Sound Off
Sound Off: Do Knology employees who drive their trucks to/from their homes to work have special permission to park in the street in front of their residence and put orange cones around them? Why can’t they park in their driveways like everybody else?
Rod Kutemeier, general manager of Knology of Kansas, said while some employees park their company-owned service trucks in their driveway, the ones who park in the street aren’t violating any city ordinances. Some Knology employees take vehicles home so they can respond to overnight emergencies and so they can go to their first job each morning without driving to pick up a vehicle. He said the practice saves the company more than 8,000 miles a month. Kutemeier asked anyone with a specific concern to call him at 312-6998.
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Comments
appleaday 1 year, 3 months ago
But why do they need orange cones when they're just parked?
Xwards 1 year, 3 months ago
That question is pertinent to other utility workers like the power company or the telephone company. I'd like to know what's up with those yellow cones.
ivalueamerica 1 year, 3 months ago
If they are there to respond to an emergency at a moments notice, then I would imagine they would use the cones to make sure they are not blocked in. Hardly effective to go through the trouble to have a vehicle ready to respond instantly to an emergency if they first have to ask the neighbor to move their car forward so they can get out of their parking space.
MattressMan 1 year, 3 months ago
That's part of it but the cones are mostly there to make the driver walk around the vehicle and check for any obstacle/hazard while picking up the cones before moving the vehicle.
vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago
I doubt someone's cable or internet being out constitutes an "emergency".
jpoonus 1 year, 3 months ago
you'd be surprised....
pea 1 year, 3 months ago
Not your call though.
vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago
Let me guess... you call 911 when McDonald's shorts you a chicken nugget.
ivalueamerica 1 year, 3 months ago
what if your a major employer and could loose millions of dollars and possible contracts or jobs....
onceinawhile 1 year, 3 months ago
Seriously, is this section only for complaining?
meggers 1 year, 3 months ago
That seems to be the case lately.
If it's the same person, let's hope they are nearing the end of their list of grievances. Once they get that out of the way, maybe they can work on getting a life.
Pywacket 1 year, 3 months ago
It's more specialized than that. It's specifically designed for crabby busybodies to complain about petty, inconsequential things. Don't misuse it and ask about a matter of any importance or your internet privileges will be suspended!
spongebob 1 year, 3 months ago
Emergencies take many different forms... to many different people... kind of like a "hair-emergency" :-D
grimpeur 1 year, 3 months ago
The same people who think they "have to" talk on the phone or text while driving. Their priorities are a little off. Or a lot.
TheSychophant 1 year, 3 months ago
When an underground cable goes out at 2:00 a.m. in the morning shutting down service to dozens of homes, do you think the company waits until morning to fix it?
frankwiles 1 year, 3 months ago
When you have phone service with them and can't call 911 when you need too, that's pretty bad and they would receive a big fine from the FCC.
KS 1 year, 3 months ago
The cones are there to protect the truck from stupid people that can't see it. Talk to their insurance company if you don't like the cones. Same sort of thing makes me wonder just why a school bus has to have a strobe light on top? My gosh, a big yellow bus and the stupid folks still can't see it?
LarryNative 1 year, 3 months ago
Is it a no parking zone?
otto 1 year, 3 months ago
No - many utilities have to put cones out if they are parked legally at say Taco Bell.
NotASquishHead 1 year, 3 months ago
Wow... of all the things to complain about. If Knology is like most companies, the cones are dropped relatively close to the vehicle, out of the way of everyone else. The purpose of the cone is to force the driver of the utility vehicle to walk around their vehicle before driving away. By walking around they are able to see anything or anyone they might accidently run into.
jackpot 1 year, 3 months ago
+1
Hooligan_016 1 year, 3 months ago
Precisely.
hildirid 1 year, 3 months ago
Speaking as someone whose neighbor parks his Knology truck on the street, may I point out that the trucks are wider than most cars and the cones add more width. We've seen some near accidents. Like the person who asked the original question, I wonder why he can't park in his (half-empty) driveway.
