Alpha Sales ?Pick-Up? 15 Fold Since 1998

When Wesley Robinson loaded a queen-size mattress set in his 1979 Ford pickup and hauled it across Springdale, it was the first delivery for his new company — Alpha Pick-Up & Delivery Inc.

That was back in 1998, and Robinson still has the $25 invoice framed on his office wall.

Robinson and his partner, Donald Tucker, made those initial deliveries in their personal vehicles. Though Tucker was a little more limited. He had a 1991 Honda Accord at the time.

That first year, they brought in $203,000 in revenue. Since then, the company’s revenue has jumped by almost 15 fold to $3 million.

Now Alpha has a fleet of 34 trucks, including eight 24-foot box trucks, three 14-foot box trucks, 14 Chevrolet S10 trucks and nine cargo vans to service its 300 clients. In 1999, Alpha Air Carriers was added in response to customer demands.

The combined companies employ 48 people, including 20 in the Springdale headquarters.

“We don’t really haul furniture anymore,” said Nicole Deangelo, who works in Alpha’s sales department. “But almost anything you want us to pick up and deliver we will. But we don’t do food if people call us and ask us for lunch to be delivered. It’s happened.”

Deangelo said Alpha does mail delivery for companies and hauls checks from bank to bank. The company delivers break pads and shock absorbers from the manufactuer to O’Reilly Auto Parts’ nine distribution centers. Alpha has even delivered flowers on occasion.

Tucker said the tremendous growth is a result of Alpha responding to customers’ demands for more services.

The company originally started out as a local delivery service but expanded into heavy freight as demand grew for that particular service.

Now, five years later, Alpha offers a number of products to its customers. Its freight-forwarding services include same, next-day and deferred-cargo shipments within the United States as well as international shipping and delivery services for parcels and cargo.

It also offers nationwide charter service, less-than-truckload and full-truckload services.

With both nationwide and worldwide shipping, including destinations as far away as Moscow, Tucker said Alpha is extremely competitive within the industry.

Alpha offers its customers dedicated routes, mail runs, after-hours services, “line haul” services throughout the Midwest, “hot shot” and air-expedited services across the United States.

Getting started

In 1996, Robinson wanted to provide a local carrier service that focused on customer satisfaction in Northwest Arkansas — something he felt none of the other local services really understood.

Robinson pitched the idea to Tucker, and two years later Alpha was born.

Now, Robinson is president, and Tucker is executive vice president of the company.

In the beginning, the two men worked out of a 275-SF office on the corner of Quandt Avenue and Holcombe Street in Springdale. Two months later, business was booming, and they added a full-time driver so Tucker could focus on sales.

After six months, they outgrew the tiny office and moved to one that was almost 10 times the size, a 2,500-SF space on Shaver Street. They were there for two years before moving to their current location on 40th Street, a 5,900-SF office and warehouse.

The company also has three satellite offices in Fort Smith, Tulsa and Springfield, Mo.

With its fast-paced growth, the workload increased and demanded a full-time office staff to focus on the administrative work.

“It was [at] that point [that] we decided we needed to concentrate on the administrative side. So we segregated and focused on hiring drivers to focus on customers, which allowed us to focus on administration,” Tucker said.

When employees are needed on the administrative side, the company often transfers drivers into those positions.

Robinson said that the attitude and willingness of Alpha’s employees to go above and beyond the call of duty are key reasons why Alpha has been so successful against its local competition from Ridge Runner Courier of Fayetteville and Zipp Delivery Inc. of Springdale.

Tucker believes hiring only full-time employees — as opposed to contract workers, which he said both Ridge Runner and Zip Delivery use — makes a dramatic difference in the company’s attitude and the customer service it provides.

“The image we have is professional. We have uniforms and marked vehicles. We pay 100 percent insurance for our drivers,” Tucker said.

Medical assistance

A large chunk of Alpha’s routes include medical deliveries for local laboratories such as Northwest Medical Center in Springdale.

John Faulkner, director of imaging at Northwest, said Alpha has helped immensely by delivering X-ray film to physicians in a timely manner. Because the hospital can’t fax film, it relies heavily on Alpha to take the film to clinics.

“Whenever we need to send … film in a hurry, we call Alpha. They really go the extra mile in being there very quickly and getting the reports very quickly,” Faulkner said.

During the three years that Alpha has worked with Northwest Medical Center, Faulkner said they’ve never lost any film. He thinks that’s because of Alpha’s “good method of accountability.”

“All reports are signed in and signed out,” he said. “They never leave them with just anybody. They find the designated person to receive the report, and with confidentiality, that’s a big issue.”

Faulkner said that in the past, the hospital had problems with other companies. Once, a vehicle’s air conditioner leaked water on X-rays. Another time, the film was delivered to the wrong location.

“But not with Alpha,” Faulkner said. “These guys do a great job.”

He attributes that success to the company’s dedicated staff and Tucker’s hands-on approach.

“Donald has come around and personally visited with every director, sat down and asked us what our expectations are,” Faulkner said. “He does follow-up calls. He takes it very seriously. It’s a good organization.”

Tucker said another way Alpha helps its customers is by tailoring its pick-up and delivery schedule to a customer’s needs, which speeds up supply- chain management and in turn makes the process more cost- and time-effective.

By offering tracked shipping through its Web site, Alpha customers can track their package 24 hours a day and see where the package is located, who signed for it and at what time. Tucker said customers feel more secure when they know where their merchandise is.

Broadening its horizons

With a five-year streak of solid business growth, expansion plans are already in the works as a Dallas-based office nears finalization. The 5,000-SF office will open with five employees, including four drivers and a Tulsa manager who is familiar with the area to oversee the initial startup. With a substantial amount of daily business between Dallas and Tulsa, Tucker is confident Alpha can take what it has in Tulsa and build upon it in Texas. Eventually, he’ll hire employees from the Dallas area.

Within the next year, Alpha also will open an office in Kansas City, Mo., with another office is slated for either Little Rock or St. Louis.

During the next five years, Tucker said he’d like to open three additional branches — one each in Oklahoma City, Houston and Little Rock or St. Louis (depending on where the next office is located).

Taking the ideas and lessons he’s learned in Springdale, Tucker wants to continue focusing on training employees with the Alpha ideology — a hard day’s work and customer satisfaction.

“We want to instill the Alpha philosophy in our employees,” Tucker said.

He attributes Alpha’s 41 percent increase in revenue from 1998-2002 to “doing what we say we’re going to do,” explaining that good service is what his customers expect and that they appreciate the promised services being delivered. Tucker said with the work ethic Alpha employees have, he has no difficulty in believing the company will triple its revenue within the next five years.