A Dewy Pile

A. Duie Pyle, pronounced “A Dewy Pile”, is my favorite trucking company name.  If you work for Cass Information Systems, you know about trucking companies.

I have nearly given up on trying to explain Cass Information Systems to people.

I used to tell people that I work for a company that pays freight bills for chocolate companies: Hershey, Nestle, M&Ms. 

That explanation doesn’t work very well because people don’t focus on the freight bills, they focus on the chocolate, and ask me if I get free samples.

Now I say that I work for a company that pays freight bills for companies such as: Unilever, Ford, Macy’s, DuPont, Whirlpool, Walgreens, Siemens, Sylvania, Corning Glass.

Now people focus on the freight bills, and they wonder why anyone would pay Cass Information Systems to pay their freight bills.

The answer: freight bills are nasty.  That’s why companies pay us to pay their bills.

Some people want more info – how nasty are they?

A music teacher asked me that.  We were at the Scottish Arms pub in St. Louis.  So, I proceeded to explain:

What if you have a shipment that does not fill up a truck and you want your shipment delivered in City A.  However, the truck stops in City B on the way to A.  What if it stopped because of someone else’s goods on the truck?  And what if City B is in Canada, are you going to pay for the shipment in US dollars or Canadian dollars?  Oops, the price of fuel went up while the truck was in Toronto – that has to be taken into account.  And, since Toronto is in Canada, you have to pay GST tax on your shipment --- unless, of course City A, the final destination, is in Quebec, in which case you now have to pay QST.

And what if you think the shipment should weigh 873 Kg but the trucking company says it weighs 902 Kg?

The music teacher struggled to keep up with me.  But sitting at the same table in the pub was a woman who worked for American Airlines freight.  She had no trouble keeping up with me; she was nodding her head in agreement as I spun the tale of a nasty freight shipment.

Some people have not heard of Cass Information Systems, but they have heard of Cass Bank.  We started as a bank in 1906.  The bank started offering freight payment services in the 1930s.  Now freight has outgrown the bank.  We used to be a bank with a freight-paying arm, now we are a freight-paying company which owns a bank.  The tail is wagging the dog.

So, I do not work for a bank.

Some people think that Cass produces snacks, confusing us with Kas, a retro potato chip company.

I do not work for a snack company.

It is a constant struggle to explain Cass Information Systems to people.  But I haven’t given up.  I am hoping that someday, when I say that Cass pays freight bills, someone will ask me: What is your favorite trucking company?

And I will answer: “A Dewy Pile”.

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com