D&E Couriers Will Get Your Packages Across Town In No Time

By Matt Wiley

David Gross of D & E Couriers will get whatever you need delivered to its destination in no time at all, whether in town or across the state.
David Gross of D & E Couriers will get whatever you need delivered to its destination in no time at all, whether in town or across the state.

During this busy season of holiday shopping, when so many gifts are being purchased online, it can be tough to decide which shipping method actually will get your purchases where they need to go in the time period left before the big gift-giving holiday. Sometimes, things get lost in the mail or delayed, forcing them to arrive later than expected.

However, this is not the case with New Tampa-based D & E Couriers, a local delivery service that truly ensures same-day delivery to locations all across the Tampa Bay area. D & E specializes in delivering packages, sensitive documents or anything else that individuals and businesses need delivered in a timely manner, without having to go through a major delivery service at the risk of that delivery showing up late.

Whether itโ€™s document deliveries, pharmaceutical transfers, court deliveries, inter-office deliveries, bank deposits or payroll deliveries, D & E Couriers is your safe, dependable and efficient solution.

โ€œWe are always on time,โ€ says D & E owner David Gross. โ€œWe are very conscious about (our delivery time).โ€

David and his wife Ellen (together, the โ€œD & Eโ€ in the companyโ€™s name) have lived in New Tampaโ€™sโ€‚Heritage Isles community off Cross Creek Blvd. since they relocated to Florida twelve years ago from West Orange, NJ, where David ran a limousine service. Although he says he doesnโ€™t like to drop names, he admits that transporting top-billed actors and directors around the Big Apple (New York City) was a pretty common task.

David sold that business before the couple moved to New Tampa, where he worked in retail sales and even got his real estate license. He also worked as an independent courier, delivering documents for law firms, prescriptions for doctors and pharmacies, as well as other deliveries for local companies before deciding to start his own delivery service.

โ€œI knew I wanted to start a courier service, but I didnโ€™t want to do limousine service anymore,โ€ David explains.

Now, David has a fleet of independent couriers that work for him at D & E. Ellen handles the calls from businesses looking for a courier and dispatches drivers to handle the different deliveries.

โ€œ(Ellenโ€™s) job is pretty tough,โ€ David explains. โ€œIn addition to knowing the area well, she also has to know which driver is located within that surrounding area so that packages will get delivered in the most prompt manner.โ€

Despite owning the company, David still also does deliveries on a regular basis himself. On any given day, drivers may travel back and forth between Tampa and St. Petersburg multiple times before heading as far north as Brooksville and then taking something back to South Tampa, David says.

โ€œWe have access to as many drivers as a company may need,โ€ David explains. โ€œAll of which are insured and have been personally interviewed by me.โ€

Drivers have their own vehicles and look to D & E for assignments. Although D & E is mostly a local service, the couriers can make deliveries all over the state.

โ€œWe pride ourselves on same-day deliveries, locally,โ€ David says. โ€œHowever, we can make deliveries across the state. If you need something taken to Miami, or even Jacksonville, weโ€™ll get it there, quickly. It just wonโ€™t be in an hour.โ€

D & E offers four levels of service: Express, Standard, Economy and Priority Out-of-Town. Customers are charged for each service based upon the mileage required for each delivery and the time in which the package (whatever it may be) needs to be delivered. Whatever the per-mile rate is determined to be for Economy Service, the price for Standard and Express service will be slightly higher.

Express Service promises pick-up and delivery with 90 minutes of the package being ready. Standard Service promises pick-up and delivery within three hours of being ready. Economy Service ensures that all deliveries that are ready for pick-up by 11 a.m. will be delivered by the end of the business day at 5 p.m.

โ€œWhat a lot of people donโ€™t realize is that courier services are usually cheaper and, in many cases, more reliable than the big-name overnight delivery services,โ€ David explains. โ€œA lot of people donโ€™t even realize that they can use courier services for their deliveries.โ€

West Meadows resident and local attorney Dennis Kapustin knows the benefits of using D & E well.

โ€œWe use D & E for all of our courier services,โ€ Kapustin says. โ€œD & E has always been good to me. I canโ€™t give them a better rating. No matter what it is, (D & E) always is prompt and efficient.โ€

Kapustin explains that he uses D & E to send legal documents around town to clients and other attorneys, including wills, trusts and real estate deeds.

