On the Spot Courier Services
On the Spot courier services grew and changed over the years. At first, Bill received requests for package pickups on his mobile phone, recorded that informa¬tion in a log, and would then drive around to retrieve all the packages later in the day. However, he soon discovered that with another driver, it was difficult to coordinate pickups between the two of them from his van. It was not long before he reorganized his business and turned the warehouse employee into a driver. Then, he stayed in the warehouse himself, and his two employees made all the pickups and deliver¬ies. This worked well because he could control and coordinate the pickups and deliveries better. It was also easier for him to receive pickup requests working at a desk rather than trying to do it while driving a delivery van.
As he thought about how his business was grow¬ing and the services he provided to his customers, Bill began to itemize the kinds of information he would need to maintain.
Of course, he needed to maintain information about his customers. Some of his customers were businesses; some were individuals. He needed to have basic address and contact information for every cus¬tomer. Also, for his corporate customers, he needed to identify a primary contact person. It was mostly his corporate customers who wanted to receive monthly statements listing all their shipments during the month and the total cost. Bill needed to distinguish which customers paid cash and which wanted monthly state¬ments. In fact, for those who paid monthly, he needed to keep a running account of such things as when they were last bilkd, when they paid, and any outstanding balances. Finally, when payments were received, either for individual shipments or from monthly invoices, he needed to record information about the payment: type of payment, date, and amount. Although this was not a sophisticated billing and payment system, Bill thought it would suffice for his needs.
Next, he started thinking about his packages and shipments. At the time that a request for a pickup came in, he needed to keep track of it as some type of delivery request or delivery order. At that point in