Mark B: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan, Phantom Couriers, Vancouver's favourite courier service, and we're talking deliveries. How are you doing today, Mark? 

Mark H: Excellent, thank you. 

Mark B: So,expansion plans. You guys are expanding where? 

Mark H: Sort of locally. Sunshine Coast. We're definitely up there everyday and we've got couriers in Nanaimo now. We used to use contractors. So we would get it here, put it on a plane or a helicopter, fly it over there and get somebody else to do it. And now we've got our own Phantom staff in Gibsons and Nanaimo. It makes a big difference. I didn't notice how much of a difference it would make until we started doing it.

I was like, this is incredibly excellent. You know, I trusted the other contractors we worked with, but it was not as seamless. And now it's perfectly seamless. I love it. 

Mark B: So what makes it seamless now compared to how it was? 

Mark H: Just simple little things like the proof of delivery we use. Our system gives us an automated proof of delivery and we used to have to wait for the contractor to contact us, and then somebody here, would have to put it in or else we'd be like, "Was it done?"

Sometimes it's because they were an analog courier and we have a lot of digital back end so there was just that lag. And now there's no lag. For instance, today at 3:30, we got an order from a wine shop on DavIe and we had wine in a helicopter to Nanaimo, Nanoose Bay for dinner. They wanted their special wine but couldn't find it. They got it in Vancouver. We helicopter it, put it with Michelle and boom, it's done.

So that was, you know, 90 minutes later in Nanoose Bay from Davie and Burrard. Pretty cool. Which, even just by ferry is many hours and an epic day long trip, basically. It's worse because they're not serving french fries or anything on the ferries anymore and you have to stay in your car now. Now, you stay home and couriers and helicopters do the work for you. I mean, like, that's sweet. It's way better.

Mark: And you guys are doing a lot of grocery delivery over there as well? 

Mark: Yep. We're working for a new chain that's got a few places. It's good because this is spawning from social distancing. You luck out if you pick the right time to go to the grocery store. You just walk right in. But if you have to stand outside and there's 30 people and you're six feet apart and the line up is down the streets, it gets old fast. Our way is safer too. They order through the grocery store online, it's ready, we show up, take it from the social distancing table thing and bring it over to the house. You'd leave it on the steps and people can deal with it as they wish. You know, they can leave it outside as long as they want. They can touch it with gloves, there's no confusion. It's really easy and straightforward and customers have a lot of control. So it works out better. That's been building like crazy here.

Mark: So what about the Sunshine Coast? What kind of deliveries are you doing up there? That's ferry-only access as well. 

Mark: Yep. And there's not a lot of ferries. So we're usually on the 7:15 in the morning ferry going over. So we will meet our courier David up there, and we've been, right now I'd say 99% of the stuff we're sending up there is PPE stuff, so protective clothing and equipment.

My friend, Jeff  Cripwell, is a car dealer. He commutes and he's like, there is a huge need for same-day couriers to and from Gibsons. Because Jeff lives there, half the time they'll forget something at home. We could have it easily picked up by our courier, put on a ferry, and delivered to them. There's no unescorted cargo at any point. Somebody has to go and hand it off and that's fine. Just get somebody over there. It's a short ride. We had a bike messenger go out on the weekend, just rode his bike up there, got on the ferry. $13 fee for crossing. Dropped off this big box to David. Boom! He's back riding around in West Van.  So we're dialed in, we've got all the schedules, and it was a surprisingly wicked success. I didn't think it'd be so great and people are appreciating it. 

Mark B: So for the Sunshine Coast, are you going right from Gibsons all the way up to Nanoose Bay, or how much of the...

Mark H: Nanoose is on the Nanaimo side. So that was a totally different thing. 

Mark B: Sorry, sorry. Wrong place. 

Mark H: Yeah. So all of the Sunshine Coast is accessible once you get off that ferry. We've gone up to, well, I don't know where this clinic was, but I was watching the GPS thing go fairly far up, and I was like, "Oh, look at that!"

Mark B: Madeira Park, or..

Mark H: Yeah, if I was to look at the map, I kind of thought he was heading towards Squamish, parallel to it. I was like, "What's going on?" So I don't know where that address was, but David's all over the Sunshine Coast and whenever I look at it on the map, he's sticking around the perimeter, but he covers a huge area. 

Mark B: And what about Nanaimo? What kind of area are you guys focused mostly on? The city of the Nanaimo or are you going up to Parksville, et cetera? 

Mark: Well, we haven't really done that yet, but the city of Nanaimo is basically where we've been doing our same day, inner city stuff. But Parksville is like a hit. We do it all the time. I've never considered it and we usually just get overnights with that kind of stuff. But you know, if people want to same day, now we're capable. We always had to meet a courier so before, if we wanted a same day to Nanaimo, the contractor we had was in Victoria. So they went from Victoria, which is super south all the way up, and if you missed them, you're out of the game even if it was at Harbour Air sitting there. If that guy didn't hit it at one o'clock, and he only stops once, you're hooped. Now we can go over as many times as they fly. It's at our depot. People can pick it up at any time so it makes the scheduling and routing much easier.  

Mark B: And you guys have access to all that, where the courier is right on your computers and you can connect with them and find out exactly what the ETA is, all that sort of stuff, if customers have questions?

Mark H: Oh yeah, 100% and it's so seamless. The customer even knows where they are really because of our digital waybill app. But it's way easier. I love it. I'm surprised how much I like it. I was like, "Oh, this is relaxing. You're in my world."

