Driving Job

I used to drive for messenger company. Company is located in Hollywood somewhere in Santa Monica Boulevard at La Brea Boulevard. There were two owners, one female office manager, one dispatcher and about fifteen drivers with their own cars. All the drivers had to wear company uniforms and batches. That messenger company worked for movie agents, movie stars, models, big film companies like Paramount, Sony, Miramax, Walt Disney, NBC, CBS and DreamWorks. The security is always extremely tight when you deliver goods to these famous companies. These world first class film studios and companies are not located inside Hollywood but in Burbank, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Culver City, Universal City and Santa Monica. What they have now in Hollywood are newly built Kodak Theatre for Oscars, Metro Rail Red line, stars on sidewalk and shops that sell cheap souvenirs .And there are second rated small studios and works related to movie industry in Hollywood. If there were a lot of deliveries for famous street numbers, the drivers had to drive to Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills. Some deliveries are declared identity of recipient but some are not. Some individual deliveries asked to leave at the gate to the houses as directed by the intercom at the gates and some signed to receive the package. Driving is a dangerous and nerve wrecking job indeed. Even if you are a excellent driver, someone could hit you in any circumstances such as road slippery conditions, driver fell asleep on the wheels, cellular phone rage and road rage etc.. Eight hours a day driving on the Los Angeles surface streets as well as freeways making you physically drained and mentally strained. And for any deliveries, you had to be punctual when you deliver the goods or the recipient had the right to refuse your delivery There is no excuse for traffic congestion, weather conditions, parking issues in huge buildings, dispatcher errors (even if not your fault), incomplete or incorrect package owner shipping information, outdated information of the companies/large buildings and individuals. My favourite places were big studios such as Paramount, Walt Disney Studios because as soon as you passed several security rings after checking company identification, delivery package and confirmation of the recipient, you got into hanger shaped studio area you would see groups and groups of humans, animals and machines alike freely cruising up and down alleys between those huge hangers heading for movie shooting designated areas. You would see elephants, horses, dogs, acting crew wearing different kinds of outfits, clowns, magicians, huge cameras on ground and on air, cranes, all kinds of strange stuff you normally did not see in streets outside of studio. Deliveries to Sunset Strips film stars' agents were irratatingly nice. Young, well dressed and quite arrogant girls in latest European style dresses and speaking with European accents sometimes did not even want to talk to drivers. Roughly speaking Sunset Strip is triangled by Doheny, Sunset Boulevard and Laurel Canyon Drive. I had been to Beverly Hills numerous times to deliver especially to Benedict Canyon but never met stars. Also interestingly I had been to a hotel named Chateau Marmont on Sunset (where John Belushi died after overdose of cocaine and herion) many times where the stars and agents stayed long term and short. Sometimes I had to go to Brentwood , Bel-Air, Westwood and Santa Monica. I liked the job and I learned that so much power and money in the movie businesses possess in great city of angeles as they called it.