Fairfield County Business Journal
Modern-Day Pony Express Carries Anything
Physicians Health Services decided one Sunday afternoon that it needed a merger announcement delivered from its Shelton headquarters to all eight of its tri-state corporate offices, simultaneously, before the workday began Monday morning.
The job was no problem for Mail Delivery and Courier Service Inc. of Shelton.
"It's certainly going beyond the call of duty," said Scott Hugo, who operates the service.
Scott's company has delivered blood, urine, X-rays, water samples and animal heads along with regular mail, interoffice documents and bank deposits.
His employees once picked up an exercise ride from the store for a chief executive officer's wife, then went into his house in Weston and set it up, adorned with a bow, in the front hall.
Pre-scheduled or impromptu, same-day or next-day delivery, Mail Delivery and Courier Service emphasizes reliable, customized and prompt service.
American Skandia Life Assurance Corp. of Shelton, a national wholesaler of financial products, uses Mail Delivery and Courier Service to get its mail before the U.S. Post Office delivers it. Mail Delivery and Courier Service makes multiple trips to and from several post offices each morning to collect mail for Skandia as soon as it is sorted.
"Scott gives us phenomenally good service," said Skandia mailroom supervisor Jeff Jordan. "Scott's service is always there. You really can't say that about most services out there today."
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Financial services companies such as Skandia like to receive mail as early as possible, to allow for more time to process account transactions or to collect interest on bank deposits.
"It's an absolute need," Jordan said.
As the products that financial service providers offer grow increasingly similar, services such as speed set companies apart from their competitors.
"We're way ahead of the curve," because Skandia receives its mail before 9AM every day, Jordan said.
Fast and Accurate
Mail Delivery and Courier Service also delivers bank deposits and packages to Connecticut and New York courts for Pullman Comley, a law firm headquartered in Bridgeport.
Scott's staff copies court documents for the firm as well, a service Pullman Comley mail room supervisor Julio Lopez particularly likes.
"His staff is fantastic," Lopez said. "The people are very mature, intelligent individuals," a refreshing change from the "rude, obnoxious" couriers Lopez previously used.
Mail Delivery and Courier Service responds immediately and completes jobs accurately, Lopez said.
Pullman Comley has two couriers of its own, but the large and unpredictable volume of business demands the firm outsource the rest of its courier needs, according to Lopez.
"We don't know from one minute to he next when we night need something," Lopez said. "when things pop up, they're the people to call."
Scott said the company has invested a great deal in training its employees since 1966, when Scott's father, Gary Hugo, founded it. Some of the drivers have worked for the family 15 years or more.
"They're professionals and experts in what they do," Scott said. "They get the job right every time."
Scott took over the company in 1992, immediately after graduating from college. He had worked with his father in high school and through college.
Although he originally planned to do something else after school, Scott saw the strength of the Fairfield County economy and decided to stick to his father's line of work.
"I decided there was a lot of opportunity in the industry," he said
Computers no threat
The courier business continues to grow, even as Fairfield County companies become more and more automated. Computers do not pose much of a threat, Scott said. "There's a lot of computer-generated material that needs to be brought from point A to point B."
Corporate America will place less of an emphasis on technology replacing paper in upcoming years, according to Jay Ingalls, an analyst with the Gartner Group in Stamford, a technology consulting company.
"Everybody knows that we live in the information age. We could just as easily call this the document age," Ingalls said. "The paperless office isn't going to happen."
Instead, technological advancements will make companies demand faster and faster service. Outsourcing will become a popular solution to meet specialized needs or sudden increase in volume, Ingalls said.
Mail Delivery and Courier Service does specialize - in traffic patterns throughout Connecticut and metropolitan New York City.
Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, couriers regularly work around the clock every day and perform numerous trips from Hartford to Manhattan each day.