* BULLET Express courier service prides itself in the speed of its

delivery service, but the prefix in its title does not refer to how fast

it can do its job.

It describes how David McCutcheon left his previous occupation when,

as he describes it himself, he ''got the bullet''.

Five years on, Glasgow based Bullet Express is expanding, and the name

does fit the company's operations.

David and partner Gary Smith's fleet of vans delivers a variety of

goods to all parts of the British Isles and the Continent.

Nothing surprises David or Gary. They have been asked to deliver a

single screw to Inverness, and transfer a mass of bouquets from Ibrox to

Ally McCoist's home.

The nature of the courier business is that there is normally a degree

of urgency about its service, such as the Friday afternoon it was asked

to pick up Paul Rideout's football boots and take them to Goodison Park.

''Paul Rideout had signed for Everton and had forgotten his boots,''

explains David, ''so we were asked to get them to him for Saturday's

game.''

On the more serious side, Bullet Express was asked by a Scottish

engineering company to deliver a piece of mining equipment to Metz in

the South of France.

''Work had stopped on the site, and it was costing #2000 a shift,''

says David. ''We picked up the equipment at 5pm on a Thursday and had

the equipment in the south of France by 3pm the following day. We had

two drivers in the van so that it could drive non-stop.''

The company started with two second-hand Sherpa vans and David

McCutcheon was receiving an Enterprise Allowance.

Since then the fleet has grown to eight radio-controlled vans and

David and his partner are now looking to expand the company's

operations.

''We will move into Edinburgh this year, and will then look at the

other Scottish cities such as Dundee and Aberdeen,'' says David. ''We

expect we will be handling more work in Europe in the near future.''