Mark B: So there you go. The start of the beginning of world domination from Phantom Couriers in Vancouver and if you need service in Nanaimo and the surrounding area or along the Sunshine Coast. Forgive me for not recognizing which Bay it was at the top end the post. 

Mark H: I can't give directions.

Mark B: Call Phantom Couriers (604) 899-5447 to book your appointment. Thanks, Mark. 

Mark H: Right on. Thank you.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. I'm here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver in a time of great uncertainty. We're in the midst of the Corona virus in mid March, 2020 and we're talking about couriering. Delivery of packages has become a vital service. How are you doing today, Mark?

Mark: Excellent. Super busy. Like you said. 

Mark: So yeah, you guys are hopping and bopping and thank you honestly from the heart. Thank you so much for what you guys are doing. You're a critical piece of what needs to happen in the world as we kind of go into lockdown and people are staying at home. So thank you for what you guys are doing.

Mark:   Sure, no problem. It's what we do. We always have, but now it's becoming more of an essential kind of service. We've seen a lot of that, our customers are like, we've got a call from a guy, and he's like, are you guys still operating? But yeah, of course we are. I'm just taking precautions, you know, because people are working from home and that's great. And our guys are working from their car. So they're distancing. There's a lot of just leaving things on porches and stuff, but it's still, it's not contributing to the problem. It's alleviating, you know, people all go into one place to pick up all their laptops and stuff. We just have a courier, pick that up and decentralize the chaos and then centralized the efficiency.  So it's in our wheelhouse where we like to work. So it's pretty good. 

Mark: So what kind of precautions are you guys taking?

Mark: Standard ones. We work with the, like, whatever comes out, Dion's been looking at all the regulations and what needs to be done, but just what you see on the news, they change it daily. So we keep our, you know, six foot distance and you know, everybody's wearing gloves and not touching doors and carrying styluses. Nobody's handing phones back and forth anymore. Nothing like that. So we've upgraded like a proof of delivery. Hey, here's your thing, click take a picture, attach the pictures of the way bill goes to customer.

They're like, Oh that's Mark. Things like that just makes it easier texting ahead of times and telling people, because we are doing a lot of residential delivery. So we're like, we're two minutes away. We'll be right there. Just putting on the porch were taken off, and people like, yeah, do that. Every time people come into the office, we make sure that they're gloved up, that they're everything they know is going on.

And then the government, or one of the regulations that Dion says that everybody has to have like Phantom, I have this vest now. So because we're recognized as working. And not just out and about. So everybody's got this stuff. So when we're in a place, people they know, okay, this guy's on a mission. They know what they're doing. Security is, come on in, because there's lineups and everything. I was just at a store on Arbutus and it was a 30 minute wait to get in because one person at a time. But the courier guy just comes blasting in because he's been pre-checked out as he's not coughing, no fever, no temperature. You know, nothing like that. So no symptoms, obviously. 

Mark: Sure. International shipping is still happening? 

Mark: Our air freight's been going out with documents. We haven't had any trucking stuff happen. Like no new calls. I can't think of anything else. No. But all the air freight, it's business as usual. You know, customs of course is going to be taking a longer look at things to make sure there's nothing going on that's not supposed to cross, like probably personal items and weird stuff that probably would be more scrutiny. But with documents and electronics and stuff, they're still boogieing pretty quick. 

Mark: And what about the eCommerce business that you guys usually are doing day to day? So that's still...

Mark: Kaboom Holy man. Oh yeah. You know, like here's a solid, interesting thing. So drop shipping is, you know, everybody's into drop shipping and there's this standup desk company, Effie desk. So the guy usually like pops out a couple of week. It's like whoosh it's just full of the standup desks all being ordered. Right? Because suddenly his orders are going crazy.

Contact lenses. Of course they've gone right up cause people are panicking that they won't be able to get them. So eCommerce websites like Clearly helping out the contact lenses. Lots of deliveries today for them all successful too. Cause everybody's home. Lot of times you go someplace, they're not home, but now they're home. We're just like pow pow pow, nailing it. 

The wine has been incredible. Just tons of it actually like, literally tons of wine because it's wine club season and everybody's home, so they're just, we're going up there. Nobody's picking up their wine. So that's big. Their websites are ticking out super efficient too, and you can see the wine stores like, Oh this is great. Because if they had four pallets of wine and Mark came in at one o'clock to get it, and Mark came in at two o'clock to get it well that's two boxes of a pallet left. But if Phantom comes, 40 boxes gone, one hour. Wine store cleared. Everybody's delivered super efficient, and I think they were like, Hey, this is like, look at this. It's way better for the store. You know, less people in and out, not waiting for somebody when they want to leave. You can see these sort of evolutions of efficiency happening. 

Mark: So what about bike couriers? Are you still doing any of that kind of action? 

Mark: Oh yeah. Solid all day. Like those guys are busy. The roads are empty too. Lots of security courier interaction. So we'll go to lobby, security guards there. He's the only one going up and down. He's been checked out. We're outside. We're inside. We give it to them. So there's a good symbiotic relationship going there. All the couriers know the security anyways. They're always, they talk all the time. So concierge and security, couriers, it's a lot more efficient. I see maybe mailrooms becoming more of a thing, which is a plan I've always wanted to bring it to Vancouver. I want to have a centralized mailrooms that are a hub that could just, everybody comes in and it goes out and I think we'll see that developing. For many reasons, just efficiency and security and health. You know, if this thing is with more people, more problems, this could solve problems. We're living and learning right now. A big deal. 

