Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Driver Appreciation Day

Drivers Appreciation BBQAs a customer of Costless Express, you cant help but meet our Fantastic Drivers. Today we held an Appreciation BBQ for the 6 hard working people who drive trucks for Costless Express.

Our drivers start their day at 6:30am and load their truck with all their orders (our night shift has just finished picking at 6am). After loading everything from pallets of water to custom birthday cakes, they're off to battle morning traffic. Some customers arrive at work and our drivers are in the parking lot waiting to drop their first orders of milk and coffee for the day. Some customers we have rely on us to deliver coffee supplies every day and we don't want to disappoint a large company with hundreds of employees - never mess with the morning coffee!!

Our drivers cover an assigned territory and get to know their customers by first name and our customers get to know them. During the BBQ the drivers shared stories about covering each others territory during holidays and how customers really missed their regular driver. You see, our drivers get to know exactly where to put the order, when to arrive, who to talk to and how to deal with any building security and protocol. They even wash coffee pots and make coffee! So when another driver covers a territory there is a tall order to fill. In the end our customers enjoy all our delivery drivers but there is always a bond with the regular driver.

During the BBQ our inside staff was able to thank the drivers for all the great work they do. We handed out some great folding chairs and umbrellas to each driver as a gift and ate and ate and ate. The highlight for me was singling out our driver Terry. He has been with me for 14 years! We aimed to guess the amount of deliveries he has done over the years and calculated at an average of 45 per day that would be an amazing 163,800 deliveries!

Great job Terry and all the drivers. You are the face of our company and we couldn't do it without you.

Calvin

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Planning Our New 2008 Catalogue!

Some sample products in consideration for our next catalogue.

It may seem like 2008 catalogues are forever away, but here at Costless Express we're in full catalogue mode.

This time each year, our purchasing and marketing departments select all the new products for the catalogue and meet with over 115 different suppliers. The best part of the process is testing all the samples our suppliers send us!

Some of my favorites so far are the sliced apples and caramel dip, a frozen Tomy Roma rib sandwich and Izze pop. On my "No Way!" list would be Insane Chips that were so hot they were... insane!

Our goal in product selection for our catalogue is to offer customers new choices plus all the favorites. But most of all, each item must be at a great price.

I know our 2008 catalogue will be our best yet — I hope you do too.

Calvin