If you had asked Farad Furqun a few months ago whether he would ever dream of driving a water truck, he probably would have smiled, laughed and told you, “I don’t think so.”

The young man, who is seeking to build a future for himself as a home owner, currently lives with his mother to save money. Before, he was involved in the construction industry as a concrete truck driver, that is until he injured his ankle on the job and found himself out of work for a period of time.

It was during a conversation with his cousin that he was asked what he was doing while he was off work and if he might be interested in driving a water truck for his uncle “on the other side,” as Mr. Furqun describes it.

“I really thought it would be boring, but I actually like it,” he chuckles. “You make your own time, I work at my own pace and I don’t have a nagging boss — isn’t that the job everyone wants?”

Three months on, Mr. Furqun is thoroughly enjoying his new line of employment. “There is incentive. The more I work, the more I get paid.”

While one would expect it to be relatively easy work, according to Mr. Furqun, diligence is important.

“My phone is ringing all day, every day,” he says. He also makes sure to keep duplicate records of everything he does during the day, including marking the number of loads he delivers to any given home, to make sure he does not miss a load from their request.

At the beginning of his day, he makes a call into the K.C. Daniels office to, “find out what is on the book, and then combine that with whatever calls I’ve received.”

From there, he can plan his deliveries around his two water pick-up locations at K.C. Daniels Ltd. in Devonshire and the Government-run tanks at Port Royal. He fills up his tank, which takes about three minutes, and then heads out on the road for his first delivery.

When he arrives, he selects the appropriate length of hose, connects it to the truck and drops the other end into the home-owners water tank.

“The pump mechanism is built into the truck,” he explains. He simply turns it on and controls the flow from inside the cab. Unloading the water can take between six and eight minutes, and Mr. Furqun always makes sure that the customer gets every drop that he can get to them by ‘rolling’ the water left in the hose into the tank.

“I have had to buy water, so I want to make sure that customers get all their water, because they paid for it.”

When he is done with the delivery, he will then either hand deliver the invoice, or tape it above their door handle with electrical tape — a throwback to the days when Kenneth Daniels was still driving the truck.

For regular customers, he also keeps an eye on their tanks and lets them know when their tanks might be running low.

However, delivering water is only half the job.

“A lot of people do not know that water trucks can suck up water, too,” Mr. Furqun says, a task that is sometimes needed to prevent overflow from tanks into gardens, driveways, roads and homes. That water can then be passed on to another needy family. When that is the case, he will sometimes give the purchaser a small discount, charging only the trucking fee.

“When we are called in to truck out water, most people do not care about where the water goes — it’s a hazard to them. But when people need water, they do not care where it comes from, as long as it is fresh.”

Mr. Furqun is a man in transition, though. While he was initially hired by K.C. Daniels Ltd., Kenneth Daniels’ nephew, Donald, is slowly taking over the water business for his uncle, as the senior Mr. Daniels begins to step back from managing the business.

According to Rhonda Daniels, manager for K.C. Daniels Ltd.: “It is a slow rollover. We still manage it, but checks go to Double ‘D’. We want people to know that they are still going to get the same service.”

The new business is known as Double “D” Water Trucking. For water trucking inquiries and orders, call 236-3189 or 747-3030.