Mark: And what about employment? Are you looking for more couriers?

Mark: For drivers? Yeah, we are definitely are. We've had a few couriers, obviously parents being hit hard with schools closing and then spring break and there's a lot of things, you know, some couriers were like, their daughter was immune deficient, so she can't go to daycare, so she had to stay home. Even though in the normal day, she would just go be normal, but everybody's a little bit cautious. So with that, and then bringing on four new clients today, busier and growing all the time busier.  We've had a lot of calls from people that used to work here that went off to go do other things and have suddenly coming back. They want their jobs back because those other jobs aren't panning out. So yeah, we're definitely looking to get more staff. We just on boarded an excellent courier today. Trained her. Everything went smooth and it just got a feedback. She had a really fun, exciting day. 

Lots of, you know, just, good time to start a job, right? Like we're all pandemic. Would you like to be a messenger? Yes. So that was pretty fun. Did that. And with the bikes, I see we are going to need more bikes anyways cause we're doing longer hours. We're going to be doing a lot more deliveries to residences and a lot more hours. So we're down four till 8:00 PM, so definitely need more manpower.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for a solution, if the you've been laid off or you're temporarily whatever, you need something, you need something to fill in the gap, the guys to call are Phantom Couriers. If you're looking for a job, but also if you need home delivery, if you need office delivery, if you're working from home. These are the guys who are going to get it done for you. Phantom Couriers, 604-899-5447 check them out. They're the highest rated courier company in Vancouver for a very good reason. Any package anywhere..

Mark: Phantom Courier gets it there. Almost 155 star reviews. 

Mark: Thanks man. 

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver, one of the 100 fastest growing companies in the province of British Columbia, of course, and Vancouver's favourite and best courier company. How are you doing, Mark?

Mark H: We're doing great. Thanks.

Mark: So we've talked a lot about some of the places you guys have delivered, but we're haven't you actually delivered too?

Mark H: Well, people always ask me that question and it also comes along with like, what's your goal's? Well, two places we've never been, never had the call to is Antarctica, and outer space and we all know that things go there and I'd like to be part of that. So those are two things that we’re kind of like keeping our ears peeled for. Mostly scientific clients. We want things like that, or ocean freight to Antarctica. I can totally get behind that. And we have a way, we know where to go with a 200 kilogram payload into space. And its 1 million bucks our costs. So you know, you pay more, but we know how to do it. We've got a lead and we just want to call it. It can be a letter to like, it's not a 200 kg hard thing, but those are goals. Let's go. I mean, if it happened, I'd be super happy. I'd write home about it. That's for sure.

Mark: So SpaceX, if you're listening.

Mark H: I think they got it covered. They don't need any help from a local courier in Vancouver, but if anybody wants something shipped down to SpaceX, I'm down to do that.

Mark: Absolutely.

Mark H: Yeah.

Mark: And of course. It could be something like you mentioned, there might be some folks putting together a package that needs to go up to, maybe some Canadian astronauts up in the ISS, International Space Station, there's going to be more of that stuff up there, for sure.

Mark H: Even if you just want the letters from your science class delivered to like the Last Mile Depot, we'd love to be just part of it just for fun and you know, just give us a call. I think that'd be just a fun, cool thing to do just out of the norm. Whenever you do that kind of stuff everybody kind of gets excited and it lasts a long time. It's fun to talk about mission accomplished, right?

Mark: Absolutely.

Mark H: Space talk, mission accomplished.

Mark: Very Star Trek of you.

Mark H: Hey, why not, I’m a Star Trek guy, you know! Those are two things. Where else have we delivered, like we've delivered to like war zones. We've had that happen. That's pretty crazy stuff, you know. So we're down for the challenge. If you could think of a place that we might not have been in, you need to get something to a remote area, like you were mentioning Argentina at the Southern tip there. We could get it there. So we're up for that kind of challenge because we have an infrastructure that will allow us to get those logistic jobs done.

Mark: So there you go. Any package. Anywhere anywhere.

Mark H: Yep. Phantom Couriers will try and get it there if it's outer space, let's go for that one. That'd be fun.

Mark: There you go. Thanks, Mark.

Mark H: Right on. Have a good day.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's best couriers delivering and making people happy all over Vancouver. We're going to talk about working as a courier, frequently asked questions, maybe some answers about that. How are you doing today, Mark?

Mark: Doing great. 

Mark: So what skills does a courier need? 

Mark: They need to be a self starter. They need to be motivated. The couriers work in a contractor, owner, operator like arena. So the more you pay attention and do what's asked of you on time, the way we do it, the better off you'll be. So we really like to utilize people that are like, motivated self-starters, because it's up to them to make as much as they want. And it's like, earlier before this video, our discussion was, “How much do you make?”. You know, we have, we have a minimum minimal expectation of you and it's a pretty good living to, for an entry level starter job, and you can make more. So we always say, this is what the, you know, the bottom guy makes. And this is what we expect as our bare minimum for you to be here.

And it's livable thing. We want everybody to do about 15 deliveries per day. We want them to be on line at 8:00. Out the door, 8:30 starting to drop by 9:00, so they can shut off at 5:00. You get those 15 deliveries done. And our average average call is 24 bucks to a customer. So you might do nine deliveries that day but have some $93 trips in it. So the average works out and it's a good living, and it's a fun job too, because time flies. 

All you have to do is have good attention to detail, be motivated, self-starter, and like adventure and nice people. Cause we deal with a lot of nice people every day. 

