Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver, and we're talking couriering in this time of crazy. How are you doing, Mark?
Mark: I’m doing great. I'm having a good day.
Mark: So before crazy, you guys delivered just about anything everywhere, but now during crazy time as we're in the midst of this pandemic worldwide, what's happening in the Vancouver area? What are you guys focusing on these days?
Mark: Well, it's not like we've focused on it, but we, we got a call. The calls are coming in, and, uh. Uh, quite a touched my face. I'm not, let’s do that anymore. So sorry people. But anyways we are starting to do a lot of last mile stuff for PPE equipment, so personal protection equipment.
And I was like, okay, so where's this stuff going? And I started to watch it all come in and saw the patterns and I was like, that's pretty, this new and people probably weren't thinking about it. But you know the hostels. They're still full of people and they're living in close quarters. So I was like, well, no, no wonder it's important.
So women's shelters, I was like, of course. Right. They are stuck there. They're under quarantine or they're just so, you know, social distancing. But they're also in close quarters. It's not like they have an 800 square foot apartment to relax in. They're in a barracks kind of situation, you know? I don't know what they look like on the inside, but I know they're not big. I know they're not that well funded and they're crowded. Addiction recovery, of course. All those people that are like, trying to get out of their situations. They're stacked on top of each other to. The Masonic lodge runs a bunch of homes for the elderly. Also, you know, those places are privately funded. They're not gigantic. So the nursing staff there The Portland Hotel Society, you know, those are really, like SROs are overrun and people are talking about the downtown east side is a place that could explode. And if we did have a flattening of the curve at that point, those people might over, if they're all high and got each other contagious without some protection, especially in those hotels, then they could overwhelm the hospital's really quickly.
So we're dropping off a lot of gowns, masks, gloves for the residents, for the nurses, for the staff, for the people that are all involved. Everybody in the building is getting protection. Just to help them self distance. Even if you're really close, they're like, okay, look, I got a mask, you see and gloves and stuff like that.
Well, I never really saw that one coming, you know? But it's, it's good that it's happening and it's a lot. It's a lot of stuff like behind me, there's like 300 pounds of gloves and stuff going up to the Sunshine Coast, which is hard to get to, but we've got that under control.
Mark: So I was just gonna mention that, that there's been a lot of reduction in routes on the buses and in this case, the Sunshine Coast, you have to get there by ferry. So there's a lot of that is shutting down cause there's just no traffic to those riders. So how's that impacting what you guys are, are doing?
Mark: Huge. Okay. So Vancouver Island, we used to be, Oh, whatever, I'll just fly there every hour. Like I can just walk down there or they'll send a courier. But I mean, hour every 15 minutes I can be on a plane, have a guy on a plane, just have package someplace like it was, you never even thought about it. I had, and if the planes were flying, I had a helijet you know, and if Pacific Coastal Air going up the coast, we had tons of stuff, medicine going all over Bella Bella, Bella Coola, Atlin, Klemtu, I mentioned before, Powell River. Suddenly even the trucks won't take it. So trucks won't take anything unless it's wrapped on a pallet. So LTL Freight is a problem less than a pallet. They're like, Oh, we can't take it. It needs to be wrapped. We have to protect our, okay, I get it.
So, but that leaves a large, humongous amount of stuff not getting done. So we got Dave who lives up on the Sunshine Coast. He works for us and he is up there and he's going to gather everything. The ferries are running once a day, like back and forth, there's one and, there's two. So we get everything here. We put it on the ferry, it goes over there, it gets unloaded by the freight master of the ferry, and Dave picks it up and gets her done. Which is good because there's always a problem.
Canada Post isn't even go in there. It's, you know, it needs to be done. So it's just these cracks are opening up and things are slipping through and they, the government's doing the best they can do, but they're like, Oh, well, of course there's more than we can handle. And you can't blame anybody. It's just has, it's just the way it's working out. So everybody's pulling together and I'm happy to report that the Sunshine Coast is okay to get things to. Usually it is like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, sometimes just Wednesday, Friday. It's not easy to get there at anytime at any time, but now this is good, especially for all the PPE stuff we're shipping up there.
And then the other direction too, everything has to get there. And food, you know, my buddy Jeff lives up there. His life is absolutely not normal right now. And it's like, Oh, that's, you know, that's a, that's a thing. So it's good to deal with where we can be, start getting part of that supply chain. It's breaking. So we're there to fix it. It's a good thing. I think Sunshine Coast needs, needs stuff right away, so get it up there.
Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service in Vancouver right now, during the time of crazy, or even after the crazy, you can call Phantom Couriers (604) 899-5447 to book your delivery. They're delivering everywhere in the world still. The timing might not be as quick as you wanted, but they'll still get it done. Thanks a lot, Mark.
Mark: Crazy fast. Hey, you got it.