Friday, December 23, 2011

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Beantown Here We Come - American Expediting Grand Opening in Boston

What do Gisele Bundchen, Bobby Valentine, and American Expediting have in common?

They all know how to score big in Boston. Gisele married three-time Superbowl champ Tom Brady, Bobby Valentine signed a multi-year deal to manage the Red Sox, and American Expediting opened its newest location strategically close to downtown Boston and the Boston International airport.

Why did American Expediting expand into Boston? For two reasons: (1) we’ve been delivering in the Greater Boston area for a few years through our remote call center and have experienced a strong demand from existing customers to expand our coverage area and service availability; and (2) as part of our national expansion across the United States, we believe Boston is an important piece of the puzzle and completes our core coverage along the Eastern seaboard. Along with our August opening in New York City and now Boston, American Expediting now covers all major cities from north to south: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Atlanta down to Miami.

The types of customers that use our services in the Boston market are usually from our existing database of clients. Not only are they already pleased with our high levels of service and competitive price structure, they are often on a quest to reduce the numbers of vendors they are managing across the country. What they’ve found is that American Expediting is among the best covering multiple cities. Our after hours call center, local operations management, and consolidated accounting solutions help customers to add to their bottom line.

An example of one such customer is a national logistics and freight management company that utilizes American Expediting in multiple cities. When their local Operations Manager moved from Columbus, Ohio to Boston they found that the local branch was using multiple courier companies to handle their work. Learning about the grand opening in Boston helped this client make the decision to consolidate the amount of their vendors, as well as ensure that the local rates became more competitive. Another such customer specializes in servicing medical specimen deliveries. With our corporate training program, all of our drivers are trained and tested on the policies and procedures needed to ensure that our company maintains its high level of compliance with the TSA, OSHA and with HIPAA.

Whether you need to review your existing same day courier solutions, or are looking for a partner to help you design local and national logistics solutions, please consider American Expediting as your vendor in Boston or around the country.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

American Expediting - Giving Thanks, Giving Back

As we experience the holiday season, if you are like my family, you are preparing for that round table discussion about the things we are each grateful for this year. Did you experience a great life-changing event like a wedding, promotion, or birth of a baby? Have you achieved a lifelong goal like running a marathon, earning a black belt, or have you reached a weight-loss goal? Or, are you simply happy to have your whole family sitting around the table eating turkey, ham, and stuffing? We are all very fortunate if these are the biggest thoughts going through our minds.
For our nation’s military families, there are different thoughts to ponder. Will my loved-one return from combat to experience another holiday with our family? When my loved-one comes home, will he/she be of sound mind and body? Will he/she be able to adjust to life away from combat?

Let me introduce you to an organization that American Expediting is supporting. Troops First Foundation is a phenomenal organization that has created several programs and specialized events designed for military service persons and their families. This programming targets relationship-building, readjustment, and reintegration. It also offers mentoring programs which help our soldiers reestablish themselves as they begin to move forward in their lives.The best part is that both non-injured and injured military personnel and their families are served at no cost to them. Additionally, Troops First Foundation develops initiatives to facilitate a greater recognition and an enhanced understanding of the quality and character of the men and women who volunteer to serve, their families, their daily sacrifices and the constant need to evaluate and improve their quality of life. Please visit the Troops First Foundation website to learn more about this worthwhile organization.

http://www.troopsfirstfoundation.org/">http://www.troopsfirstfoundation.org/

There are a variety of areas in our lives that we should never take for granted: our health, our families, those who help us put food on our table, and those who put their lives on the line for this country. On behalf of the management team, staff, and drivers at American Expediting, we would like to thank our customers for the ability to service your business over the past year. We hope that we reached our goal of exceeding your expectations, and look forward to supporting your company in the coming year!

THANK YOU!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Funny Stories in the Courier Industry


When this blog began publishing over two years ago, we stated that the purpose of the blog was to share the trials and tribulations of the courier industry. Included in this description was the desire to share funny stories that have come our way during the everyday course of doing business.

Many of you know that American Expediting handles animals in a variety of ways. From transporting specialty (high value) lab mice to a lab, tropical birds to your local pet stores, as well as handling the family pet. As many people find out the hard way, it is not so easy to transport your pets on a commercial flight. Enter, American Expediting. We know the multitude of rules and regulations that need to be followed and can make your move less stressful, as well as that of your pet.

Recently, we received an email requested through our website, http://www.amexpediting.com/, requesting us to handle their precious family pets. Before you read on, please make sure you don't need to use the bathroom. We wouldn't want to be the cause of a "people accident".

To whom it may concern:
I need to transport 2 Chihuahuas under 10 pounds each from Boston to Dallas. My ex and I share custody. I just moved to Boston making this difficult. He needs them in the winter months because it is just too cold for them in the Northeast. The airline carrier restrictions prevent me from bringing them on the plane. Could you please provide a quote?

You'll be happy to hear that both pets made it safely to their winter home, and with only a small amount of doggie accidents in their kennel.

American Expediting. The newest member of the Animal Transportation Association

Friday, September 16, 2011

FULL SERVICE COURIER OFFERS LIFECYCLE SUPPORT

Twenty-eight years ago when we started in this business, courier delivery was synonymous with document delivery. Attorneys, accountants, and engineers drove our business. As time passed, we acquired a wide array of customers, many with deliveries of a time-sensitive and time-critical nature. We were discovering that the service needs of our clients changed daily making the same-day delivery business truly unique.

