Bowen Island Same Day Delivery Service

Mark Bossert: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan, Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. One of BCs 100 fastest growing companies expanding right across the country of Canada and delivering on time, on budget, all day, every day. How you doing Mark? 

Mark Huggan: We're doing excellent. Thank you. How are you? 

Mark Bossert: Good. So same day Bowen Island. Something that every other courier company was saying couldn't be done, you guys got it done. How did that work out? 

Mark Huggan: Well, everybody says it's not going to be done because it was difficult. And even myself, when our operations guys showed me the manifest, it's like what? We don't do that.

And he said, I've got a plan. I was like, okay. You know, I felt bad even for saying, Whoa because everybody says, Whoa, because it's a huge time commitment. You don't get off the ferry, deliver a package, get on the ferry and come back to Vancouver. So it had to be done. It was urgent. There was no flights, there was no private water taxi.

So we had to just do it the old fashioned hard way. Get to the ferry, they get on the ferry, go to the Island, get the documents signed, wait forever to get them back. But end result was that it wasn't like a want, it was a need. This needed to be done. It had to be done. It was done. And everybody in the end result the company that sent us and the person on Bowen Island were very happy.

Because they were in a crunch and that's the bottom line of courier, we get things done they need done. So I was happy for the team to get it done. I was impressed by our operations guy. He was on point and he'd even surprised me, but I guess just being human, I was like, "Ahhh!" 

But he got it done with the team we've got, because we built an excellent team that can respond to the needs of the customer. So I was pretty impressed. And it just goes along for every delivery we do, you know, we do hundreds and hundreds of deliveries a day. To some people, they probably seem impossible and to us, they're just normal. 

So I guess that was just me reacting to a different way. And I'm impressed with how Phantom handled it. That was pretty cool thing. So we'll do it again - if you need to go to Bowen Island, same day, we now know it's totally possible.

Mark Bossert:  Let's explain a little bit about what's going on. You're looking a little bit different than your normal, more tucked in, buttoned down self today. You're in there on a Saturday. What's going on?  

Mark Huggan: Today we're upgrading all of our phone systems and we are open on weekends, but today, we're tearing everything apart upstairs, put in a new firewall, new internet phone. We'll be able to divert the customer's requests a lot easier.

We have a lot of calls just for quotes, we've got the dispatch, the customers, the non-customers. If there's a 911 call, we can just point it at one line, and one person can handle it. 

Because we're scaling quickly, this system will go across Canada. So they can call and we can delegate the work across the nation and have everything addressed quickly. So it's going to be great and I'm pretty happy. We have an excellent IT company, we work with CPG Systems. They rock. They've been there for us hundreds of times. 

I have deleted the entire accounting database and he found it and I was like - that's the kind of people we surround ourselves with. Like yourself, top level, excellent workers and entrepreneurs. They know what they're doing, they're masters. 

So I'm happy to be here today, you know. It gives me a chance just to clean up and look at what's going on and have fun. 

Mark Bossert: So also you guys are hiring. It's a constant need for more people who are dedicated to learning the courier trade and becoming good at it. And you guys are going to walk them through the process of how to do that. Is that right? 

Mark Huggan: Yeah. There's a lot of different onboarding. We're onboarding like a freight line section in Kelowna this week. We're onboarding everything from same day, bike messengers to same day drivers for the Lower Mainland, more Island drivers being onboarded, our freight sections being onboarded. 

In September our international freight brokering is taken off gangbusters because we'll have a new partner coming in, which is pretty awesome. And right now, you know when you drive down the freeway, I used to see those trucks that said we're always hiring, always hiring. And I was like, wonder why.

Well, I guess we hit that critical point where we're expanding so fast. We get more clients per day, more orders per day. Now I understand. We are hiring all the time at Phantom Couriers. We were straight up onboarding all week and testing people out, seeing if it was a good fit and had a lot of fun. A lot of trial and error met some great people and we onboarded a handful of really excellent couriers. And I hope they have fun working here, but we're looking to hire more all the time. We have the need. There it is. The need is here! 

Mark Bossert:  If you have the need for a job! Or do you need your package delivered to places that everybody else, all the other courier companies saying isn't possible, call Phantom Couriers. If it's possible in any way, shape, or form, they'll get it done. 

You can reach them at (604) 899-5447 or outside the Lower Mainland - all across the country - +1 844-899-5447. Phantom Couriers. Any package, anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there. Thanks Mark. 

Mark Huggan: That's right. Thank you so much. Thank you.