Every day MCAA members deliver life-saving equipment, life-changing documents and life-giving supplies. Your customers count on you to deliver the lifeblood of their businesses and their lives.
Throughout the year, we’ll be spotlighting “Hero Tales” from our members. These are times when your company went beyond the call of duty or just plain did their job and made a difference.
Did you save the day by delivering a critical document? Did you pick up and deliver something remarkable? Or make the difference in a client’s business or life? Then let us know in a paragraph or two and your company may be featured in the next “Hero Tales” column. In addition, we expect to use their stories in our publicity and lobbying efforts. So take a few minutes to give us the ammunition we need to highlight what MCAA members do every day that makes a difference. Email your hero tales to: herotales@mcaa.com.
This month’s Hero Tales come to us from Am-Tran and Elite Expediting Corp. and involve children in need of critical medical help and two wayward puppies:
"Making a Difference in a Child’s Life"
For one division of Am-Tran, the daily battle against childhood illness is very real. They transport patient samples that help doctors better diagnose their illness. Among various patient specimens that are picked up the couriers deliver a sick child’s blood from pediatric oncology centers to laboratories. These are then analyzed and often within hours of the initial diagnosis, then deliver the drugs to begin treatment. Literally these couriers make a difference in the lives of these children who are 16 and younger.
“This is one area of our business where we see clearly see first-hand the critical nature and importance of timely deliveries,” says Am-Tran’s operations manager, Chris Smith. “In hallways, elevators and waiting rooms our couriers are often face- to face with young patients facing very serious illness. I periodically speak with our medical couriers about this and they tell me things like, ‘It gives me no better satisfaction than to be associated with a dedicated team that has committed themselves not only to its customers directly but indirectly to someone else’s life.”
During the course of a day, Am-Tran’s staff provides its customers with thousands of successful deliveries from letters to trade show displays. For the most part these types of deliveries are routine, and the couriers don’t see the positive impact of what they do. These deliveries are quite different. “In this case, we see what we do as an active component in changing the life of a child. That’s a dramatic example the time-critical work we do.”
Located in Northern California, Am-Tran has been passionately servicing its customers since 1979. Among the wide range of services that the Company provides are critical, time sensitive pick-up and deliveries between hospitals, clinical laboratories and doctor’s offices. Deliver everything from letters to trade show displays. For more information see: www.am-tran.com.
The Tale of the Dogs
When a courier for Elite Expediting Corporation made an airport pick earlier this year, he never expected he’d end up as a hero to two Golden Labrador puppies. It all started when Elite driver Jeff Hall encountered a woman at the airport who was upset because a delay in a flight bringing in her two puppies. The flight delay presented a unique problem because she had a special needs child at home in Indiana who she could not leave for very long. Jeff explained that Elite Expediting specializes in helping people with delivery solutions. He offered to wait for the flight and deliver the puppies to her home in Indianapolis so she could return to her daughter. The woman gratefully accepted and Jeff found himself greeting the puppies, walking them around the airport pet "deposit" area and delivering them to one happy family. To quote Elite’s president Jay Floyd, “Now that's doggone good service!”
Elite Expediting Corp. is a nationwide full service courier/expediting company with corporate offices located in Columbus, Ohio. They offer dispatch/courier deliveries in as little as 30 minutes as well as next day/overnight services. For more information see: www.eliteexp.com
Illness Doesn’t Take a Holiday
Courier Phil Weisberger was truly a lifesaver on the Oct. 2. That’s when the driver for Personal Best, Delivery Inc., and Express Companies played a critical role in a crisis involving a dialysis patient. It seems the patient went on vacation to a resort in southern Indiana without his medication. The patient called the supplier to order the fluid, but something went wrong with the order and the supplier called the company Phil drives for at the last moment. The patient desperately needed two boxes of dialysis fluid in a hurry. Phil cancelled his own plans for the evening and made the 2.5 hour run. The trip was quite an adventure and included traveling on marginally passable roads that lead to a 25 mile final stretch along a paved buffalo path. Phil forged on and the patient got what he needed to have a happy and healthy vacation.
Phil Weisberger is a contract driver for Personal Best, Delivery Inc. and Express Companies in Indiana. This Hero Tale comes from his work for Express Companies.
Send us your Hero Tales today. Email them to: herotales@mcaa.com.