Today, the term courier is more frequently associated with medical deliveries, including lab specimens and human organs and has pretty much become the backbone of our business. Now, with the predominance of medical work, we’ve noticed another aspect of our business that is particularly striking: the human element involved in our daily work. At the end of each day, as we evaluate our operations, we see the lives we’ve affected while doing our jobs, the people we’ve helped in ordinary and extraordinary ways. Those are the jobs most rewarding and of the greatest import to us and are exemplified in the following examples of jobs we did in a single day:

• Driver is dispatched in the early morning to pick up prenatal medications for an expectant mother on bed rest in her final trimester, helping to safeguard her from a premature delivery.

• Driver transports cord blood from a new mother donating it to a regional community cord blood bank, a future benefit for a needy recipient needing the cord blood to save their life. The delivery is performed via a flexible route pre-established to our clients evolving needs in the tri-state area of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The route services multiple hospitals and a centralized storage facility.

• A college-bound student studying abroad depends on an American Expediting driver to get his personal belongings to a local Freight Forwarder for loading onto an ocean container ensuring the necessities of his life will be waiting for him upon his arrival.

• Reputed for their conscientious animal transport services, American Expediting receives requests from empty-nesters relocating across the country to move their special pets to their new residences. We handle hundreds of pet deliveries every year, offering door-to-door service and safe delivery for anxious pet owners.

• Out for a night on the town that includes a movie? You can bet that one of our drivers picked up the film reel at the airport then hand delivered it to the theatre. We assist the movie studios to ensure that their new releases are protected and not replicated without their permission.

• Diabetic patients in need of continuous insulin flow can receive it at home thanks to technological advancements in medicine. The insulin pumps and bags required for the process are stored and delivered around the country by American Expediting, a preferred courier of national pharmaceutical companies.

As you can see, our couriers touch many aspects of life each day and yet so many people still believe that couriers only deliver legal documents. We take real pride in knowing that we are helping others live their lives as safe and secure as possible.

Please send in a comment to our blog with your unique experience with a courier.


This blog is dedicated to the memory of Jennifer Blakely, a valued employee of American Expediting Company who managed our office in Toledo, OH.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Batting in the Clean-up Position, American Expediting Couriers


Across the country, most cities are experiencing the dog days of summer. Thermostats exceeding triple digits are becoming the norm, with many families taking vacations based around swimming and as my kids say, “chilin out.” Unlike companies in Europe that commonly shut down three weeks in August for holiday,” North American companies maintain the status quo with up to 20% of their workforce gone in any given week.


This temporary workforce reduction resounds with opportunities. For example, many small and medium-sized widget suppliers use small crews of internal employees to manage their daily deliveries. When one or more of them takes off for vacation, the company may not have the personnel available to drive cargo vans or trucks. American Expediting has and can provide quality substitute drivers, licensed for these vehicle types, and stocked with the equipment to move clients’ pallets. Lift gates, pallet jacks, blankets, and other equipment are all available with advanced notice. In this capacity, American Expediting is a valuable resource, temporarily or permanently, part-time or full-time, for all types of businesses throughout the United States.

As medical couriers, American Expediting finds many of their lab and hospital clients reaching out for help in both their backup routes and STAT specimen deliveries. With the required OSHA and HIPPA training, and knowledge of the medical campuses, American Expediting makes this a smooth transition. Our company also works with the clients’ operations teams to ensure that adequate reporting of pickups and deliveries are communicated in real time.

The extreme summer heat affects sensitive computer parts, increasing failure rates and the need for replacements ASAP. As hot shot couriers experienced in moving such components, American Expediting enjoys an increase in the calls coming in for rush deliveries locally, regionally and via air. Businesses call on us based on our reputation as a courier who can mobilize quickly.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

We've Come A Long Way Baby

Do you remember the year 1983? Was your company in business 28 years ago? This was the year that Vic Finnegan started American Expediting out of his garage. Sounds like the story of how Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started Apple Computer just 7 years earlier. While Vic may not have acquired the stardom of these inventors, he did pioneer the courier business in Philadelphia, and grew to become a premiere player in the rush delivery industry across the country.

Just to give you a perspective on how far the courier industry has come since 1983, I’ve listed four new products that were released in that year: The Internet was founded; Motorola introduced the first mobile phone; IBM released the PC XT the father of today’s computer for $8000 (without monitor); and Microsoft introduced Microsoft WORD. Today our offices communicate with each other over high speed internet connections, with computers that cost little more than a nice wrist watch. We teleconference our 34 offices on video, check on our customers via webmail on our smart phones, and notify our customers when their packages are delivered within seconds of completion.

With all this available technology, there is one constant in our business that may never change. That is the hard work of many incredible individuals. People with the attitude “I’ll do whatever it takes to help our customers.” The team behind American Expediting never sleeps. If any local office closes after hours, our National Call Center manages their fleet of drivers. We are known to really care about our customers. You could say we have a lot of “heart.”

Speaking of heart, did you know that the year 1983 brought us the first artificial heart? It was implanted in the first human, Barney Clark. Like the pioneers who helped extend his life, we at American Expediting like to believe that we have been helping to save lives for the good part of three decades. Advances in technology have helped us to improve on the quality of your lives. Whether we are rushing a heart valve to an emergency room, or taking care of a last minute shipment that allows you to head home to your family when you have the need.