03.22.05
He Stole My Idea!
Years ago I had an idea to revolutionize the food service industry. I was tired of calling for a pizza and being told I’d need to wait as long as 45 minutes for delivery. When I want a pizza delivered, it’s because I’ve already failed to plan my evening effectively. I don’t want to eat in an hour; I’m hungry now. So, I figured, the best way to improve delivery time is to move production from a fixed location a few miles away to mobile units that might be just around the corner. Each van would have a built-in oven and a set territory to roam. You could cover a larger total delivery area and still have less distance to drive for each individual delivery, and baking time would overlap with driving time!
Anyway, most people thought I was joking. The few who took me seriously explained all the reasons it wouldn’t work: a working oven in a moving van is a serious safety hazard; the heat buildup would make working conditions miserable; everyone has to be buckled in while the van is moving, so some of the speedup would be countered by the driver having to stop to put toppings on; all that heavy equipment would bring gas mileage down to single digits; powering the oven would require a large generator of some sort, meaning more gas; the company would have to maintain a fleet of huge, complicated vans instead of letting employees drive and maintain their own cars. Totally impractical, I was told.
And now someone’s doing it. I guess they’ve got the kinks worked out, though the article doesn’t have as many details as I’d like.