Mark: Are there any other kind of like where do, where do people, that sounds pretty simple really.

I mean if you can pay attention and do the job, what else? Where can people screw it up? 

Mark: Well, we always like consistency. So we always try to get our drivers to, hey, you know, get up, get you gas at the same time, same place every day, consistently, record your mileage. So at the end of the day and you phone us up, like what did I do today? We'll tell you. And you'll be like, Oh, divide the kilometres. You're like, Oh, that's pretty decent per kilometre. Know your costs. 

You know, we always get the, what?  It’s like, did you write any of this down? No, I was going to, so if you do follow like the 24 years of trial and error that we've had with drivers and careers, then you might be surprised to find out that your ROI is pretty high. You know, you're rolling around making 40 bucks an hour sometimes you're like, yeah, that was pretty sweet day. One of the, how did that happen? You know, I was telling somebody earlier that our top driver became a top driver on her first day. And she just crushed everybody else because she came in and said, just like you just said, what do you do? Do this. Okay. And then she stopped doing that mission creep where it's like, well I'll do it this, but I'm going to do it a little bit with my flavour. She just followed the Phantom way, do this, this, this, and this. Wash, rinse, repeat, boom. Top driver. She has not been knocked off for thing. In fact, she's our spirit animal.

She got super sick. She told us that she was sick all night. It felt better. I'm good to go. I was like, okay, if I hear that's so, we're looking for that every time. That's who we need to walk through the door next. This is the next spirit animal. Just a, yeah. She has, and she has fun. She has always come in with a big smile on her face because she has a groovy job. She doesn't take it home and she has weekends off long weekends. She's like partying. She's having a good life. 

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for information or details about Phantom Couriers, we're going to get a lovely webpage built out that talks all about the skills that you need to have to be a courier. More detail about these items. If you're looking for a job, give them a call, 604-899-5447. Pay attention to what we said. The skills are required, but there's a great place to work the best career company in Vancouver and any package anywhere…

Mark:  Phantom Couriers gets it there. That's right. 

Mark: Thanks Mark. 

Mark: You betcha. Thanks, Mark.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver, Vancouver's best couriers, and we're going to talk about e-commerce deliveries to the United States. How you doing, Mark? 

Mark: Excellent. How are you? 

Mark: Good. Good, good. So it's snowed in Vancouver, and of course I didn't get any mail.

How do you guys solve that? 

Mark: We didn't get any mail either, but our customers got their packages delivered. Rain, sleet, or snow, they used to say, well, if you want it done that way, call us instead of the postal services. They gave up and we didn't. 

Mark: So how does it work for US? To deliver to the US for an eCommerce company in Canada?

Mark: Well, Canadian e-commerce e-tailer would create a product and have to, obviously their customer says, ship it to me. I'm in Blaine, or I'm in Idaho, or something. And what we do is we pick it up, find out what the value of it is, declare the customs, and ship it out on our vertical using our power, like we have a volume discount and we just pay the duty and customs.

Those are never changing. There's no discount on that. And just get her, get her across the border. So it's going to be on that grand mail, ground mail service. It's like a four to six days depending on customs clearance. 

Mark: So for the customers, they don't have to go to the post office. They don't have to fill out the forms. They don't have to, you know, some of the details that they don't have to take the time to do that. You guys are looking after that? 

Mark: Yeah. We've got a full team here that takes care of all the manifesting, all the proactive tracking and monitoring of all of our shipments. So everything that leaves here.

From start to finish has eyes on making sure the job gets done because we bill when it's completed, right? And so we're not going to work. We're incentivized to get the job done so we can make money. So that's why we watch it.  

Canada Post bills you at the source. And says, bye bye. Catch you later. You know?

And you're like, okay, bye. I trust you. And then weeks later you get your thing from anywhere. It's, you know, it's not as, it's not as robust. So we're trying to add a little bit of more value add because more, there's more e-tailer in our, in our customer base that need the need to good service Phantom is used to giving.

Mark: So is it expensive to ship from Canada to the United States? 

Mark: Well, it really depends on what you're shipping, but the cost could, they're super cheap compared to like courier costs, like an envelope to San Francisco is like 45 bucks, and we can get down to the States for like, for a large, like a value package, for $15-$16 for something that could have a value of up to $300. So yeah, there's a lot of power in consolidation. 

Mark: And how long does it take then? What's the delivery time difference between the two ways of delivering? 

Mark: Well, we do overnight on courier. And mail service is what it is. It’s ground mail, but the faster you get it into the US postal service, the faster it's going to get delivered. So you want to hop the border quickly. That's why the consolidated shipping model works. Instead of, you know, so many different stops. You're just cutting out four stops, go direct. 

Mark: So maybe just describe, walk us through that. So it goes the, you go to the Canada Post, then what do they do with it typically?

Mark: Well, we're not going to go to Canada Post, hopefully. We're just going to pay the postage, jump the border with the consolidated shipping. Have it picked up in Blaine. 

Mark: And the way it normally would work if I went to the post office and did it. 

Mark: Yeah. Post office, wait, generate enough volume sent to sort facilities, sort facilities sorts.

Puts it into pickup, which is, it's pretty efficient, but I mean, it's going to take a day there and another day to go on the truck. Then they want to have full loads, so full load going down, has to go down, unload. It takes time. And then reload to to final destination. So you're skipping like five days of just normal stuff. It's just normal everyday work. Just like if you were taking your time, putting groceries in the car, taking a break, driving home, taking a break, unloading the car, taking a break and then putting it away, taking a break. It's just, we speed it up. We put it right in the fridge. That’s how it works.

