Courier firms learn to adapt to keep business moving forward
Jim Hardenbrook hefted six boxes of records out of the back of his pickup, setting them on a hand cart in the parking lot of a doctors’ building on Spokane’s lower South Hill.
The 58-year-old wheeled the cart through the lobby and navigated to a room filled with records at the Northwest OB-GYN office.
“It’s Jumpin’ Jimmy,” one of the clinic employees exclaimed.
Hardenbrook is the founder and lone employee of Jumpin’ Jimmy’s, a fledgling delivery and courier outfit. Using the slogan “You call, we jump!,” Hardenbrook makes runs for food and office supplies for a handful of Spokane medical and accounting offices, and he shuttles records between clinics.
While the advent of fax machines was supposed to make couriers obsolete two decades ago, courier companies have adapted, said Bob DeCaprio, executive director of the Messenger Courier Association of the Americas. Fax and e-mail technology has affected single-document delivery, but couriers are branching out into transporting large freight, machine parts, pharmaceuticals, medical test results and human organs, he said.
Hardenbrook may be one of the newest additions to the region’s courier industry, but he’s not alone. He received one of 16 new business licenses granted to couriers by the city of Spokane in the last two years, according to city documents.
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