Misdirected Package Delivery

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. I'm here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's best couriers. That's face it. They're one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in BC and Alberta, in Ontario. And Hey, maybe even in the whole world, how are you doing today, Mark? 

Mark H: I'm doing good, super busy.

Mark: So misdirected packages. This is something that we were just talking about that I didn't know that you guys do. Explain a little bit about how you guys find and deliver misdirected packages. 

Mark H: Yeah. Finding them is easy because, well, basically you know how that saying is you'll find it in the last place it was. A lot of major carriers, somebody might ship a package, let's take for instance, like you, you might send something to your son and he's like, Oh, I moved. So you're like, Oh, it was delivered to your old apartment, of course. So it's there. 

So you phone up the carrier and they're like, sure, we'll go get it today, a day later, bring it to the depot and deliver it a day later. So it'd be three days. And if you can call us and we'll go into major cities and track it down and get it done same day. So that's how we got our start in Toronto was figuring out and picking up packages for match.com and Plenty of Fish. Things were getting lost. We'd go track them down, get them out to the right people.

And then, tada, there you go. So it's a good end. It's easy to do too. Like, cause they are there. It's just that they're a bigger, different beast they do overnight and we do same day. 

Mark: So another thing that we've not really mentioned before was you guys deliver pallets? What's that all about?

Mark H: Well freights, right? So anything that is palletized. We love to take it cause we have the 3 ton, 5 ton trucks. And we were doing freight over in Edmonton. So Benjamin Moore, a customer got referred to us through the BNI Network. And since there was a major flood in Fort MacMurray, can't catch a break, burned down, flooded. Well, the insurance companies are all getting all the paint and restoration under control.

So everything has to be shipped up. All the new goods. So we're shipping up, paint for the painting crews. I think we missed out on the drywall and all that stuff, but definitely we're shipping up pallets of paint for Benjamin Moore. That's a good gig. You know, pellets are like 800 pounds of paint.

Mark: And another thing that you were in the mix of, your amazing days, you guys were delivering candles, you've been doing a lot of candle delivery. Candles? 

Mark H: Yeah, for sure. Vancouver's got a lot of local candle manufacturers and, you know, once they get there, and now that Covid's over, manufacturing is up, right. A lot of things didn't come from China anymore. So there's local manufacturers. And they have to get them out to the stores. So we were delivering once again for our truckloads to like London Drugs distribution, to get out to all the London Drugs for an excellent client of ours. So we do that constantly.

It's just something that's in the mix. We just see it every day. It's like the forest for the trees, but yeah, we definitely do it. And candles are big thing. I mean it's summer, right? Everybody has candles for their Instagram. So you need pallets and truckloads of them. That's what you need. Candles, summer. 

Mark: So what's, today's weird delivery. What was your weirdest delivery today? 

Mark H: We've got three, three stand out weirdly. Well, one's just, weed is normal. Right. But of course, every now and then there's an independent weed guy that calls us up, we just deliver it. So people like, Oh, I think this is weed. And it's like, yes, it is. But then the person that was delivering the weed goes out to Burnaby and they get a call and be like, pick this up and bring it back to Vancouver.

And it was a replica gun, like a like a pistol. And so the person that shipped, it said, Oh, Hey, open it up and look inside just so you know in case you feel it's heavy or whatever, it's just a replica. And sure enough, it was a replica and it went to an army surplus store, I guess that's where they bought it. They didn't want it. So they take it back. 

Then the courier leaves there, just in east Van, just goes over to Main and Broadway area he picks up a 25 pound box of breast implants. So this couriers day is just like what was going to be envelopes. So these of course, went to a clinic and they're being fulfilled in whatever need necessary. It could have been for reconstructive surgery or whatever.

But went to another one of our clients, but the funny thing was when the courier picked up the box , it was like, they called in the weight of the box. And they're like, yeah, it's 25 pounds of breast implants, nowhere in the notes and just kind of stuck out. It was like, Oh, that's interesting.

So they got to get around somehow. Might as well be by courier. So I thought that was an interesting one. That was an interesting run for a courier day. 

Mark: So there you go, the ever interesting life of a courier in Vancouver, Edmonton Calgary, Kelowna, Victoria, Toronto, Nanaimo all over great across the whole country. Phantom Couriers. You can reach them in Vancouver area (604) 899-5447. Or nationally +1 844-899-5447. If you've got a problem, you need to get it delivered Phantom Couriers will get it there. Thanks, Mark. 

Mark H: Right on. Thank you.