Mark: So is this the cheapest way to ship from Canada to the United States for an e-tailer?

Mark: I don't see any other way unless you know, you've got a friend driving directly to your client. It's the most economical and cheapest way, you know, you can get your best bang for the buck. Customers are going to be pretty satisfied with shipping mode. It's taut, it's not super fast like courier, but it's definitely going to get their track and trace. So I would say it's the best bang for your buck, that's for sure. 

Mark: Fantastic. So if you're, if you're an e-tailer, retailer, online eCommerce person in Canada, and you've been struggling with getting your packages delivered from Vancouver area to the United States of America, the guys to call her Phantom Couriers. You can reach them at (604) 899-5447. Don't worry about it anymore. They'll look after it and your package will get delivered as quickly as possible at the right price, and your customers will be happy and so will you. Any package anywhere…

Mark:  Phantom Couriers gets it there. You got it. 

Mark: Thanks, Mark. 

Mark: Thank you.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's best couriers, and we're talking deliveries. How you doing, Mark?

Mark: Good. Busiest courier today. It feels like, doing a great job today. 

Mark: So you just opening a new service. US mail for eCommerce companies in, all across Canada or just Vancouver?

Mark: Starting in Vancouver. Like we have lots of cool artisan clients, everybody who makes everything from jewelry to rings to beard oil, Etsy people, all sorts of stuff. And we've been taking out to these fulfillment centres way out in Delta and Annacis Island and East Van is like, Hey, we're right downtown, so we're getting US mail with a good discount and we're going to start expediting that stuff. So anybody with an eCommerce service that sells out to the clients throughout the United States and Canada. We can now do what Chit Chat Express is doing, or Wiz Moe and those guys, and we're just going to crush it. So we're here. We're already doing it for our clients, for another carrier, and it's like, why are you putting an extra middleman in the middle? Let's just take it over and get the same old tracking and good service that Phantom likes give them. 

Mark: And there you go. It's going to make it a lot simpler, of course, for people who are delivering from Canada to go across that magic invisible line into the United States. 

Mark: Yeah. And in bulk. So we'll have that buying power and we know what we're doing and we'll get her done. It'll be awesome. I'm looking forward to it. 

Mark: If you want the convenience of a one stop shopping and getting your eCommerce of any kind, essentially, because they deliver everything up to bridges. 

Mark: That's right. We're not mailing a bridge. 

Mark: Call Phantom Couriers at (604) 899-5447. And they'll look after you. Except now. Right now they're really busy because it's Christmas. But that will change in just a few days. 

Mark: Christmas is coming. Yeah, for sure. We've got you covered. Phantom Couriers any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there. You got it. 

Mark: Thanks

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's favourite couriers and we're talking package delivery. How're you doing Mark?

Mark: Doing excellent. How are you?

Mark: Good. So if I want to send a package or an envelope or something like that, say to some weird and wonderful place, like Vietnam or Nepal, how does that actually work? What happens?

Mark: Customers call us. We obviously arrive and pick it up. We bring it back to our office and we manifest and ship it out. So we make sure we do our due diligence. Confirming the address. Make sure all the contact information is done and then we get it on the fastest flight out or whatever you want. But mainly international stuff always goes on a plane. We leave our office between three and four, goes to the airport, gets put on a cargo plane and boom it's gone. Then we'll use whatever third party courier on the other side to get it done. The world wide network.

Mark: And how long have you been doing this for? Like, you've got, you mentioned before that you basically hit every country in the world. How does that work? How do you get all those connections in place to be able to do that?

Mark: Like you said, I've been doing it a long time. First I had a business partner, a long time ago and he was an ex-Purolator guy and he's like, "Oh we'll just take Purolator down to the airport" because if you bring it to us, we will give you like a kickback. And I was like, that sounds kind of cool. Why don't we just open our own network. So I just started back then, not knowing anything and now it just seems like it's so easy but I need to explain it to like everybody else. I just developed it by doing it forever until it basically, I didn't know, I just started off mailing things and tracking them and then I was like, well what if I just phone the guy in Armstrong, BC and send it up to him and have a courier drop it off. I just built a network. And it was like you, just being dumb and not knowing what I'm doing to being smart and having it all done right. Fake it till you make it. Made it. There you go.

I'm just taking a look at what we've got, some things going out today, like just out of the city and out of the country. We're going to, oh nothing super interesting. Oh where's this. Where's Katella? It just seems like a lot of Canadian stuff today. But we did a bunch of eBay returns to Japan. And so you know, you don't want to send out, "Yeah I don't like my shirt from Japan", and charge them $400 bucks to return his shirt. And so I had to find a decent vertical to get it out with and found the carrier and found the guy who would deliver it. You know, spoke a little Japanese and a little English and got it done, and cheap so it was good.

Mark: So is that using ship transportation instead of air?

Mark: No, we just got an LTL air freight. Like there was a container that needed to be filled up with returns and stuff. I'm just like, put this in there, ok. So you just meet people talk to people, figure things out and get it done. And it's nice you know, after 25 years, there's that network to fall back on. Otherwise I could just sent it direct, put it on a flight, play for it, it's done. And we just track it all here.

Mark: And so the tracking when it's in a place like Vietnam for instance, like how does the tracking work?

