Play Meter

f ROM THEEDITOR Where'd ya get yer license? H ow many of you who drive more than 25 feet to work can honestly say that you get in your car, back out of the driveway, and have smooth sailing from there? Ah hah, just as I thought! Not many do not encounter absolutely horrendous drivers at every intersection, in each lane, and in front or in back of you. Let's see if! can recall one of my typical 20-mile drives to work. It begins when I can't pull onto the main drag from my house because the neighbor has parked his car too close to the corner. As I inch my way into the lane I see the cars whizzing by at about 60 miles per hour although the speed limit is only 30. The first intersection has a YIELD sign and there is a guy stopped even though there's nothing coming now- nor has there been anything pass since the night before! I'm ready to merge onto the expressway. Two ladies have stopped and must be looking up "merge" in the dictionary. Wait, one is putting on lipstickyes, it's the driver! After fuming awhile over that delay, I pull into the left lane to accelerate to at least the speed limit. What's this? Oh, a pick-up truck stacked three stories high with trash trucking along at 22 miles per hour in the left lane. Even that isn't slow enough to keep a stray paper or two from blowing out! Aaarghhh! I'm really on my way now! Humming along in the left lane...:screeeeeech! !A car has stopped- yes stopped- in the left lane, waiting for traffic to pass so he can get off at the exit he's about to pass on the right. Here come several more cars slamming on brakes, but luckily no wrecks. I'm now in the neighborhood just a mile from the office. A little old lady- the kind who is sitting on two phone books and the "R" volume of the encyclopedia just to be able to see over the steering wheel-has stopped at a green light. Finally, it turns red, so she pulls across the intersection. Oh, boy! I see the office; what could possibly go wrong from here? Only the guy who squeals his tires pulling in front of me and then drops his speed to somewhere between park and reverse; the driver with the "honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker who gives the finger to anyone honking at him; the one who pulls into the intersection, sees me coming, and stops in the middle of the road; of course, we all love those who inch into our lane and after they're half-way there, turn on their blinker and leave it on the rest of the trip; and last but not least, the people who pull out of the line of traffic, drive on the shoulder, and whip into the front. Well, the Federal Express driver has parked his truck in the street across the entire driveway to the office, so I'll have to wait until he leaves to pull in. What's another five minutes in my car, I scream! These drivers I call idiots in a family magazine and other things in the privacy of my own home really don't mean to be like that. They couldn't! The people who drive 42 miles under the speed limit probably think they are being quite safe. They don't consider the accidents they cause. Can't we think of people in the coin machine industry who are like the insufferable drivers we encounter every day. Take the operator who doesn't join his state or national association, but is the first to cry foul when something happens he didn't know about. "The association members are trying to put me out of business!" he exclaims, while rationalizing that he doesn't have the time, money, desire, etc., to join the association. How about the operator who sets his cranes so that he still has all the prizes from two years ago because no one will ever win anything. The operator brags about how much money he's making, PLAY METER 10 MARCH 1993 oblivious to the harm he is causing the industry in the long run. Do you have a competitor who is constantly promising unrealistic commissions or games to your locations? You also remember removing games only to have the location call a short time later claiming the new guy wasn't keeping his promises! "Oh, really?" you sneer under your breath. I'm not picking on operators, because manufacturers and distributors "drive" pretty rotten sometimes, too. However, the point is that the industry has had, does have, and always will have people who make it a little difficult for everyone else. Can you stop them? Not on your life. You'll never convince an operator who has spouted off to the newspaper reporter something that should have been kept within the industry that he did anything wrong, any more than you'll convince a driver going 15 in the fast lane of the interstate that he's a problem. State association leaders recently met to discuss various problems and subjects of great concern within the industry. Hopefully, some of the discussions centered on how to get operators to join. How about giving new members a free year, or rewarding members for bringing a new person to a meeting? Education and understanding the industry's unique needs and problems is the only way to make it better. To paraphrase a saying we've all heard before: "Either we police ourselves or someone outside of the industry will be glad to write us a few tickets." D Valerie Cognevich Editor