CLAUDIA POST WAS FIRED FROM OTHER COURIER SERVICES. SO SHE STARTEDHER OWN.
 

By Peter Binzen
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 18, 1993
 

Late in 1989, Claudia Post's life hit a dead end. Or seemed to. A divorcedmother with two sons to support, she had just lost her job as general managerof Heaven Sent Courier, a Philadelphia messenger service.

"Steve fired me," she said of Steven Rosner, Heaven Sent's owner. "Hewasn't happy with my performance."

Post had been with Rosner for only a year. But she'd had previous experiencewith three other courier services and believed she knew the ropes. So insteadof casting about for yet another job with yet another company in the competitivemessenger field, she decided to start her own firm.

With financial backing from a longtime friend, she launched the DiamondCourier Service in August 1990. It's actually a misnomer; Diamond Courierdoesn't deliver diamonds. It won't touch jewelry of any kind. Nor willit transport money, fine art or furniture. Or toxic waste.

But its 650 average daily deliveries - by couriers on foot, on bicyclesor in automobiles - range from courthouse filings to business papers, fromhospital blood to architectural drawings. Increasingly, it is making long-distance shipments. It regularly delivers company labels to Toronto.

Diamond Courier isn't the largest messenger service in Philadelphia,but it may be the fastest-growing, its revenues having risen from $1.3million in 1991 to $2.1 million in 1992 and to a projected $3.3 millionthis year.

It's the only messenger service here - and one of the few in the nation- run by a woman. And it also may be the only one operating underground.Literally. Its subterranean offices at 9 S. 12th St. are in the basementof Snellenburg's, the defunct department store. Post's landlords are theadministrators of the estate of Stephen Girard, Philadelphia's great 19th-century banker, trader and civic leader. The property was among Girard'sextensive land holdings in Center City.

Post picked it because of its central location and reasonable rent."It's dirt cheap," Jay Kaufman, 40, Diamond Courier's general manager,said of the $2,375-per-month rental. That comes to less than $10 per squarefoot for the firm's space in the catacombs. It is leasing more than 3,000square feet and
plans a 500-to-600-square-foot expansion.

Diamond Courier's boss, who is 48, credits Kaufman and other key executivesfor the firm's growth. As it happens, Kaufman was formerly a driver withHeaven Sent Courier, the company that fired Post.

"I couldn't breathe a day without Jay," Post said. "He's brilliant,sensitive, caring. "

Other refugees from Heaven Sent include Bill Trimbur, Diamond Courier'soperations manager; Deborah Reiffert, assistant general manager; Fred Jerdan,salesman, and Marguerite Galbraith, who is Post's bicycle- and foot-messengerdispatcher.

Asked his reasons for firing Post and what caused the subsequent defections,Rosner, Heaven Sent's owner, responded: "No comment. I will not get involved."

Other Diamond Courier operatives had worked with Post in previous jobs.She and Tony Briscella were hired on the same day by Purolator Courier.He later joined Federal Express and left that giant firm seven months agoto become Post's director of sales.

Patsy Stoddard, her administrative assistant, worked with her at A.Pomerantz & Co., where Post also had a bad experience. In fact, tohear Post tell it, her life has had more than its share of tough times.

She grew up in Philadelphia's Feltonville section, the only child ofparents who operated a shop at Ninth and Market Streets, Post Buttons &Bows. After graduating from Olney High School in 1965, she enrolled atFranklin College in Franklin, Ind., but flunked out. She transferred toa college in Athens, Ala., now a unit of the University of Alabama, andgraduated with honors in 1969.

Next came her European interlude. While traveling in Italy in 1970,she met Claude Gabay, a businessman from Morocco. They were married inParis and lived there for three years, with Gabay in business and his wifeteaching English as a second language to French business executives.

When her mother became ill, Post returned here. Her husband later joinedher. They had two sons, Philippe, now 18, and Nicholas, 13. Then the marriagefailed. Gabay returned to Paris. Post remained here with her two children.

"There was a lot of struggle and pain," she recalled. "You're afraidevery day." But in 1982, she launched her career in the courier business,working first for Adcom Express, an air-freight franchise operation. Asit happens, Post now has an agreement to purchase Adcom, which has about$300,000 in yearly revenues.