Mark: Usually our way bill goes to their way bill and we starting using their way bill through their system. And sometimes tracking simple, like it could be a SMS or an email where we just go to their portal or they just keep us in touch. Like a lot of guys just text us the stuff. What's happening or is even through email. It's all just, because everybody has a website, it's all tracked through their site. Like our dispatch system would be with their dispatch system. The API's can talk on a few occasions and then otherwise they upload a file to us. And or if it's like a national carrier like DHL, Purolator, TNT any of those guys, we just jack onto their site.

Mark: Sure, and in some of these lesser developed countries, the final delivery, the last mile could be a scooter, or a...who knows for sure. Bicycle.

Mark: Yeah, definitely. Just like the last mile is always the interesting mile I can tell you that. But guys are working hard all over the world, getting it done.

Mark: So there you are. If you need a package or a letter delivered anywhere in the world, the guys to call in Vancouver, Phantom Couriers. You can reach them at 604-899-5447. They're busy. You've got to call them and talk to them and they'll fix it, they'll get it there. 604-899-5447. One of the top 100 fastest growing companies in British Columbia. Thanks Mark

Mark: Right on. Thank you

Mark: Hi it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan, live and in charge, Phantom Couriers in Vancouver and we're talking about couriering. How're you doing today Mark?

Mark: Doing good. How're you?

Mark: I'm good. So you guys do a lot of pretty outside of the box kind of delivery stuff. You get all kinds of calls I know. So what kind of services that people wouldn't necessarily, automatically think about, have you guys done? To provide people with a complete service of probably outside the realm of just picking up a parcel and delivering it somewhere else. What kind of services do you add?

Mark: Let's just start with the first phone call today. Phone call, somebody's partner is locked outside on the balcony. They call our office to find out, yes we can deliver, we can get the keys from the guys that at work. Send a courier to the apartment building. Go in the building up to the apartment. Into the apartment. Let them in off the balcony. So they're not in trouble anymore. So right off the hop today. That's trip number one. Not a word of a lie. True story.

So we're there. We're an extension of like you know, red alert. If we have a problem, we need to solve it. That's what Phantom is good, that's what we're known for. Crazy problem solvers.

Mark: So what about things like bank pick ups or cheque pick ups. Tell us some stories around that.

Mark: Not as exciting, you know but yeah, definitely. We do a lot of cheque certifications between lawyers, real estate, all that kind of stuff. So we might go to one company, pick up a cheque, go to the bank certify it there and then take it to the other law firm, have them ok it and then go do a deposit. So a lot of hurry up and wait. Sometimes there's a lot of distance you've got to cover. You might start with a law firm downtown. Go to Delta. From Delta the bank is in Langley. From Langley to Richmond to be checked out by somebody else, get it witnessed. And then back downtown to be okayed and then deposit it. A lot of mileage, a lot of rigamarole a lot of waiting. We are good at standing in line. We do it a lot. We charge for it. We charge waiting time, standing in line time but you don't want to have your staff running around doing that kind of stuff. We're more efficient. We can maybe get two parts done by two different people super fast. So a lot of that. It's condensing time.

Mark: So what about animal delivery? You guys do much of that?

Mark: Yeah, I think we might of spoken about it before but probably because I think about it all the time. We delivered this tortoise from Vancouver Island to the tortoise doctor in Pitt Meadows or Maple Ridge. Like three times. We'd pick it up from the airport, well Harbour Air, take it out to the doctor. Drop off this tortoise for this guy who love tortoises and couldn't do it himself. And eventually the tortoise was healed and he took off and he was alive. We do small animal delivery where we might pick them up at the airport, hold them overnight and then drop them off to all the malls, you know all the pet shops, like fish, birds, small little animals, they're in boxes. They're just like a sleep, I hope. And then you know, kids get them for Christmas.

Do you want to hear about the crazy fish delivery to a bar?

Mark: Absolutely

Mark: I knew you would. So some guy calls us up and says, "I need you to go down to Aquariums West and buy me a goldfish." Sure. So we send the courier down with the debit card, he goes and buys a fish and he takes it to this bar on Granville Street. Johnnie Fox's Snug. Because this guy made a bet that he could drink a goldfish without leaving the bar. We had no idea that this was going to happen. So the courier shows up, here's your goldfish. The guy poured it in a glass and drank it and people are giving him money. And the courier is like, "what just happened? I can't believe this just happened." So from the good, the bad and the ugly. Yeah we've delivered animals. Basically we love them when they're alive and still alive and not eaten by humans, alive. Yeah that was a pretty crazy day. I mean that was a legendary trip.

Mark: So what about bike deliveries. What kind of, what's some of the crazy things that you guys have delivered on bicycles?

Mark: Oh man. Like lots of boxes. Lots of just weird stuff. People call you up and they're like..."It's just an over the shoulder bag" and you end up with a bike messenger with like 12 banner stands. And they'll, all over their body and go. Huge, just huge loads. Whatever will fit in gets strapped on and then they have their own devices and they'll just keep strapping it on to themselves and go. With the cargo bike, my favourite one was, "Oh with the fax machine, couriers are going to be out of business". Well we loaded up a fax machine on a bike and delivered it. And I was like, yeah, take than man. Like we're not going out of business. We just delivered the death nail to the fax machine. Get out of here. Bike couriers are here. Those guys can kill it, they can take anything,

Mark: Well you started out as a bike courier, right?

Mark: Yeah, for sure. I loved it. I just couldn't believe how cool the job was. Non stop fun.

Mark: And what about, what's the farthest away delivery that you guys have actually facilitated?

Mark: Well we go around the world. But I mean, you must be talking like local bike messenger or something?

