Believe it or not, that’s a question that is often asked when I am speaking to any group of ten people that I don’t know. Most people have heard of UPS, FedEx, DHL, and the U.S. Postal Service, but many don’t know of the niche businesses and their specialties lumped into the “Same-Day Delivery” space. Most people have never used a typical messenger/courier service, which in many areas of the country specialize in strictly B2B or perhaps B2C solutions.
When people ask me “Isn’t a same-day carrier the same as FedEx or UPS?” my typical response is “No, those are next-day or two to three days, typically, where we are same-day, usually within hours.” That is not to say that the “big guys” don’t have a same-day solution — most do — but it’s not what they specialize in!
Did you know that you — from your office in Las Vegas, NV or Cedar Rapids, IA or anywhere else in the US — could arrange to ship a package from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, FL in just a couple of hours? Most people don’t realize that we can deliver items to a town 20 or 30 miles over in that same couple of hours (or sooner) either! That is the challenge of same-day delivery companies: getting the word out that we are here, and we have solutions for delivery needs and problems.
Same-day delivery is generally more costly because of the smaller delivery “window” (the time from the order being ready to the time the order needs to be delivered). In addition, there are other parameters including weight of the shipment and mileage, among other variables used to determine the actual cost of a “Rush” type delivery. In most cases, more miles between the pickup and the delivery adds an additional cost per mile unless Zone pricing is in effect.
A metric that could change that is density: if there are several deliveries within a smaller zone, a delivery person could complete more deliveries within that zone driving fewer miles and using less time, which pushes cost per delivery down.
A common misconception by some business people is that it is too costly to use a same-day delivery solution. They could tell Janie to go and deliver the package while “she’s out at lunch.” The problem with that idea is: if Janie falls and breaks her ankle, she’s now out of work for a few weeks recuperating while on worker’s compensation. That’s quite a risk — why take it?
Our industry is made up of thousands of same-day delivery firms located around the world. Many have larger service footprints depending upon their locales and specialties. Some are a husband-and-wife team with a handful of drivers (although that is getting harder due to ever-changing technology and the cost of doing business).
Today’s same-day delivery companies count on sophisticated operating systems to manage everything from compensation to weekly or monthly billing, GPS tracking, and route optimization software. Handheld communication software is just as complex with the potential of signature capture, photographic proof of delivery, and push-to-talk versus typical cell phone telephony.
So, the next time you realize that you have your partner’s briefcase in your car — don’t drive there to drop it off yourself! Call a same-day delivery expert – like US Messenger & Logistics, Inc.