Ted came to work at Fleetfoot Messenger Service on January 27th, 1998. We hired Ted to manage our Parts Depot, a 1,500 square foot storage area where we held spare parts for Kodak, Sun MicroSystems, IBM and a few other companies. Ted?s job was to keep track of the inventory and send the parts out to the field.

Ted, we loved you!

Share your Memories of Ted.

On this site, we have provided a forum that allows visitors to enter their memories and thoughts of Ted so that all can share. Please feel free to write a remembrance and add to it over time. Go to the forum here.

 

Over time, due to events beyond our control, we lost our contracts with Sun and a few other Parts Depot customers. Those companies were cutting back and changing the way they operated. It would have happened no matter what we did so we began to wind down the Parts Depot. Pretty soon, it became obvious that Ted was underutilized. We knew he had the talent and the smarts to do whatever he set his mind to so we asked him if he would care to dispatch. Dispatching at Fleetfoot was a very challenging job. You had to know the geography of the area very well and you had to make many decisions on the fly. Many of our people have avoided dispatch like the plague. But Ted said he'd give it a try. He learned dispatch faster than we had any right to expect. At Fleetfoot, we use a method of dispatch called "Free Call" which empowers the couriers more but relies on the dispatcher to be a very clear and concise communicator (click here to view a more detailed description of "Free Call") Ted was a natural! Frequently, he would start his shift with his own special announcement. He'd use his phony waiter voice and say, "Good Afternoon, my name is Ted and I'll be your dispatcher today." He always managed to keep the couriers loose and amused.

Here's a picture of Ted taken when he first joined us in '98. He is standing outside of our previous facility at 227 Ninth North in Seattle.

Ted was a young man of 22 when he joined us. We had no idea at the time that he would become such a big part of our business and our family here at Fleetfoot. We could tell he was competent right from the start by the way he tackled his job and ran his department. The Parts Depot ran smoothly and our customers were very satisfied. Ted received several raises during this time and, in 1999, he was named the Office Employee of the Year.

In 2001, Fleetfoot was bought back by Gary Brose and US Dispatch Corp. and is now part of the family of brands under USDC. Operations changed a bit and capture and dispatch operators took calls and dispatched for Fleetfoot, Jet City Messengers, Mercury Messengers, MedEx, Runway Express and RoadRunner Emergency Road Services. The dispatch job became a more challenging position. You can click here to learn more about USDC and what Ted's job included. Through it all, Ted excelled at his job. He split his duties between dispatching the bikes downtown and the cars on the high-pressure Point-to-Point Board.

On Saturday morning, February 19, 2005, Ted passed away in his sleep. He was 29 years old. His passing was so unexpected it shocked us all. Losing Ted has created a huge void in the office that will take a long time to fill. This website is a modest means of coping with the unthinkable. No words can convey our feelings of loss but words are all we have so we must try.

Ted was known for his great sense of humor. He always had a joke and was great at taking abuse and allowing himself to be the butt of a joke. Its amazing how many people have no sense of humor about themselves. With some folks, you can never make jokes about them or tease them in any way. But Ted thrived on it. Many days began with barbs thrown at Ted and he would toss them right back. He was like Teflon...nothing stuck to him.