Last week, I had an interesting experience while at the Petro Travel Center in Hammond, Louisiana.
I left Laredo, TX loaded and headed for my usual destination of Charlotte, NC. Typically, if all goes reasonably well, I can make it to Port Allen, LA to take my ten hour rest period. On this particular day, I was making better than normal time and realized that I could make it farther to Hammond, LA. When I pulled into the Petro, the electronic log on the dash indicated that I had only three minutes left of driving time for the day. Unfortunately, there was no room at the inn. I looked around and there were no parking spaces left in the entire lot. Therefore, I pulled the truck into the fuel island and walked inside the travel center. While inside, I asked the fuel desk clerk if she knew if any drivers would be leaving out soon from the reserved parking area. I told her that I didn’t mind paying for a reserved space if one was available. She explained that everything was full.
A security guard who patrols the parking area in his golf cart walked into the Petro just as I was leaving. He said “Hi, how are you this evening”? I explained that I was out of hours for the night and needed to sleep and there were no spaces available. He told me wait inside as he went out to check on anything that might have opened up. When he came back in, he assured me that there were no parking spaces however he asked the repair shop manager if I could park my truck in front of the one unused bay until another space became available. Just five minutes after I parked, he came back over on his golf cart and told me a space has just opened and I could have it. I thanked him for going the extra mile for me that night and I went to sleep.
In the morning, I found the manager of this Petro Travel Center and commented to him on this particular security guard. I explained to the manager how he had gone out of his way to help me the night before in securing a parking space where I could get some needed rest.
Whenever I experience someone going out of their way to do something for me that they really didn’t need to do, I make sure to let their manager or boss know about it. We all want to be treated with respect and every now and then, each of us needs a helping hand from one another. To me, it’s important to recognize those people who make an extra effort in doing their jobs. It’s easy to complain when things go wrong but we should always remember to thank those who go beyond the call of duty.