Different Hours

Yesterday was very busy. It was a good old fashioned Friday in the messenger industry. Problem is that we're a little shorthanded. So it was a challenging day. Fortunately we have a good working relationship with a number of other small independent messenger companies and we're constantly trading work back and forth. I don't like to lean on the other guys too much because it means losing money on the tags we give to them when you factor in admin costs. But it's better that someone else does it than we screw it up. We did about 180 deliveries which is fairly busy for us these days. I'd say our average tag count is about 140. Compare that to the dot com days when we regularly did 270 tags a day and never less tan 210 and you can see how things have changed in the last 4 years. As I was dispatching for the majority of the day (as I usually do) I really had to use a good deal of discretion in lowering customers expectations as to what we could and couldn't do. I think I'm good at that. Getting people to understand and actually be empathetic with the company when it's busy, make them understand that their work is important to us but that we don't want to let them down so "here's a realistic look at what we can do for you". I bend over backwards for customers all the time, going the extra step, doing frequent callers personal jobs for free sometimes, making people feel valued. So it's nice that they'll cut us some slack during intense work times.

This is one of the companies we share work with Rallycap Couriers. Three great guys who've I've worked with alot over the years. Dominic is one of my oldest friends in SF and also the lead singer of Our Lady of the Highway (link's in the link menu). OLOTH is getting ready to do a little tour of the northwest from April 1 to April 8 so if you live in Portland, Olympia, seatac, Bend they'll be up your way and you should definitely check them out.

So Kerry is the man, huh? The election is so far away and so much can happen. I worry that the Dems have picked their man to soon. It's a long way to go and there'll be plenty of mud to sling. He is, after all, a senator with a voting record. Fingers are crossed. Have a good weekend.