that couriers like to leave tucked inside Fair Food coolers.  This week it was a TV remote.  

As much as any, Fair Food driver Chop Tomlinson embraces the mercurial nature of delivery work. 

Once, on a sweltering day in Collingwood, Chop passed a young man struggling up a hill pushing a 60’s style organ. Returning after his delivery he took pity on the poor guy who had barely gone fifty metres. 

Loading the organ in the van Chop got him talking, the young man was an international student studying classical music at the Victorian College of the Arts and also turned out to be the customer Chop had just delivered to.

In his travels Chop has temporarily corralled a pair of lost sausage dogs with Fair Food boxes, relocated a menacing bee in time for a customer’s urgent Zoom and had an ongoing duel with a serial escapee sheep.

Many Fair Food customers talk fondly about our drivers and regularly email their appreciation.

The recognition is appreciated in return. Robyn’s favourite sits on her desk; two paper cranes made from a Fair Food packing slip with “Thank you” written on the wings.

Dream job at Fair Wood?

CERES Fair Wood is looking for a new manager.

Five years ago Fair Wood had one employee selling a few packs of timber out of a shared space. 

Now located in a dedicated 1500 sqm warehouse in Preston, the growing Fair Wood team connects Australian agro-foresters, local and salvage saw millers with green architects, builders, woodworkers and DIY’ers looking for socially & environmentally responsible timber.

One of Fair Wood’s values is proudly being able to tell its customers where every stick of timber we sell comes from. 

This role is about building on what’s been achieved and taking Fair Wood’s impact to the next level. 

Sound like you here’s the link – applications close 26th October.

Have a great week

Chris