Fraedrich Transport, Inc.

I have received a letter by mail from your office regarding a customer complaint from [redacted] from [redacted] in Enderlin, ND.  I am sorry for the delay.  I was out of the country from 8/17/18 – 8/25/18.    Thank you for bringing this matter to our...

attention.  First I would like to say that we take pride in the work we do and the communities in which we work in.  We are a small local company that employs local people and we would never want to harm a person’s property.  In response to [redacted]’s complaint I would like to say we are sorry that she incurred damages, but we did not cause the damage.  Per our contract for residential garbage collection with the City of Enderlin each and every garbage tote must be at least 4 feet away from each other and any and every object including vehicles, light poles, and mailboxes.  [redacted]’s household repeatedly places their garbage totes tightly in between vehicles and in front of the mailbox but we do our best to get them picked up in a professional and safe matter. On March 8th, 2018 I received a voicemail (which I still have) from [redacted] stating that when she came outside she was shocked to see her garbage totes lying on the ground with garbage still in them and leaning against her vehicle and that her vehicle was damaged and that 5 months ago she had to replace her mailbox because we damaged it.  When she stated her address I knew exactly the place she was talking about because there are always issues with the matter in which they place the garbage totes out on the street for collection.  I drove by her house and I immediately called her back and told her that the totes need to be 4 feet away from any object and that I noticed a broken wheel on one of the cans and that I would get that taken care of ASAP but that I was not liable for damages.  I gave her possible solutions on how she can place the cans in a matter to insure proper collection. She told me she was going to talk to her husband and then contact the authorities and hung up on me.  I immediately went and replaced the broken garbage tote as well as emptied all of the garbage that remained in the can.  After I got that issue resolved I talked to the driver who drove the route that day and he said he did not even dump her cans because they were laying down and leaning against her vehicle when he got there.  Per the contract with the city of Enderlin, he is not responsible to get out of the truck to pick up the cans (we do automated side-load collection as it protects our drivers and saves their backs from heavy lifting) so he drove off to the next house. I checked our real-time GPS on my computer and I show my driver driving past her house at 9:22AM on March 8th, 2018, the date of the incident.  A few days after, my dad, [redacted] Fraedrich,  had talked to the landlord of the household in which [redacted] resides and he contacted her about proper placement of the garbage totes to insure proper collection.  [redacted] also talked to the local mail carrier from the Post Office in town and she said they were the ones who ran into the cans to get them out of their way for delivering mail and that it wasn’t the first time they’ve done that because they have had constant issues with how the garbage totes are placed at that household on garbage collection day.  It wasn’t us who damaged her vehicle, it was the Post Office.  [redacted] has since sent a text message to [redacted] in which he has not received a response. The text message reads: “This is [redacted] with Fraedrich Transport.  The problem with the garbage pickup last week was that the garbage cans were set in front of your mailbox and the mail driver pushed the cans out of the way using her car, and knocking them over.  The cans need to be at least 4 feet from any object including mailboxes and vehicles.  To insure no interruption to your garbage service, please leave 4 feet clearance from around your garbage cans.”  We did not refuse to pickup the trash as she stated it was still left.  I resolved that immediately myself by hand after my initial phone call with her.  We do not receive payment personally from the residents themselves.  We are contracted with the city of Enderlin for their residential garbage collection and her payment is part of her water bill. The City pays us monthly for our service.  We DID provide the service and she paid her water bill but that discrepancy would need to be taken up with the City.  We understand she was upset in the heat of the moment but we are not the ones who did the damage.  As for the mailbox from 5 months ago, I never received a call or complaint about that so I am not sure what happened there but I do know the mail carrier said that’s not the first time they’ve plowed through her garbage totes to get them out of their way.  Thank you for your time, if you have any further questions please feel free to email or give me a call any time on my cellphone. Sincerely, [redacted] Fraedrich Operations Manager