Paul's creative counting

The Single Colour Parking scheme had been in operation for many months now and the drivers, as with so many of Paul's initiatives, had incorporated it into their daily routine to minimise the fuss. However, one new feature of the scheme was beginning to increasingly irk them. Often they would come into work the next morning and find that their vehicle - correctly parked in an appropriately coloured bay the night before - had been moved somewhere completely different without their having been asked. Worse than this was the fact that often no one seemed to know exactly where the vehicle had been moved to.

Paul's so-called Parking Managers operated without reference to any of the drivers and seemingly without being held to account to anyone as the blame for finding moved vehicles too late in the day would always find it's way back to the drivers and never rest on the shoulders of those who had effected the move, even if problems had occurred as a result.

Much investment had been funnelled the way of these Parking Managers. They had high salaries and a smart uniform and a vast office where they would periodically hold 'crisis meetings', even when there was apparently no crisis to be seen. When asked about vehicle moves or locations they would usually deny all knowledge, blaming it on the previous shift - which was of course impossible to track down for many days, if ever.

Moreover, they were uncontactable by the usual channels. Whilst just about everyone else on the site could be reached by telephone or pager this elite crew sported weird, Star Trek-like communication devices worn around the neck on a cord that instantly sprang into metallic voice the moment they spoke to each other across the compound but were mysteriously inaccessible to the drivers and just about all the other staff.

As usual, and without much hope, the drivers went to find Paul to see what could be done about these unregulated, unwitnessed, uncatalogued overnight vehicle moves. They started on what they thought might be a promising line of attack.

"Paul," they said. "A few months ago you introduced a scheme to limit the number of moves a vehicle underwent between entering and leaving the site in order to minimize risk and increase quality of service. Did you know that some vehicles are still being moved up to six times between journeys and that therefore sometimes we can't find them in the morning leading to delays in services?"

Paul thought awhile.

"Well," he countered, "if they are taking up a valuable 'rapid-exit' slot they might need to be moved so that a rapid-response vehicle can use the space."

"Granted," the drivers replied. "But that accounts for about one in twenty moves. What about the other nineteen?"

Paul thought awhile.

"We try and put similar vehicles into adjacent slots," he tried.

"Not very successfully. This morning I had to visit five car parks before I found my vehicle," one of the assembled drivers shot back. "Even the superintendent of the area where I had left my vehicle yesterday had no idea where it had gone to."

Paul thought awhile.

"But the figures don't indicate a problem," he retorted obstinately. "In the last six months no vehicle has been moved more than the target of twice between any two taskings."

"What!" The drivers were aghast at this blatant twisting of the facts. "You can't have been counting properly!"

"Depends at what point you start counting," thought Paul and smiled.