Phantom Couriers Now Offering E-commerce Deliveries To The USA

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.