success story
The Delivery Express Team
Dave Hamilton
Delivery Express President
24 | CM | November December 2009
By Amy Fischbach
Delivery
Express Inc.’s
Quest for
Perfection
Seattle-area courier company aims to make
deliveries on time every time.
f
a company wants to have a general idea of
when a package will arrive, an employee
will stick a stamp on it and toss it into the
mailbox. Those businesses, however, looking for
on-time delivery, customer service and the latest
tracking technology, often turn to Delivery Express.
For the past 13 years, the Renton, Wash.-based delivery
company has prided itself on meeting customers’
needs. For example, when a severe snowstorm virtually
shut down Seattle last winter, one of the company’s
clients still had to make its deliveries of blood bags and
other equipment. Fortunately, Delivery Express ensured
that all the deliveries were made as scheduled.
“We’re in the business of saving lives, and it’s very
important for the right people to get the right products,”
said Edwin Barber, director of materials management for
Puget Sound Blood Center. “During the snowstorm, a lot of
people couldn’t get out, but their drivers were
able to get vehicles to my warehouse and
deliver to all of my locations.”
This commitment to customer service is one reason
why Puget Sound Blood Center has been working
with Delivery Express for the last two-and-a-half
years. Barber said he
used to work with
Delivery Express while
employed at LabCorp.
He brought Delivery
Express on board to
work as a third-party
courier for his new
employer because
of the company’s
excellent track record.
Fast Facts on
Delivery Express
Founded: January 1997
Location: Based in Renton, Wash.
The company’s office is less than
10 miles from the Seattle Airport
and 10 miles to downtown Seattle.
Contractors and Staff: 85 contract
drivers and 12 office employees.
“Whether they’re
dealing with one
Services: Offers same-day,
next-day or next-week delivery
package or a whole
needs including courier, freight,
truckload, they have
logistics and freight forwarding.
the same level of
In addition, the company operates
service and treat
a large warehouse and can meet
everyone the same,”
customers’ warehousing needs.
he said. “They’ve
never said no to a
load I had for them,
and they’ve always
come through when I was in a tight bind.”
For example, one time, Barber needed a delivery done in 20
CM | Nevember December 2009 | 25
Supershot Warehouse
From left, Jim
O’Brien, dispatch
operations manager; Shawana
Phillips, office
manager, and
Mike Moraski, vice
president of operations; Delivery
Express’ warehouse operation.
minutes, and the Delivery Express driver arrived right on time.
“They are a company that I can rely on, and that my staff trusts
to get the product out,” he said. “They are professional, on time,
and very courteous.”
Rapid Growth
Delivery Express president Dave Hamilton credits his company’s
success to two key factors – driver retention and on-time
deliveries. Hamilton, who has been in the courier business for
the past 22 years, first began working in the industry out of high
school. When he began attending a Seattle community college,
he met the owner of a small courier company.
“He was a one-man operation, and I basically doubled the size
of his company,” Hamilton said. “He and I worked together for a
bit, and then I headed off on my own.”
In January 1997, he started Delivery Express with three drivers.
Now his company works with about 85 contractor drivers and
specializes in medical and real estate work. In the beginning, his
business focused exclusively on on-demand work, but over the
years, the percentage has shifted to about 75 percent on-demand
and 25 percent routed/scheduled work.
The company has worked with a variety of different clients, but
landed its biggest account within the first year. When Kenworth
Truck Company first called Delivery Express, Hamilton expected
to make a pickup from just one of its suppliers. Instead, his
company was asked to pick up from all of their suppliers, which
was a huge shot in the arm.
“Needless to say, we had to find a bunch of drivers, and make
26 | CM | November December 2009
Caption
sure we were on top of it,” Hamilton said. “It’s an account we
still have today, and it’s been great for us.”
As the company has increasingly gotten better organized and
able to get out and sell, the company has continued to keep
growing. Over the years, Delivery Express has become known
as one of the fastest-growing companies in the Seattle area,
according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. Most of the growth
has stemmed from referrals and sales leads.
“We’ve had dramatic growth,” said Hamilton, who was also
selected as a 40 Under 40 Nominee by the publication in 2006.
On Time Deliveries
One reason why Delivery Express continues to grow and prosper
is its focus on timeliness. The company consistently looks for
ways to improve on time by evaluating metrics. While the
company is able to deliver on time about 96 percent or more
of the time, Hamilton said his company’s drivers are always
shooting for 100 percent.
Quest Diagnostics in Seattle has been working with Delivery
Express for several years due to the company’s dependability.
Ed Byrne, regional logistics manager for Quest Diagnostics, likes
the fact that the company offers different levels of pickup and
delivery services. Because Quest Diagnostics is a health-care
company, it often needs human samples to be picked up stat.
While they have to pay more for this service, they fully expect to
do so.
“We often have 55 minutes from the time the client calls us to
the time the sample is delivered to the testing facility,” Byrne
said. “When we have that need for stat service, they come
through for us every time.”
drivers. Those drivers who show an outstanding commitment to
the company have the potential to earn more money on the job.