Mark: No, just like what countries, like Burkina Faso or I don't even know.

Mark: Well you know Europe is just another day in the office. Asia is kind of new because a lot of, China is hard. You know because it doesn't have the traditional infrastructure. We've gone to Cuba which other couriers won't do. We've gone to Iraq, we've gone to Iran. We've delivered in like war areas, that's pretty crazy. Lots of the Caribbean is fun. Basically we've gone everywhere. Africa takes a long time, trust no one in Africa. It's like we don't know, like hello, total time zone is hard. So you don't know where it goes. Africa is tough. A lot of the infrastructure there is different to ours, so what we expect just doesn't happen. It's like, yeah they got it, oh how'd that happen. Oh and little tiny islands like off the coast of France. I can't remember the name of it. But it went to a friend's like uncle's brother's house. It was like down at the end of this road, it had no real address. Things like that. We've gone everywhere except Antartica. But I think there's only 209 countries now. There used to be more. We used to have like a check list but we are too busy to keep track of it anymore.

Mark: So what about food, groceries, alcohol delivery. Do you do any of that kind of stuff?

Mark: All day, everyday, all the time. So food, we don't like to do like an order of a burger and fries and deliver it. We don't do that. But we'll pick up from commissary. So say Tractor Foods. They've got a place downtown Vancouver and we'll take it up to businesses like Lulu Lemon or Hoot Suite or Aritzia. We'll deliver the lunches where they actually have to take it out of the bin and put it in the fridge. There you go, staff can eat. We deliver wine all the time. Marquis Wine on Davie Street, like Vancouver's oldest winery. We're in there all day picking up cases of wine, bottles of wine. That is one busy wine place, it's the best. And they've used us for years. Everybody is super happy too. Here's your wine. Just no problem. And groceries, Whole Foods. We delivery groceries all along West Van because they pay for the seniors delivery of food. We'll pick up like for grocery store provisioning of yachts. So they'll put in a big huge food order and we'll take it down to the boat, we'll put it on the boat, well give it to the stewards and the bosuns who load up the boat and away that might go. People need stuff. Phantom delivers. It's pretty cool.

Mark: So there you go. If you need delivery in Vancouver, the guys to call, Phantom Couriers 604-899-5447. They're always busy, you've got to call but they'll get it done.

Mark: Busier than ever man. It's non stop.

Mark: 604-899-5447 give them a call. They'll get it done for you. And of course, Mark..

Mark: Any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there!

Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert from Top Local. Here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. One of BC's 100 fastest growing companies and of course the best, the best courier company in Vancouver period. And we're going to talk about last mile eCommerce today. How're you doing Mark?

Mark: Doing good. Had a busy day today so just putting everything back in its right place.

Mark: So what's meant by last mile delivery?

Mark: Ok so last mile is after all, you create something, say you had a beard oil company and you created all your product and you have it pick and and is taken to a distribution, like a fulfillment centre and that's maybe were your Shopify starts off for the orders are placed. And we want this beard oil to go to these hundred people next day. So we would go pick it up from the shelving and then have it all, we would just go and pick up all he way bills and boom products all delivered. And we do that both directions. So we'll go from manufacturers to fulfillment and from fulfillment to customers. So B to C and C to B.

That C to B didn't sound right. That's not right. But we'll take it from the manufacturer to fulfillment, fulfillment to the customer.

Mark: CBD is a whole other thing.

Mark: Yeah we do that too. Shhh. We don't talk about that.

Mark: So how does last mile delivery work?

Mark: Well basically it's an online order from the customer through the website and it has to be fulfilled. So you just want your thing ordered. Like Amazon, they've got all their fleet of minions out there delivering. That's last mile. And we do the exact same thing. But we might be doing it for like a local company or an international company that has a distribution centre in the lower mainland that needs their customer taken care of. And they don't want to use Amazon. They want to use us as part of their company. So we integrate with them. So we might want to do some cross branding or might just be representing the brand when we drop off. And just getting it to the customers, so they're satisfied. And it keeps it really tight.

Like say contact lenses for Clearly Contacts. They have their same day and their overnight. So their overnight stuff is to last mile per se. It's put in the post and it's delivered regular way. But their same day last mile, it's like it been manufactured elsewhere or it's put together in their warehouse. Like the glasses are manufactured different places and put together and brought forward. Or contact lenses are pick and packs and we just go and get them and drop them off with people same day on demand last mile eCom because it comes from their website.

Mark: So that's really what's meant by this whole eCommerce delivery. If you're not, anything outside of Amazon, its got to be fulfilled somehow and you guys are just part of that chain basically.

Mark: 100%. Like you know, it works all over the place. Cannabis is our biggest new eCom. You know, order it online. We will do the last mile. Last 200 feet if they want it to be that way, that short of a distance. We're there. Whatever's placed in order on the internet, it has to be done. That's where the courier comes into play. And it's a super new, exciting, awesome world to be playing in. Considering the internet's 20 years old, I mean come on, 25 years old for us. It's finally kicking butt and we're part of it. The courier's part of it.

Mark: So is this a fairly important part of your business now?

Mark: Oh yeah. It's grown by leaps and bounds. We get a lot of calls for big quotes, like bigger quotes than we've ever seen before and a lot of work to get done. It's going to employ a lot of people. So it's really building and building everyday. Everyday this is a new concern like, oh how are we going to manage this. This is an awful lot to get going. So our scalability is put to the test and it seems like every day, oh scale plus 10 again. So let's keep going. And that's the way it's going to be. That's where, that's keeping us pretty sharp.

