Mastering Last-Mile: Where Tech Meets Deliveries

Congestion Pricing Controversy, NYC CBD Tolling Impact:

CEO Zogby Leads Industry Leaders in Raising Awareness

• NYC CBD Tolling Impact: Zogby recognizes the pressing need to address the Central Business District (CBD) Tolling Program’s impact and consequences.
• Visionaries unite to form a coalition, crafting a compelling narrative about the CBD Tolling Program’s consequences. United with other dedicated community members, Zogby actively attended the board public meeting at 2 Broadway on July 19th.
• The Traffic Mobility Review Board is presented with the coalition’s message, highlighting the dire effects of the NYC CBD Tolling Impact.
• Influential partners join forces with the coalition, ensuring the message reaches every corner of the city.

Your Voice is Integral to This Conversation

• We encourage you to testify and share your insights on this crucial subject. 
• Click here to access a copy of our official communication. Use it as a powerful reference in your testimony.
• Register Now to testify in the New York City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on August 17, 2023, at 10:00 AM. Either in person at the Council Chambers, City Hall, New York, NY, or via Zoom webconference.
• The hearing details are posted online here. Be informed and be part of the conversation.

Ready, Set, Click!

• Manage all aspects of your deliveries with a real-time dashboard, quick quote, live tracking for your deliveries.
• Photo documentation of pickups and deliveries for enhanced security.
• Stay informed with real-time tracking for timely updates on your shipments.
• Receive immediate order confirmations for efficient planning.
• Easily collaborate and manage your team with multiple user access and administrative control.

Keep your deliveries on track, enhance transparency, and optimize efficiency with just a few clicks.

Safety to New Heights!

• In a recent high-level Board of Directors Meeting with Summit Insurance Ltd.
• CEO Zogby played a crucial role in discussions focused on driving success and safety.
• The meeting addressed significant areas such as company operations, strategic direction, risk management, compliance, and more.
• As part of the gathering a series of networking activities also fostered valuable connections among industry leaders. We keep taking safety to new heights.
• Focusing on innovative strategies to mitigate risk by fostering a strong safety culture, and prioritizing a secure and productive work environment.

Mike Czekaj, Dispatcher

What makes RDS the “complete package” for you?

Although I now know differently, the R in RDS has always stood for Relentless to me. Never standing still, and not settling for the considerable achievements already racked up. Since I joined the team, 14 years ago , it has never stopped pushing forward in terms of image and operations.

Coming from a rock and roll background, I immediately understood what they were doing with the uniform look. That look has never stopped evolving, and has become one of the most recognizable brands in the worldwide courier industry.

These days, of course, it’s more than just a “look”, clients feel safer and more comfortable being able to immediately recognize their courier service at a glance.

Even more important, for me, has been that RDS was smart enough, and bold enough, to do away with the antiquated system of using sub-contractors with self-owned vehicles to do the trucking work.

By making the substantial investment of buying a fleet of vans, RDS has been able to control the quality of it’s service and eliminate the large gap that most companies have in their chain of command.

As a dispatcher, this removes the burden of being responsible for the driver’s paycheck. The work becomes The Work, and each to their abilities or availabilities.

How do you “deliver the goods” to make RDS’ customers happy?

What I try to bring to RDS is the experience of 35 years in the courier business. Over the years, I’ve been a walker, driver, driver’s helper, customer service rep, help desk support.

I’ve dispatched walkers, bikes, vans, and trucks. I have worked with both commissioned and hourly couriers, utilizing Metro North, LIRR, SIR, Staten Island Ferry, taxi cabs, Uber. No horses yet, but anything can happen in New York City!  

Since I cut my teeth in the days before technology changed the entire world of communications, I still like to back up my work with a human touch.

Although we now e-mail most of the assignments, it’s often a good idea to tell the couriers directly how, and in what order, to perform the work they’ve been assigned.

It’s often a good idea to call a client directly and ask them about specifics on their order that may seem confused or ambiguous. Always a delicate call!    

As I’ve said, the current system, with company-owned vehicles, is the best one that I’ve worked with, but with it comes responsibility. The fuel in the vans is paid for by the same people who sign my paycheck, I don’t want to waste it.  

Efficient routing is essential, and the playing field is constantly changing, so it’s important to be awake and in the moment.

As wonderful and well-thought-out as plans might be, they sometimes need to be thrown aside at the last minute to accommodate some newly added detail, so it’s best not to get too personally attached to one’s own ideas.

I believe that the best results happen when one is more concentrated on the process and letting the result flow from that. An interest in geography and cartography helps!

When you’re not at work, what “transports” and fulfills you?

When I’m not a work, my life is Music, Music,Music!

An interesting thing, though, is that, as I grow older, my feelings toward my music are similar to those I have for my RDS work. It’s all the same energy.

It is all about trying to be in the moment and being aware, so that inspiration will find me ready and receptive if it should choose to appear.  

A great idea is not going to wake you up, put you in the shower, dress you, and make you breakfast so that you can get started on it. Great ideas need you to be at the bus stop, waiting and ready, so that you can jump right on and get going!  

 I’ve been in the rock and roll business, but I prefer to make my money in the courier business and keep the music as a beloved, inspirational hobby.

I would rather pay for my music to be just the way I want it, rather than try to change it so that I can pay my rent with it.    

My band for the past 20 years has been The Live Ones, in which my brother Jonathan plays guitar. Jon and I co-write the original songs for the band. I also write songs on my own, mainly acoustic folk and country styled material.

Last month I was interviewed by the Spanish director Danny Garcia of Chip Baker Films for an upcoming documentary being made about The Fuzztones, a legendary  band that I was with in the 80’s and 90’s, and early 2000’s.

Life is a rock, let’s roll it!!!