After Adcom, she joined Purolator Courier as a sales representativewith a company car. In a short time, she learned a lot. "That was my Wharton,"she said. "It was school for me." Her supervisor, sales manager Dan Mullan,was ''the best boss anybody could ever have." Now, Mullan works for heras a sales rep at Diamond Courier.

There followed a job with Thomas Nationwide Transport (TNT). Post hadproblems there. At a TNT sales meeting, she said, a vice president of theAustralia-based firm declared: "Ladies, if transportation is too toughfor you, go back to selling lingerie."

"They were really chauvinistic," Post said, "but I took away positivethings." Her next employer, Pomerantz, hired her as regional sales manager,but she left after a year. "That was life giving me a kick in the butt,"she said of her time with the office-furniture distributor.

Then Heaven Sent Courier hired Post and subsequently fired her. In thatperiod, she survived a terrible car crash. She was down but not out. Infact, things got better after she consulted with Morris Gocial about startingher own courier service.

"I'd known her for eight or 10 years," Gocial, managing partner of aJenkintown accounting firm, said in a telephone interview. "I knew of heraggressiveness and her ability. I heard of some of the raw deals she'dgotten because she's a woman. My wife and I made a decision to give herthe opportunity she deserved."

Gocial said he invested about $200,000 in the startup business and arrangedfor working capital from a bank, starting at $100,000 and rising to $250,000.There also was an equipment loan of $50,000.

His investment gave Gocial a 50 percent stake in Diamond Courier. Postowns the other 50 percent. "It's proven to be a good investment," saidGocial. ''She's dynamite. The future potential is unlimited, and it's allto her credit. I came up with the financial end."

Post returned the compliment. "He's a wonderful partner," she said ofthe man she terms her "fairy godfather." Gocial watches the finances, shesaid, and lets her run the business without interference of any kind. "Hedoesn't get in my way," she said.

Diamond Courier started in business in August 1990 with a staff of six.It now employs about 20 in its offices and 100 to make its deliveries bycar, by bicycle and on foot. Of the couriers, about 65 are independentcontractors who drive their own cars and are paid on a per-job basis.

The bikers are guaranteed $4.25 an hour and a percentage of the deliveryprice for each job. The longer their service with Diamond the greater thepercentage to the bikers, up to 53 percent of the price.

"A good biker can make between $250 and $350 a week," said Kaufman.''We've had some make $400 or $500."

Still, the turnover is very high. Negotiating a bicycle through citytraffic takes skill.

It can also be dangerous. Two years ago, one of Diamond's messengerswas killed when he lost control of his bike and fell under a dump truck.

"We were devastated," said Post. After that tragedy, she became activewith the Bicycle Coalition of Pennsylvania, which lobbies for bicycle lanes,bicycle awareness and safety.

About half of Diamond Courier's deliveries are in Center City, and CenterCity law firms account for almost 20 percent of its total revenues. Someof its staffers work exclusively with law firms, filing their court papers,serving subpoenas, photocopying documents and even doing legal researchin some cases.

Diamond Courier charges $4.50 per delivery within the area bounded byFront and 29th Streets, between Pine and Callowhill. That's for shipmentsweighing up to 50 pounds. As the weight and distances grow, the pricesincrease. A delivery from Center City to Manhattan costs $136.50 and oneto Washington, $168.

Post aims to increase her regional and out-of-state business. Througha joint venture with Adcom, her firm now promises same-day air-expressdelivery of a 2,500-pound shipment to Minneapolis for $2,000. Ten daysago, one of her drivers picked up a worn-out truck transmission on LongIsland and took it to a shop in North Carolina for rebuilding. The triptook 10 hours, and the transmission weighed 600 pounds. The one-way chargewas just under $1,000. Two days later, Diamond Courier's driver returnedthe transmission to Long Island.

Diamond Courier's rapid growth has drawn the attention of Edward Katz,founder-owner of Choice Courier Systems in New York. In 30 years, Katzhas built a business with close to $45 million a year in revenues. He'sdone it largely through acquisitions of mom-and-pop services. Now he hashis eye on Post's Diamond Courier.

"I'd like to buy her company," Katz said in a telephone interview. ''She'sa smart girl doing a damn good job."

If he bought Diamond, Katz said, Post would remain in a management position.

But she's not interested.

"No, no, no," she replied when asked if she would sell. "I just gotto the party. I'm still awed by all this. I'm excited every day."