It has been a while since I posted a blog, I admit I am not a big fan of social networking, but I do like to keep our valued customers informed about whats going on at Dependable!  The most exciting thing that has happened since my last blog has been our move into a better facility!  We didn't move far, just two doors down the sidewalk from our old suite, but we doubled our space, and are now in a freshly painted, freshly carpeted facility that is much more comfortable and practical to work out of.  This move was prompted from the growth in our Service Parts Storage business.  While in the early days of Dependable, a large amount of delivery volume could be managed from a 250 square foot office, now that we store many of our customers critical parts in our offices, warehousing space is required.  We are also moving closer to 24/7 in office dispatch, as our business now includes much more medical deliveries than ever before. Middle of the night deliveries used to be a 2 or 3 times a month occurrence, but we now have them more nights than not.  It has become impossible for me to answer every phone call and manage every delivery around the clock.  If you call after hours, you may be speaking with Chris on some weeknights, and it is great to have Steve back working with us again, covering things here on the weekends.  With Steve's return, I have been able to enjoy actual full days off for the first time in two and a half years. 

As always, we welcome and appreciate any referrals of potential customers to our business!  The recession is waning, and there is a cautious optimism in the air that maybe, once again, the business community can work to grow and improve, not to just survive.  Our customers success is our success.  Let's all have a great summer!

The annual chaos of the masses has started!  Sometimes I think we have created the chaos just so that we don't have time to notice just how cold and miserable it has gotten outside!

Our Thanksgiving week here at Dependable Delivery was not as crazy as it usually is.  Normally, we will do 5 days worth of volume in the 3 days before the holiday.  This year, not really.  If it wasn't for a couple of long out of state runs late at night, it would have actually been pretty slow.  We only had 3 orders on Thanksgiving Day (I ran 2 of them myself), and the rest of the weekend was slower than normal.  Its a good thing sometimes if the pace slows a little to let everyone catch their breath...as long as it doesn't stay that way!

For most of the time I have been with Dependable, the time before Christmas was extremely busy, but the majority of that business was Airborne Express / DHL overflow. I always enjoyed the insane fast pace of filling in on DHL routes when I was a driver.  Those were long, hard days, but the money was good, and I always set out to get every package I was given off the truck.  I didn't always succeed, but I usually did!  The 2008 downsize of DHL hurt so many good people, including those of us here at Dependable.  I had just purchased Dependable in early 2008, and the loss of largest customer during my first few months as a business owner nearly cost me both the business and my home. Two years later, we have replaced that lost volume through several new customers, and increased volume from some existing customers. But I still miss the intensity of the challenge of the Christmas overflow we enjoyed for 13 years.

If you have a business (or know someone that does) that delivers gift baskets for the holidays, be sure to give us a call!  We won't slide down the chimney for you, and we won't really know if you've been naughty or nice, but we will be happy to get your Christmas delivery needs to either the business or residential addresses of your customers!  Best wishes from everyone here at Dependable for a great holiday season!

The mid term elections are over, am I am glad.  The two weeks prior to the election, we had a 20% sales drop. There is nothing worse in the business world than uncertainty.  Fortunately, this week has rebounded!  So many issues were on the table this election, and the purpose of this entry is not to offend anyone, or step on anyone's toes, but just to inspire thought. 

My knowledge of the political scene is not what it once was.  When I was a driver, I had all day to absorb information, from the various right wing talk shows on WWTN and WLAC, as well as the left leaning NPR perspective. Now, my knowledge is pretty much limited to what I can absorb on the drive in to the office, or gather from the internet.  Philosophically i am libertarian, which pretty much translates to economically conservative, and socially liberal.  This means I am rarely happy any of the establishment candidates, and often have to choose which candidate i feel will vote the least amount of damage into my business and personal life. 

Health care, of course, was a major issue this election cycle, as the business world feared what impact the recent health care legislation would have on the bottom line.  The problem with health care, is it is an UNLIMITED need, that has to be paid for with LIMITED resources.  All of us want to be healthier and live longer.  We all want the best health care available.  And, if we are to be perfectly honest, most of us would really rather someone else paid for it.  Not even the richest among us can afford to pay for all of the medical procedures that we may eventually have a need for.  But when we ask someone else to pay for it (or pay for the insurance that pays for it), limits get established, sometimes limits that mean the difference between life and death.  Medical practitioners deserve to make a profit, so do pharmaceutical companies, so do insurance companies.  But greed does enter into the picture if these industries are left completely unregulated.  Yet, the more regulations, the more money is spent complying with the regulations, and less on patient care and technological innovation.  There are no easy answers that are fair to all.  The rich, the poor, the middle class, small business owners, large corporations, and everyone in the health care industry are impacted by whatever path our nation takes on this issue.  I just hope that as our leaders decide, they consider the impact of their decisions on all of us.

Republicans have control of our TN state government, while the R's and D's will have to share power on the federal level.  Interesting times.  Lets hope that the next two years bring an era of greater peace for our world, greater prosperity for our businesses, and greater freedom in our personal lives.  If not, we have an opportunity to change things up in another 2 years!

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