Mark: So I have an eCommerce store. How can I improve my last mile delivery? I'm not using Amazon, I'm going to end up with you guys. How do I improve that?

Mark: Well we just have to get in touch and to make sure we're speaking the same language, that whatever you tell your customers is actually really happening and that's where a lot of people fall short. The customer expectation from, say your company, is this and then they're just like, oh whatever, just get it there, and it's like it didn't work. So as long as we're on the same page and we just act exactly the same way every time, all the time, it's perfect. You know there's a lot of missed things. Like people are not home and just mandatory fields need to be filled out. We iron out all the wrinkles before we pull the trigger and our success rate's really high. And we're able to find people and we keep in touch with the end user through technology, simply. Like the driver goes there, and nobody phones anymore. It's just a quick text and then it's logged and the time call, it's like, come back in two hours, fine. It's easy to bill that way and the customers aren't shocked when they get their second charge or something, they know what's going on. It keeps a happy customer.

Mark: And so is that what you would consider logistics? Like how does that figure in to that efficiency of last mile eCommerce?

Mark: I don't think it's traditional logistics as much as acting as a customer service personnel for the creator of the product, whatever is being sold. It might be as simple as, like there's unique people like Etsy. There's a lot of Etsy people in Vancouver that need eCom. So they're just taking orders, and we'll go to a house and pick it up or we go to a fulfillment centre and pick it up or we'll pick it up at one place, take it to another place, wait a few hours, go back and pick it up again and deliver it. And it's just keeping your eye on it, tracking it and making sure that it's delivered to the right place at the right time to the right person. It gets a little tricky but it's straight up, making sure it happens. Making sure the people, and the more you deliver, the more they make and it just keeps building too. So more happy customers equals more orders. It's fun stuff. I dig it.

Mark: So there you go. If your eCommerce company is looking for delivery in Vancouver, the guys to talk to are Phantom Couriers. You can reach them at 604-899-5447. They'll get it done. They'll get it done right. They'll get it done fast. Thanks Mark

Mark: Right on. Yeah it's been a good chat. Makes me think about it.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan from Phantom Couriers. Vancouver's favourite courier delivery company. We're talking some frequently asked courier questions. How're you doing today Mark?

Mark: Doing excellent, thank you.

Mark: So what happens if my parcel goes missing?

Mark: What? What's those words missing? Never heard it before. Oh wait I remember once, a package went missing and we tracked it down.

Mark: Back in '56 right?

Mark: Yeah, just before I took over Phantom. So, with tracking numbers, nothing really ever goes missing. It goes away and then somebody finds it and we get it back. So everything, it's pretty impossible to lose something unless somebody does something wrong and it hardly ever goes wrong. So tracking numbers are pretty much the fodder of what's going to get it back. And since we proactively track stuff, we really don't take our eyes off it for very long at all. But we'll get it back and there's insurance.

Mark: Yeah, so how long can customs hold my package?

Mark: Oh, depends how honest you are when filling out customs documentation. So if you're straight up, it could be in and out in 24 hours. It's always going to be a minimum, if they touch it, it's 24 hours. It's government. It's a slow process and they do a lot. The longest I've ever seen? Is a long time. It was like three weeks. It just was a lot of mess, mistakes, you know but if you do all the right things it should be 24 hours at the longest.

Mark: So do packages deliver on Saturday?

Mark: Yeah. 100%

Mark: How about Sunday?

Mark: No, 0% You can go pick them up sometimes from a rural area on overnights and stuff like that but mostly Saturday is fine.

Mark: So if I'm a seller, I'm doing e-commerce or something like that, I'm delivering, who's responsible for quote-unquote loss which we've already learned doesn't happen, but it's delayed?

Mark: Well that's going to be us. We're the last mile people right. So we would be responsible for figuring out what went wrong and solving that problem and that's what we do. We find things all the time. It's just like missed connections or some computer errors. Whenever a human gets in the way, little things go wrong and you asked them what did you do and track it down. So we are responsible.

Mark: Can someone get compensation for late delivery? If something really absolutely had to be there and it didn't make it, what happens then?

Mark: Yeah, we always feel bad that it doesn't make it. Ok, so when that happens, it's a judgement call whether we will pay for it or not. You might not see it on your invoice if it's like, oh you know, we screwed up. That's definitely not on the customer all and there's occasion where we'll pay for it 100%. But I don't like to say, like, there's no guarantees. Things go wrong. Tires pop on airplanes, birds you know, windshields crack. Things like that, they happen and that's life. But if it's our fault it's not your problem.

Mark: And what's involved in tracking? Is there something I have to set up if I have a package or is that all just automatically taken care of?

Mark: It's all automatic. Like you're a client, so you get a tracking number whenever you place a call with us. That just transfers right down the line. So it starts here and it goes right to the end. Like some people pass it off and like, oh you need to contact UPS, here's your UPS number. You can just use our number. It's universal through our system and that's it, start and end.

Mark: So there you go. The easy way to look after your package delivery and courier issues in Vancouver. The guys to call are Phantom Couriers, 604-899-5447. They're always hopping, always busy. Sometimes it might take a little longer over like Christmas or Black Friday, is that fair?

Mark: Yeah that's totally fair man. Those are busy times so it's totally bananas.

Mark: Think ahead, you might need to call them a little sooner and get your stuff delivered during those times but other that they're going to get it done. Thanks a lot Mark.

Mark: You bet, talk to you soon.