Our First Blog Entry!
The computer age has created so many benefits, and so many draw backs, both on the personal side and the business side. Being young enough to embrace technology, yet old enough to remember life without much of it, i can easily see both sides. Computers have without a doubt increased productivity. Yet things have gotten less personal. Phone calls have replaced visits, and text messages have replaced phone calls. Computer routing and GPS have replaced maps. Files are replacing documents. Online advertising is replacing print ads. Fax and file transfers have replaced couriers in many instances (grrrrrrr). I guess blogs have replaced letters. So here we go.....
This blog is to communicate with our valued Dependable Delivery customers, and to help us to remind you, and to remind ourselves, that we really are all still people, not just a name on a computer screen, not just an invoice in the mail, not just another delivery. We are all working hard to create an income, and to build our businesses. As the owner of Dependable, it is my continual goal to operate in a manner that is a win-win-win for our Customers, our Drivers, and for the future of Dependable and myself. This first blog entry will touch briefly on each one. I will go into more detail on each of these in future entries.
Creating a Win for our customers usually comes down to one of two things: Saving you time, or saving you money. Each of our customers needs is different. Sometimes Dependable can save you time, sometimes we can save you money, sometimes we can do both, and sometimes we can't do either. It depends on the size / weight of your package, the distance it is going, the time sensitivity of the package, and the time of day or the day of the week. Meeting our customers expectations with a high level of on time service, by drivers that represent us well, rounds out what it takes to create a Win for our Customers. Of course, the more our customers prosper, the more we prosper. A rising tide does raise all ships!
Creating a Win for our drivers may be more difficult than creating a Win for the customers. There is a fairly prevalent attitude in the courier industry among owners and managers that the drivers are easily replaceable. Some of our competitors have a pretty high turnover rate. They will bring on a new driver. The drivers will work for a couple of months, discover that after their gas they are making less than they would at McDonalds, and decide its not worth it, and quit. Especially with a 9.5% unemployment rate, there is always someone ready to take their place. The cycle continues. This model allows courier companies to charge a little less, and make a little more. But the drivers are never happy. An experienced dispatcher (such as myself!) can make a huge difference in how much money a driver makes, and how much they spend in gas. I always try to "keep it tight"; working in as many stops with a driver in the same area of town as possible while still having 95% + on time deliveries. When possible, i have drivers make their first and last deliveries on the side of town in which they live, so they have less dead miles. I aim for our rates to be at a level where the customer sees value, but the driver can also come out ahead. This means I am not always the cheapest. That's OK. There is in any market a place for the cheapest, and a place for the best. I choose being the best.
Creating a Win for the Company and myself is even harder. Many of you have heard me say, "I love my job the first 40 hours a week, its the next 128 that suck!" Running a business that must almost by definition operate 24/7/365, largely by myself, is the hardest thing i have ever done. For those of you that work M-F 8-5, and only speak to us during those hours, please remember that we never close. We may leave the office, but phones are forwarded to cell phones, and faxes to an online fax service. We never know what an evening or a weekend will bring. We do about 30% of our business outside regular business hours. I probably only make it through a night of uninterrupted sleep once every 4 days on average. One of my primary goals is to build a courier company large enough to have 24/7 in office dispatch. Yet my goal is not to create some goliath Wal Mart style company that loses touch with the people and companies that helped it to grow. The optimum I think is about 4X our current size. That may seem lofty, but keeping in mind that my largest competitor about 15X our current size locally, i think it is attainable. With a fulltime salesman, warehouse manager, and bookkeeper, along with myself, all cross-trained to cover each other, i envision a company in the future that everyone associated with will be proud of. At that point each of us could cover after-hours duties one night a week and one weekend a month, something much more reasonable than what i currently have to do.
Keep checking back here for periodic Dave ramblings, about Dependable Delivery, and other various topics of interest! As always, thank you for your ongoing support of my company.
Dave Myers
Dependable Delivery
This blog is to communicate with our valued Dependable Delivery customers, and to help us to remind you, and to remind ourselves, that we really are all still people, not just a name on a computer screen, not just an invoice in the mail, not just another delivery. We are all working hard to create an income, and to build our businesses. As the owner of Dependable, it is my continual goal to operate in a manner that is a win-win-win for our Customers, our Drivers, and for the future of Dependable and myself. This first blog entry will touch briefly on each one. I will go into more detail on each of these in future entries.
Creating a Win for our customers usually comes down to one of two things: Saving you time, or saving you money. Each of our customers needs is different. Sometimes Dependable can save you time, sometimes we can save you money, sometimes we can do both, and sometimes we can't do either. It depends on the size / weight of your package, the distance it is going, the time sensitivity of the package, and the time of day or the day of the week. Meeting our customers expectations with a high level of on time service, by drivers that represent us well, rounds out what it takes to create a Win for our Customers. Of course, the more our customers prosper, the more we prosper. A rising tide does raise all ships!
Creating a Win for our drivers may be more difficult than creating a Win for the customers. There is a fairly prevalent attitude in the courier industry among owners and managers that the drivers are easily replaceable. Some of our competitors have a pretty high turnover rate. They will bring on a new driver. The drivers will work for a couple of months, discover that after their gas they are making less than they would at McDonalds, and decide its not worth it, and quit. Especially with a 9.5% unemployment rate, there is always someone ready to take their place. The cycle continues. This model allows courier companies to charge a little less, and make a little more. But the drivers are never happy. An experienced dispatcher (such as myself!) can make a huge difference in how much money a driver makes, and how much they spend in gas. I always try to "keep it tight"; working in as many stops with a driver in the same area of town as possible while still having 95% + on time deliveries. When possible, i have drivers make their first and last deliveries on the side of town in which they live, so they have less dead miles. I aim for our rates to be at a level where the customer sees value, but the driver can also come out ahead. This means I am not always the cheapest. That's OK. There is in any market a place for the cheapest, and a place for the best. I choose being the best.
Creating a Win for the Company and myself is even harder. Many of you have heard me say, "I love my job the first 40 hours a week, its the next 128 that suck!" Running a business that must almost by definition operate 24/7/365, largely by myself, is the hardest thing i have ever done. For those of you that work M-F 8-5, and only speak to us during those hours, please remember that we never close. We may leave the office, but phones are forwarded to cell phones, and faxes to an online fax service. We never know what an evening or a weekend will bring. We do about 30% of our business outside regular business hours. I probably only make it through a night of uninterrupted sleep once every 4 days on average. One of my primary goals is to build a courier company large enough to have 24/7 in office dispatch. Yet my goal is not to create some goliath Wal Mart style company that loses touch with the people and companies that helped it to grow. The optimum I think is about 4X our current size. That may seem lofty, but keeping in mind that my largest competitor about 15X our current size locally, i think it is attainable. With a fulltime salesman, warehouse manager, and bookkeeper, along with myself, all cross-trained to cover each other, i envision a company in the future that everyone associated with will be proud of. At that point each of us could cover after-hours duties one night a week and one weekend a month, something much more reasonable than what i currently have to do.
Keep checking back here for periodic Dave ramblings, about Dependable Delivery, and other various topics of interest! As always, thank you for your ongoing support of my company.
Dave Myers
Dependable Delivery