PNA Technician Tanner Skundberg went above and beyond to support 4 customers so they would not miss their harvest season.
87 hours on the road
Tanner was on the road for 34 days, in which he drove 6.000 miles (or 9656 kilometers) and spent a total of 87 hours in the car, driving through no less than 10 different states.
He gave customer training in Iowa, did a maintenance visit in Idaho, got machines ready for production in Washington State and started up new XL bag sealing machines in California.
Discover the full story of Tanner.
Get ready for the harvest season
"The global food distribution chain does not stop for the virus. Pattyn’s customers are essential for the food production chain, therefore our machines are a vital part of the production and we need to ensure that they are running efficiently. The harvest season does not wait for COVID to get under control. Whatever is planted must be harvested within a specific time frame or the customer will risk the crop being over ripened. The result is not safe for human consumption and the year of hard work and farming will go to waste."
Machines up & running
"With harvest season just around the corner for vegetables in the state of Washington, it was necessary that a technician was able to get out there and ensure the machines were ready. It was also the beginning of the garlic harvest season in California and the two XL bag sealing machines needed to be started up.
If we would have missed the chance to get the machines commissioned, the season would have been missed, crops would have been wasted, and production would have to wait another year."
Road trip during a pandemic
"For most of my road trip the roads were empty besides the other essential workers that were responsible for driving the semi-trucks transporting vital resources throughout the country. That made me the smallest car on the road…not always a good thing! Throughout the trip I did happen to come across a few states/cities that did not have a stay-at-home order in place and the traffic looked like any normal rush hour. Thank goodness for music and podcasts!"
Limited dine-in services but magnificent views
"The downside of traveling during a pandemic? There were very few restaurants open for dine-in service and the limited number that were open had restricted hours. This resulted in most of my meals being cooked in a microwave back at the hotel…yay for Ramen Noodles!
The drive itself was not boring at all for sightseeing. I drove through many different terrains: the flat plains of Iowa and Nebraska, the prairies of Wyoming and Nevada, the mountains of Washington and Oregon and the forests of California. Cue the Johnny Cash, ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’ song."
Putting things into perspective
"On any “normal” day I would be able to travel to California by plane and be there within 4 hours. On any non-normal day, such as during a pandemic, it took my 30 hours by car to travel to California. Talk about putting things into perspective…you do not realize how large the United States is until you have driven from pretty much one side to the other! I am lucky to have had the opportunity to visit these customers during the nation wide shut down or else I cannot imagine I would have seen some of the sites I did. Well maybe I would have…with binoculars 30,000 feet up going about 500 knots!"