โ€œI highly recommend D & E,โ€ Kapustin says.

Need something delivered around town the same day? Give D & E Couriers a try. For more info, please visit decouriersinc.com or call 994-5909.

 

SPoT's Tampa Am Contest Turns 20

Dylan Perry sticks a backside lipslide during the Best Trick contest at the 20th annual Tampa Am contest at Skatepark of Tampa on December 7.
Dylan Perry handles a gap over the pyramid to backside lipslide during the Best Trick contest at the 20th annual Tampa Am contest at Skatepark of Tampa on December 7. Photo: Matt Wiley

A warehouse lies in the industrial district of East Tampa, off Columbus Dr., not far from Ybor City. From the outside, it looks like just another building where some product is being mass-produced by machines. However, history is going down inside those walls, and young people were writing another chapter of that history on pieces of painted wood with four wheels during the 20th annual Tampa Am skateboarding contest at Skatepark of Tampa (SPoT) Dec. 5-8.Continue reading

Rotary Announces 2014 PigFest &โ€ˆWild Game Dinner Feb. 21-22!

By Gary Nager

As a primary media sponsor of the event, Iโ€ˆam thrilled to be able to announce that the Rotary Club of New Tampa, in conjunction with five other local Rotary Clubs (New Tampa Noon, New Tampa Evening, Wesley Chapel, Temple Terrace and Tampa North), will host the tenth annual โ€” and newly expanded (see below) โ€” โ€œRotary PigFest,โ€โ€ˆthe weekend of February 21-22, at the Primrose Park off Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms.

Continue reading

Wesley Chapel Man Injures 6 In I-75 DUI Crash

By Matt Wiley,

A Wesley Chapel man has been charged with driving under the influence, following a crash on I-75 in which his vehicle struck six people.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), John Hegarty, 47, of Meadow Pointe, was traveling south on I-75 in the outside lane, just south of the S.R. 56 interchange, in his 2004 BMW sedan.

At the same time, FHP reports, a 1997 Honda Civic was stopped in the outside lane of southbound I-75 with its emergency lights flashing. In front of the Civic was a 1998 Toyota sedan, which had a flat tire. The six occupants of the two vehicles all were outside, between the two cars, while the flat was being changed.

The FHP report states that, as Hegarty approached the vehicles, he tried to switch from the outside lane to the center lane, but lost control of his car. The front of Hegartyโ€™s BMW struck the left rear of the Civic, propelling it into the back of the Toyota.

The colliding vehicles, the report states, struck all six of the pedestrians, with each sustaining varying degrees of serious injuries. Jerrick Vann, 24, Nagy Ferguson, 24, and Kenneth Collins, 19, were transported to Tampa General Hospital, while Brittany Vaughn, 19, Erica Berry, 22, and a 17-year-old were taken to St. Josephโ€™s Hospital in Tampa.

Hegarty was found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.10 (just above the legal BAC limit of 0.08) and was charged with felony DUI with serious bodily injury, driving with a suspended license with knowledge of it being suspended, failing to drive in a designated lane and violating business-purposes-only restrictions on his driverโ€™s license. Hegarty also admitted to deputies that he had taken two Xanax pills prior to the incident. He since has been released from the Pasco County Jail on a $3,500 bond.

 

McNamee Thanks Florida Hospital Docs

By Gary Nager

In front of the medical staff that saved his life and family members during a news conference, Paul R. Wharton High football player Sean McNamee thanked those who both treated and supported him during his recent nine-day coma, from which he awoke in October.

On November 20, McNamee, 16, returned to Florida Hospital Tampa, located on E. Fletcher Ave., to thank the medical staff that treated him and helped him be able to speak from the podium that day.

โ€œI have made great progress,โ€ McNamee said, reading from a preparedย speech. โ€œBut, I know I have a long way to go before I am back to where I was before the accident.โ€

McNamee reportedly hit his head on a paint machine on the Wharton High football fields while playing catch with teammates before practice on October 9. The injury was severe enough, reports state, that doctors at Florida Hospital put McNamee into a medically-induced coma after performing emergency surgery on his fractured skull.

As reported in our last issue, McNamee came out of the coma on October 18. Welcome back Sean!