Metro Reuse Project: The Employee Suggestion Box
Made of pallet scraps, reclaimed screws, and parts of old dismantled office cubicles.
Metro Represents at the Messenger and Courier Association of America’s 2012 Conference
The MCAA’s mission is to promote and advance the common interests of those engaged in the delivery and logistics industry worldwide through education and advocacy. That’s what it says on their website, but it’s really more entertaining than that.
This year, Metro Delivery Operations and Business Development Managers went for Education and Networking with the MCAA at the fabulous Westin Diplomat in Sunny Hollywood, Florida.
This location gave us a wide range of acceptable attire, from Tropical to Business Casual, as modeled here:
Now, it is true that the place features palm trees and Jacuzzis, but we’re really focused on business, honest. That’s what we keep reminding our coworkers who imagine us lounging on the beach drinking from coconuts. 
We had informational sessions on Home Delivery, Using Metrics to Achieve Results, the Supply Chain in 2012 and Beyond, a panel on How the Industry has Evolved in the Last 25 Years, and lively roundtable Focus Groups on Marketing and Technology. We networked ferociously with hundreds of other regional and national couriers, and with vendor representatives from companies focused on our industry.
We attended a speech by Congressman Erik Paulsen, an advocate in Washington for Independent Contractor Legislative Reform.
(If you’re wondering, no, Metro doesn’t use Independent Contractors; we have 100% Employees, so that’s not our business model, but a lot of our friends in the industry do use IC’s, or a combination of IC’s and employees, so the subject concerns us.)
We learned a ton! We made IMPORTANT BUSINESS CONNECTIONS! Me met interesting people from around all around the World, and talked to them for hours about things that would bore the socks off our social dinner guests.
And then we went to lounge on the beach and drink from a coconut.
Metro Represents at the 2012 Express Carriers Association Marketplace Event
Metro Delivery has been a member of the ECA
since 2006-it’s a national organization that “fosters business relationships through innovative networking between local/regional carriers and national shippers or vendors in the transportation industry, while also providing its members continuing education on transportation industry issues.”
(It’s more entertaining than they make it sound on the mission page of their website.)
This year we once again sent our Business Development and Customer Service Managers to the 2012 ECA Marketplace Event in Chicago, for 3 whirlwind days of:
* Networking with other Carriers & Vendors from across the USA
* Dynamic speed interviews with Shippers; potential clients looking for regional Carriers like Metro Delivery
* Transportation education & information sessions & conversations
* And incidentally, an amazing array of carnivorous choices provided by the stockyards of Chicago & the excellent kitchen at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, along with other fortifying refreshments, Roulette and Blackjack tables for a charitable cause, and a jazz band. See? Now it sounds fun, doesn’t it?
It was nice to have the conference close to home, in Chicago; it’s a great town, and just a 3.5 hour drive from our home base, which means we don’t have to fly but can stick to the surface transportation we’re most familiar with.
Thanks for having us, ECA! See you next year!
Chef Barbara’s Easter Friday Menu
…In addition to bringing in her patented Penguin Hors D’oeuvres (see previous post), Barbara brought in five(!) desserts for the company today.
-Ask her why and she shrugs & says she “likes to cook,” which seems like a bit of an understatement, doesn’t it?
Clockwise from upper left:
(not including penguins)
Peanut Butter Pie
Apple Pie
Chocolate Cream Pie
Cheesecake
Oreo Pie
Now that’s a balanced diet! Thanks, Barbara!
Barbara’s Presto Penguin Hors D’oeuvres
Featured today in the Metro Delivery Staff Cafeteria & Lounge:
Barbara’s Presto Penguin Hors D’oeuvres
Ingredients:
- Jumbo Black Olives
- Cream Cheese (add chives/garlic if desired)
- Pickled Waffle-Cut Carrots
- Toothpick (do not eat)
Assemble as shown and impress your party guests with tiny, edible penguins.
Metro Raffle Winners!
Gift cards from Busch’s grocery store have been awarded, in small and solemn ceremonies, to the last 2 raffle winners!
The correct entries were printed from email, furiously shuffled, and picked at random by our glamorous and scintillating Business Development and Customer Service Managers. Winner’s names are confidential for the sake of internet privacy.
JB, a newer client of ours from the fine city of Saline, answered the question: “What is the Michigan State Reptile?” with the correct answer: “Painted Turtle.”
(Here at Metro, we like turtles. They’re like the cargo vans of the reptile world. Not delivery vans, though, because they’re just not fast enough.)
And SK, who’s been calling in deliveries to us for for around 20 years-(jeez, really? 20 years? He looks younger than that) won the previous month’s raffle, answering “What do you call the plastic tip on the end of a shoelace?” correctly with the extremely useful word “AGLET.”
(OK, so it’s not an extremely useful word, unless you’re in the shoelace business. In fact, there were only about 5 entries submitted for that question.)
You don’t have to be a client to win, just for the record, although we do get about 90% of the entries from clients, historically…but we encourage anyone to enter, except for our own employees and their immediate families.
Congratulations to the winners!
Views from the Road: Georgia
We’ve got room for about 30 crates of peaches on the way back up to Michigan, if anyone feels like making some pies, just so you know-
We’re Nationwide 2/27/2012
Well, admittedly, 43 of the vehicles are just whirling around Southeast-to-Central Michigan, as usual, but today we’re also tracking one Driver on her way back from Fort Lauderdale, FL, where she delivered an enormous, 2000 lb. engine, and another Driver headed towards Maryland with some other crucial stuff.
With our new 2012 rates & services, Metro Delivery has actually REDUCED the long distance prices by 12.5%, and as a result, people are hiring us for a lot more interstate dedicated deliveries recently. Now we need bigger monitors for our vehicle tracking…
“Serving Southeast Michigan and Beyond” is what it says on the side of the vehicle, as she’s stopping for a bagful of oranges for the trip back from beyond to Southeast Michigan…
Fat Thursday
…We ate 93 paczki. 65,100 calories.
There’s still 2 left, but nobody can bear to look at them.
Fat Wednesday
…Here are the totals from yesterday’s paczki massacre:
By the latest count, there are… 17 and one half paczki left, which means that Metro staff consumed… 77.5 paczki, or an estimated grand total of around 54,250 calories.
Fortunately, we have lots of opportunities to burn off the calories, what with all the stairs, and all the boxes, and all the walking… So, come on, people! There’s 17.5 paczki in the kitchen! Let’s see that powdered sugar fly! WE CAN’T LET THE PACZKI WIN!
