TAG | time savings
Well I’ve made it through two weeks now of delivering without wheels.
So far it’s ended up better than expected.
Most of my travel these past two weeks has been related to the school I contract to in Northcote.
So far the biggest highlight has been working on the move: I was surprised how easy this was on the train, and it is even possible on the bus. I’m using my Toshiba Portege R500 laptop combined with my 3G phone to get online. I have access to my e-mail and job/support tracker, as well as some remote access to clients while on the move.
The Portege has been good but I’d imagine you could do just as well with a modern netbook too.
I think I’m actually getting more work done this way than if I stayed at home doing admin work followed by driving to a site. While the bus/train is slower, being able to work and move at the same time is more than making up for it.
It also means I haven’t had to worry about the cellphone driving ban, another plus.
I’ve also liked the flexibility of being able to go home from the Shore by ferry if I need to relax after a stressful day. This photo is taken from the Bayswater Ferry this evening.
And, I’ve been able to join in after work drinks. I’m a cheap drunk, and just one drink can affect my driving, so I exclusively stuck to the orange juice if I had to drive afterwards. Not anymore!!
As it happens, I’ve not had any significant equipment movements that I haven’t been easily able to get couriered, so I am yet to use Cityhop’s services. Maybe in the next week or two.
The biggest downside has been the link between the “Rapid Transit Network” and home. Outside of the morning and evening peaks, the bus between home and either Kingsland Station or the city detours around St Lukes Mall which is frustratingly slow. My alternative connection, the 008 bus passing Avondale station, seems to be deliberately timed to fail to connect with any train.
I’m also not doing so well on Wednesday evenings. I’m taking beginner French classes at Alliance Française d’Auckland, on Arch Hill, which finish at 8pm. At the moment, I’m depending on a relative taking the same class to drop me off on Sandringham Rd on his way home, or I have to do a V-shaped run into town and back out again which takes over an hour.
I have been lucky and managed to avoid last week’s train signal failures, although I’d have just kept tapping away at the laptop on the train or at Britomart if caught up in something like that.
So, so far so good…
cityhop · drinks · ferry · laptop · Sandringham Rd · signal failure · time savings · train
I have cheated my way into an elite club of society.
High-flying businessmen, ministers and other Very Important People are able to get some Very Important Work done while in transit, thanks to being able to sit in the back seat of a limousine while someone else takes care of the driving.
I also managed to get a good chunk of work done in transit today. I wrote this blog post, I was able to organise some of next weeks’ work, answer e-mails, and perform some technical support, all while sitting on board an off-peak train heading into town earlier today, thanks to mobile broadband on my laptop.
Sadly WordPress ate that post and I had to retype it, but all the other work was successful. (WordPress has eaten several posts whether I write them on my laptop or at home, so I’m thinking there may be a bug?)
Because off-peak public transport is slower, I’m having to find ways to be more efficient with my time, and I was surprised at how easy it is to whip out the laptop on the train, jump online, and do some work.
I suppose you could call this a Time Savings Benefit – a term usually used to try and justify motorway building.
