CONSUMER FAX VS. COURIER

In this age of the almighty fax machine, we figured the end was just around the corner for the almost 300 courier services listed in the Dallas phone book. Surprisingly, however, local courier services are actually cashing in on the fax craze. “We have installed twofaxes in our office so that if one party doesn’t have a fax, the party that does can transmit the fax to us,” says Don Crabtree, owner of Big D Messenger Service Inc., one of Dallas’s oldest courier services. “From here we can turn around and hand-deliver it to the guy who doesn’t have the machine.’’

And, says Regina McLean of One Hour Delivery Service Inc., there are plenty of things the fax machine just can’t swallow-legal documents, for instance, must be originals. Many clients don’t feel comfortable sending sensitive or confidential material by fax, she says.

So there’s room for both types of paper shuttlers. Adds a confident Vernon Patton, president of Dial-A-Messenger Inc., “When Xerox came along, all the printers thought they’d be out of business. And of course, you saw what happened there.”