Stand with Brian, West Point's Friend

I'm reaching out to all of you on behalf of my friend and fellow delivery driver, Brian, also known as "Big B" to the cadets at West Point Military Academy . Brian's been a lifeline to these cadets, especially during these trying times. But now, he needs our help.

Brian, transitioned from a lifelong career in construction to delivery driving during the pandemic. He built strong relationships with the cadets, noticing the high fees they were charged by major delivery apps. To help, he created a flat-fee delivery service just for them.

On March 20, 2024, while waiting for deliveries, Brian’s car was hit by a cadet’s pickup truck. Although the damage seemed minor at first, his car became difficult to drive. Sad and Tragically, the cadet died during spring break, so Brian chose not to contact the family about the damages. Unable to afford professional repairs, Brian attempted to fix the car himself, buying parts and watching YouTube tutorials. Despite his efforts, the car remained undrivable.

Brian is now left without a functional vehicle. He’s borrowed cars and even rode with other drivers to maintain his delivery service, often giving cadets free rides. The economic downturn has further reduced delivery drivers' earnings, making it hard to sustain his business.

Brian’s dedication and professionalism have earned him lasting friendships with the cadets, even after they graduate. We’re seeking donations to help Brian afford proper repairs at a different shop, so he can continue serving the West Point community.

Please donate to help get Brian’s vehicle back in safe, drivable condition. Go Army! Beat Navy!

If you want to read all the details, here is a longer complete version of the incident :

This is the first time either of us is doing anything like this, and we didn’t really know how to go about it. Once it was written, I suggested we put it in ChatGPT to word it better. I showed the outcome results to Brian, but he felt the way ChatGPT rewrote it seemed unauthentic or sensationalized. So please keep this in mind while reading. Thank you in advance.

My friend and fellow driver Brian “Big B," as most cadets know him, had been in the construction/property management business his whole life until the pandemic hit. At that point, he wanted and needed to do something different, so he started doing deliveries.

Living next to West Point, Brian was delivering to West Point Military Academy, where he started to grow relationships with the cadets. While doing deliveries for the major food delivery apps, Brian saw how much the cadets were getting charged and knew they only had limited income. He started an app just for cadets to try to save them money and made sure they got their order with a flat-fee delivery service.

On March 20, 2024, Brian was sitting and waiting for deliveries in the Chipotle parking lot. All of a sudden, his car was hit in the rear and shifted drastically as he sat there wondering what happened. A pickup truck pulling into a spot next to his car misjudged the angle they were pulling in at. Brian got out of his vehicle and spoke to the driver, who was a cadet. He made sure there were no injuries. Knowing the cadets were leaving for their spring break and not wanting to ruin it for him, they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to talk when the cadet returned from break. The car suffered visible scrapes and scuffs to the rear of the vehicle, but it was hard to initially judge any other damage.

Over the next few days, Brian noticed that the car was hard to manage and keep straight while driving. A few days later, Brian found out that the cadet involved in the accident tragically passed away during spring break. After everything the family has just lost and gone through, Brian did not want to contact the family about the damages.

Not really having the money to take it to a shop to get the work completed, Brian tried to figure out what was causing the problem. While driving the vehicle, the rear tires started to unevenly wear out, resulting in two flat tires over 3 days. He noticed his tire was able to be moved side to side and realized the stress from the accident broke the rear wheel bearing. After watching some YouTube videos and purchasing the part, Brian replaced the wheel bearing, then took it to a shop to get the car wheels aligned. The shop said two other parts were also damaged and needed to be replaced before the alignment could be done. He ordered the parts, and once they came in, he replaced them as well. They took it back to the shop once again, and they still couldn’t align it because they said now both sides rear trailing arms were bent. Brian was trying to do these repairs as cheaply as possible. Just good enough to make the car drivable to make deliveries. Because of the condition of the car and the limited shops to take it to that were close enough, he had no choice but to return to the same shop, even though it seemed they weren’t being very helpful.

Brian and the shop started calling around and searching the internet for everyone they knew to try to find the two rear trailing arms, but no matter how many people they called, they found out the part was very expensive or unavailable. During this time, Brian was either borrowing a car for the times he was doing the deliveries or would ride along with other drivers. He didn’t want to disappoint the cadets, who grew accustomed to his service, and he didn’t want to lose the business he had built up because he didn’t have a car to make the deliveries. Brian, who is not a trained mechanic, struggled by himself, getting cut up and bruised underneath his vehicle for days in the driveway, trying to do the repairs as best he could.

But at this point, it just became so overwhelming to keep putting money that he didn’t have into a vehicle that wasn’t getting any better. Brian was known for his silver Dodge Ram pickup with the license plate “Big B." but had to sell it because the upkeep and maintenance wear and tear from doing deliveries were too much. So he bought an older white lincoln SUV to use for the deliveries.

Brian would pick up any cadets needing a ride or walking back from town. When offered a tip for giving a ride, he would never accept one, no matter how much he really needed it.

He didn’t do that to make money. He did it to try to be helpful.

Many times Brian received tips from deliveries that he felt were higher than he thought maybe the cadet could give or he earned, so he would say to the cadet, Listen, your next x amount of deliveries are on me instead of just accepting it.

(I personally told him he should’ve just accepted the tips.)

Most people don’t think about or realize what really goes into food delivery. Sure, it’s easy to pick up an order and just drop it off and deliver it, but if you’re doing it as a business, it’s got to be more calculated. A few years ago, a person could make a living doing deliveries, but you had to really hustle. In the last year, with the economy being so bad, the food delivery apps have cut the pay scale down so low that they are trying to get drivers to complete multiple orders at once for very little payout.

Just last night, I myself received offers from apps trying to get people to deliver two orders for $2.00. So they want the drivers to wait at restaurants for the order to be made (which sometimes could take up to an hour), then deliver it to two different cadets, most times at two different locations, for $2.00. Each time you decline an order like this, your rating drops 1% from 100%, and the lower you get, the worse the orders you receive. They are still charging their customers more, but not giving the drivers much of the fees they collect.

I mentioned these things just because between gas, maintenance, and insurance on a vehicle, trying to make a living makes it harder than most people realize. Brian didn’t treat deliveries as some kind of hobby; he approached them as a business and tried to be very professional and thoughtful as he worked.

I suggested starting this with Brian, but he was hesitant and felt embarrassed having to do this. So I wrote out as much information as I knew and showed it to him, and then together, he filled me in with the parts of the story that I wasn’t fully aware of. I felt so bad for him and knew I had to do something, knowing that he was doing everything possible and not trying to burden the family with any of this.

He is left with a vehicle that he can no longer use to provide a living. Over the past three years of delivering to the West Point Military Academy, Brian has built up so many great relationships with the cadets. Even continuing with some cadets that have left West Point to further their careers after graduation.

Please join me by donating whatever you can to be able to take Brian‘s car to a different shop to get all these issues corrected so that his vehicle is back in safe, drivable condition to deliver to the West Point Military Academy Cadets.

Go ARMY!

Beat Navy!