Orbis Courier Service FAQ Last update: October 10, 2000

Updates

October 9, 2000: New Orbis Courier Service Announced: enrollment information
September 27, 2000: Lanter Delivery Systems selected
September 19, 2000: Proposals received
July 27, 2000: Decision to reissue an RFP for courier service
July 11, 2000: Results of the RFP

On June 9 Orbis was informed that our courier vendor, Library Materials Expeditors (LME), would be unable to fulfill their contractual obligation to provide courier service because LME's subcontractor, Pony Express, had gone out of business.

Most libraries are using a combination of other carriers (e.g., UPS, FedEx, U.S. Mail) and local courier systems.  Orbis has developed a contingency plan for Orbis Borrowing, our patron-initiated borrowing system.  Libraries are welcome to consult this plan but should recognize that it was created to support the specific needs of Orbis Borrowing and may not be appropriate for general ILL, etc.

July 5 update:  Michael Crose of LME indicates that 14 bins were sent by the end of June.  When LME started returning the materials they were mailing items to the owning library.  Now they are sending them to the intended destination when it can be determined (i.e. not necessarily the owning library).  LME is sending via US Mail.  On June 30 LME received five more bins of material.  Michael Crose indicates that there is no way to know when the last of the materials may trickle in and that it may be a couple weeks or more until the last of the materials are back in  libraries.

June 20 update:  Michael Movius of LME indicates that the Portland warehouse has been cleared out and materials are being sorted and mailed by LME staff.  This work is expected to take several more days.

June 14:  materials "stuck in transit" are being returned in a number of ways:

• some former PE drivers have returned materials
• some dropsites have visited PE warehouses and were allowed to remove library material
• some dropsites have received material from other vendors (e.g., UCI Distribution Plus & OrCa Delivery Service) hired by PE to return materials.
• LME is coordinating an effort to clear out the PE warehouse in Portland, Oregon

Dropsites served through the Orbis contract will receive a prorated refund from Orbis for that portion of June in which no courier service was available.  Libraries that contracted with LME or PE will need to contact these companies to find out whether or not refunds are available.

On May 11 LME announced their intent to raise prices 50-100% in June or July 2000.  The Orbis contract with LME guaranteed a fixed price in June and would only have allowed a modest price increase in July if the contract had been extended for another year.  LME's announced price increase together with their statement that the company might go out of business if dropsites could not pay more immediately lead Orbis to conclude that it was time to issue a Request For Proposal (RFP) for courier service.  The RFP process was well underway by the time PE announced that operations would cease.

Orbis worked with a group of courier system stakeholders to review the response to our RFP issued in June.  This group advised that the proposal received was non-responsive to the needs and objectives of the RFP.  As a result, Orbis decided to reissue the RFP in August.  As before, the Orbis RFP was be written so that we could potentially include all interested libraries in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.  The new RFP closed on September 18.   We are evaluating vendor proposals and hope to begin service some time in mid-October or November.

The best way to stay in touch is to send us your name, title, institution, and email address and let us know that you wish to be added to the Orbis Courier Service email list.

John F. Helmer
Executive Director
Orbis Cascade Alliance
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon 97403-1299
jhelmer@darkwing.uoregon.edu
voice: (541) 346-1835
fax: (541) 346-1968
http://orbis.uoregon.edu