The Movers’ Zone – New Rochelle, NY

Written by Timothy Brady.

You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension of not only sight and sound, but of moving. Making a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of furniture, odd objects, and interesting people. That’s the signpost up ahead: your next stop……The Movers’ Zone!

Unless you live and work around New York City, there’s nothing usual about the Monday morning commute down the I-95 corridor from Connecticut going into the city. On this particular Monday, our Van Operator had a crucial delivery of a replacement MRI for the Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital. This was one delivery that couldn’t wait until later in the day; the hospital was very much in need of replacing the malfunctioning MRI because the temporary one (housed in a semi-trailer) was causing a traffic bottleneck in their parking lot.

Bright side: there was a straight shot to the loading dock from Division Street. Dark side: it was Monday morning around 7:30 am, with an I-95 entrance and exit ramp about a tenth of a mile away. And another challenge or two: it was shift change time at this large regional hospital, along with some minor road construction along Guion Place. (Without the road construction, the Van Operator could’ve made a left turn off Memorial Drive onto Lockwood Ave., then a left turn onto Guion Place, gone past the front of the hospital to Van Guilder where he would’ve turned left and backed directly to the loading dock. When finished unloading, he would’ve pulled straight down Van Guilder to Division Street (which runs parallel to Memorial Drive) to make his way back to the Interstate.

But being a Monday morning just outside NYC, this Van Operator entered the dark side of the Mover’s Zone, where what would ordinarily be a simple task of backing to a delivery point became a major challenge. Because of the road construction in front of the hospital, the Van Operator had to drive west on Memorial Drive to a traffic circle, went around the traffic circle so he was headed east on Memorial Drive and took the transition onto Division Street, to set up for a blind-side back in rush hour traffic into Van Guilder Avenue to the dock. Again, this wasn’t just any rush hour; it was rush hour with a twist. The twist – with the road construction in front of the hospital, arriving and departing staff had their traffic patterns changed, fraying their nerves. The fact that the hospital was a major surgical center with morning surgeries scheduled meant the surgeons were trying to get to their respective patients. Additionally, this was also a regional emergency room so at any moment an ambulance could arrive with a severely-injured patient.

Now add one more dynamic to the mix. The Van Operator had recently married, and his wife had about three months’ experience being on the truck prior to this delivery. She’d done some assisting in backing several times, but this was her first blind-side back assist. She donned a yellow slicker raincoat and cap to give her a more official – and visible look.

The Van Operator set up for the back. His wife jumped out in her ‘official’ looking threads and ran to the back of the truck with a Maglight® flashlight. Her task was to direct traffic around the back of the truck to its left until the trailer just started its turn into Van Guider Avenue. Then she needed to stop all traffic on Division Street and direct the Van Operator so he wouldn’t run over a person, or car, or landscaping. (Normally there would be at least two spotters to do a blind-side back, but in this case that luxury wasn’t available). Keep in mind the drivers were all NYC-style drivers who figured ‘I can ignore that big truck, the person directing traffic and get where I want to go anyway.’ There were a couple of times the wife had to look at her ‘rear bumper’ to make sure someone hadn’t taken a part of her anatomy off with a car fender. And once she frantically waved the Van Operator to a stop so a surgeon could get into the hospital for emergency surgery.

In the end, the 5’1″ woman directed an 80-foot semi from a heavily-traveled thoroughfare during rush hour into a dock from the blind side. She did it without damage to any person or property and with her rear bumper intact.

Bright side: The MRI was delivered on time, to a grateful hospital staff. The Van Operator and his wife jumped into the cab and drove down Van Guider Avenue – and out of the Mover’s Zone (for the time being), on to their next great moving adventure.

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