Hooligan_016 1 year, 3 months ago
Well, people could just slow down then ... instead of trying to squeeze by without touching their brakes at all.
hildirid 1 year, 3 months ago
+1 absolutely. I'm baffled about why people don't seem to see a white turck with cones until they're right on it. Speeding is certainly one factor.
gsxr600 1 year, 3 months ago
I didn't know the inability to watch porn constituted an "emergency".
misplacedcheesehead 1 year, 3 months ago
For my ex-husband, it would.
hujiko 1 year, 3 months ago
Why can't people just mind their own business? Would you care if they parked any other vehicle on the street besides their company truck?
Bunch of whiners in this town.
hildirid 1 year, 3 months ago
Honestly, I can't say how we'd react because we've never had a vehicle this large park on the street before (at least not for more than a few hours).
hildirid 1 year, 3 months ago
Not me, if that's what you think. Possibly more than one Knology worker prefers not to park in his driveway.
jjm0812 1 year, 3 months ago
I've lived all over the country..and I've never seen the whining on small things like I have here.
Great town, cool downtown scene..but a lot of whining..pretty amusing though.
TheSychophant 1 year, 3 months ago
+100
Gootsie 1 year, 3 months ago
I completely agree. Is our whole society supposed to be inconvenienced? To those who think this is a catastrophe worth spending time on, use that energy and go volunteer somewhere.
guppypunkhead 1 year, 3 months ago
Used to live by a Knology employee who parked his truck on the street. Not a big deal except that the street was rather narrow and it was hard to see around the truck or get around it if another car was coming. Almost caused some accidents. Of course, I didn't like that neighbor for several other reasons as well. :)
hildirid 1 year, 3 months ago
+1 Not sure why pointing out a preventable cause of near-accidents is being called whining.
classclown 1 year, 3 months ago
gsxr600 (anonymous) says…
I didn't know the inability to watch porn constituted an "emergency". March 6, 2012 at 8:13 a.m
=========================================
Somebody could be having a stroke.
vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago
Zing!
RandyRhodes 1 year, 3 months ago
Out of all the things to complain about, this is the worst. I used to work for Sunflower/Knology. Every call I went to WAS a cable emergency for that customer, are you kidding!
Sunflower/Knology (Still the same group of guys) are there to help you 24hrs a day 7 days week, well Sunflower was for sure 110%. I dont know how many times I was called out in the middle of the night to fix someones cable,phone and internet or up a telephone pole in a snow storm for our subs. How many homes I rewired FREE of charge for our customers. To my knowledge they still run FREE service calls and will do whatever it takes to fix the issue.
Now someone is complaining about their trucks being parked in the street. Wow!! Someone must be pretty bored!!
kernal 1 year, 3 months ago
Whoever submitted this question, try having a semi parked parked on your street for a couple of days and see how you like that.
jayhawklawrence 1 year, 3 months ago
My neighbor does this with his Knology truck. He is a great guy and I don't care at all.
Park two trucks if you like. Who cares.
fu7il3 1 year, 3 months ago
It's amazing these trucks are able to drive down Iowa St. as large as they must be to get these sorts of complaints. It's a vehicle that somehow manages to fit in one lane of traffic. How much bigger can it be than the average SUV that would be parked there if it wasn't? Or do people just not like the appearance of cones in their neighborhood streets?
KUKRU 1 year, 3 months ago
It seems to me like the person that gripes about this doesn't have enough problems in their life so the have to trump up something to cry about.. How about we use our energy to solve some real problems... :)
domino 1 year, 3 months ago
Had a family member who used to work for a utility company. They had super strict rules about parking their vehicles and one of them was that they were required to set out the cones around the vehicle. If their company vehicle was involved in more than X number of accidents (and it was a small number) during your entire employment, they could terminate you! And that included accidents that were not their fault!! For example, their truck being legaly parked and the driver not even being in it and another vehicle ran into it - counted against the employee!! Was really nuts! I just always assume there are some crazy rules like that!
classclown 1 year, 3 months ago
I never realized that the whole thing with the cones was to force the worker to do a walk around his/her vehicle. That totally makes sense though as I recall times a utility was at my house and pulled into my driveway yet still put cones out.
YesItsMe 1 year, 3 months ago
They do that so they can charge you a "cone placing fee".
jayhawklawrence 1 year, 3 months ago
The street I live on has a lot of students nearby and there is a lot of drinking at times. We have had a ton of sideswiped car incidents and mirrors shaved off cars so having cones around your vehicle is probably a good idea. Maybe we should all get cones around our vehicles.
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