Delivery Express does about 100 transactions for Quest
Diagnostics per month. The two companies operate in the
same geographical area in Puget Sound, and Byrne said Delivery
Express is customer service-driven.
Delivery Express offers a contractor resource guide as an
orientation tool for its contractor drivers. This packet is filled
with hints and maps to help the drivers to do the best job that
they can.
Like other courier companies, however, Delivery Express faces
challenges from clients that not only want on-time deliveries,
but also want premium service at a reduced rate. Shippers were
more willing to pay for service a couple of years ago than they
are now, which presents a major challenge, he said.
The company also has many social events such as a monthly
driver appreciation barbeque. In addition, Delivery Express
organized an Open House to show off its new facility to its
drivers and their families. Following the Open House, Hamilton
held a driver meeting and led an open-ended discussion about
the state of the business.
“We have excelled because of our commitment to quality and
on-time performance, but currently our biggest challenge is
generating more revenue,” he said. “The pie is smaller, and I am
bumping up against more competitors more often.”
Driver Retention
Another one of the top issues for Delivery Express is driver
retention. In the delivery industry, it’s critical to have as many
drivers as possible, and to keep them well trained, Hamilton said.
“Whoever has the most drivers wins, and you can’t just churn
them out,” he said. “We have to bring them in and help them to
succeed. The more we have, the better we’ll do.”
To keep its drivers coming back to work each day, Delivery
Express helps them to find ways to make more money. Every
other month, the company gives them an assessment. The
business then rewards the top performers by naming them elite
Delivery Express takes good care of its drivers, said Frank Oakes,
who has been working for the company for the last year-anda-half as a driver. Oakes appreciates the company’s ability to be
organized and well managed.
For example, when things slow down, the company evaluates its
workload and then releases drivers from their contracts. That
way, there aren’t a lot of drivers who aren’t making money. In
addition, the company rewards drivers for a job well done.
“They evaluate the drivers on how well they get the job done,”
Oakes said. “Whether you show up to work on time and get
good feedback from customers. If you do a better job in the
areas that are more important, then you get more work.”
He said this system works well for him because he enjoys
showing up for work and making money.
continued on next page
CM | November December 2009 | 27
President Dave Hamilton
with Ron Stevens, logistics
manager
“It’s nice to work at a place where your
efforts are appreciated,” he said. “I think it
helps for people to be more involved with
the company and feel like they’re a part
of it. Delivery Express treats drivers like
people instead of like a number.”
In addition, the drivers often are
committed to customer satisfaction, Byrne
said. In his experience, the drivers are
friendly and outgoing.
“Their drivers are really head and tails
above your typical delivery service
employee,” Byrne said. “They are out to
make sure that the customers get what
they need.”
Tuning into Technology
Another important component to the
company’s success has been technology.
The customers can place orders online,
which is a significant selling point for
Quest Diagnostics, Byrne said. Rather than
picking up the phone and calling central
dispatch, Byrne can instead visit the
company’s website.
Quest Diagnostics has been using the
service for the last three years. The
company operates its own fleet of couriers
and vehicles and runs its own dispatch
center, so placing orders online allows
Quest Diagnostics to be more efficient.
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28 | CM | November December 2009
Since the beginning of the business,
Delivery Express has had courier software,
and the company is continually working
with the vendor to improve the program
and make it work for them. In addition,
the business is working on redesigning its
website for the third time to make sure it
stays fresh. The company is active on search
engine optimization and Google Search.
Delivery Express started its business using
the original Nextel handhelds, paging
drivers their orders, using computerized
order entry and dispatching systems, and
employing e-mail and instant messaging.
In addition, the company invested in GPS
tracking to improve the efficiency in the
dispatch room.
While technology has been a huge key
to the company’s success, Hamilton said
it’s not without its challenges. Dial-up
connections were reliable, but slow, and
the courier software initially required
a lot of maintenance. In fact, Hamilton
remembers talking late at night with the
courier software president at his home
after hours.
“It takes a concerted effort to stay on top
of our existing technology and to always
be on the lookout for the next best thing,”
he said. “Many of our shippers look at the
large regional and national carriers as the
example and expect us to keep up with
the same technology. For the most part we
have met the challenge, but it takes plenty
of effort.”
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“Like any other dispatch center, we’re very
busy handling calls from our customers,”
he said. “If we have to take time out to
make a phone call, it affects our service
to our customers. Our clients are calling
us to arrange pickups with our couriers,
and placing orders online allows us to do
things at one time.”
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By keeping up on the latest technology,
focusing on customer service and taking
care of its drivers, Delivery Express has
managed to keep growing and improving
over the last 13 years. By continuing to
focus on these strategies, the company
plans to continue to serve its clients for
many years to come.
About the Author
Amy Fischbach is a freelance writer and
editor living in Overland Park, Kan. She can
be reached at [email protected]