Delivering fuel a non-stop job in the winter months
Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 05/01) - Mike Dove calls himself a fuel expediter.
For 10 years he has delivered fuel to Yellowknife residents, about 50 to 70 homes per day, depending on the weather. That amounts to 44,000 litres per day.
An employee of Petro-Canada, a days' work for Dove begins at 7 a.m. with a schedule jam-packed right up until 5 p.m. Now he is working five days a week, but during the busy Christmas season Dove was on the road for six-and-a-half days.
"The colder it gets the more often we deliver to places. It's quite hectic, but right now we're kind of relaxed."
So what's so thrilling about fuel delivery?
"I guess the smell of the fuel," he laughs, "no, just kidding.
"It's routine for me. I'm on my own all the time, I do my own work at my own pace ... there's nobody looking over my shoulder."
Petro-Canada will fill minimum orders of $100 for homeowners, but sometimes Dove has stretched the rules and filled orders as low as $50 if the customer is short on cash.
Dove hasn't had any major problems during his 10-year delivery career, but he did have a minor collision with a taxi cab in Northlands when he first started out.
"I saw this cab driver coming down in my mirror, but I figured he was going the other way. But then he did a (U-turn) right at the back of the truck and when I backed up my back bumper went right through the window of the cab."
Handling fuel on a day-to-day basis can be very dangerous as well. Dove said pressure in the tanks has caused fuel to spray back at him on several occasions.
"It got in my eyes, all over my clothes ... then you have to get an eyewash and shower up and you start getting a rash."
Luckily Dove has not been seriously injured on the job, but he said you can never be too careful.
He plans on going back to school in a couple of years, but for now he's quite happy as a fuel expediter.
"The money is pretty good and you get fuel and gas benefits, so it works out pretty well."
