Phantom Couriers Shipping FAQ’s

Mark: Hi it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. One of BC's 100 fastest growing companies and of course, expanding like crazy, delivering stuff all over the place. How're you doing today Mark?

Mark: Totally excellent. Having a great day.

Mark: So we're going to do some frequently asked questions about shipping that I'm sure you guys get all the time. Does destination scan mean I'll get it today?

Mark: Ah, no. A destination scan is when it goes from one party to the other and they sort of do the handshake and it's off to its final mile, but it doesn't mean that it's going to be arriving in any time soon. It just means that a new carrier is holding it. So track it accordingly.

Mark: So how long does it take to deliver after the destination scan?

Mark: Well it should be same day or you know you have your transit times for most shipments. So it says like delivered on Wednesday by 5PM. Should be there. But a lot of times if it's a rural area, so say it's like you know Vanderhoof or something weird, there might be every second day or might be the next day. It's just hard to tell. It's case by case but generally when it's you know, heading for, out for delivery it should be during that timeframe that time and transit has been established.

Mark: What does import scan mean?

Mark: Ok, so you ship something to another country and it gets imported. It means that customs is done with it. They've done their paperwork.They're looking at it and now it's free to be picked up by a carrier.So a lot of things have to, you know they just have to check it out. You might be sending a present to your favourite aunt and they're like well let's just make sure that you're not selling something without telling us. Oh you're not, good-they're pajamas, import scan. Out for final mile. It tells you what's going on. It's just an extra step in the million steps to get a package delivered.

Mark: So does out for delivery mean I get it today?

Mark: Well we would hope so. But it does and doesn't. Generally it means it's out for delivery but a lot of times if there's an address correction, like there's something wrong, you might get that scan and you should actually just all in and have somebody get down to the bottom of it for you because you can see that for two days. Just always call up and find out from your CSR what it's really going on because they'll know because they can just quickly get access to it and find you. Are you going to deliver this driver, yes or no? Well address was corrected yes. I don't know what it is, no. So case by case just call your CSR. If you're at Phantom, we'll help you.

Mark: So do you guys do the dreaded door hanger thing when you don't deliver?

Mark: No we use the cool email. So generally, door hangers don't you know. So basically, we will text you, we'll call you but nobody answers their phone, "I don't know who you are". So we'll text because then you're like, oh it's Phantom, and get a hold of you. We have like a couple preset messages, like "Hey Phantom is in the area, are you close by? Give us a heads up in five minutes and we'll come back." Or we also have the email. We'll send you a way bill number and ask for the best, maybe it needs to be sent to your office. So we'll just usually figure it out that way. But it's pretty easy to track people down with text.

Mark: What if you just can't be there and you'd prefer that it just be dropped off, hidden away perhaps on the porch or something. Can you arrange that?

Mark: Yep. Locally 100%. We do that all the time and we have like photo POD. So like we just take a picture, track it, we store it. So if you called me up and said, "Hey my tracking number 1234, where is it?" We'll find it and send you the picture, you're like, "Oh it's at the back door". It's really easy. And for out of town stuff, you just have to give permission to be left at the doorstep. Like no signature required. And it'll be there for you. You just have to tell us to do it. And it's really, it's good.

Mark: This is another one that I've seen. Does in transit, what does that mean?

Mark: What is it, what did you say?

Mark: In transient, in transit.

Mark: We don't really use in transit here. You'll find that with UPS, Purolator - it's in transit. It means they don't know what's going on. So it might have missed a connection or it's in transit. So call us and we'll tell you exactly where it is because really everything is trackable by GPS. And we can find it exactly where it is. That in transit thing is old. They should just abolish it. It'll be there soon.

Mark: It's in the cloud

Mark: Completely, yeah I hate that one as much as anybody.

Mark: What's the difference between shipped and out for delivery?

Mark: Shipped is yeah good. So a way bill has been created, it's been shipped means nothing. It means it's started. And out for delivery means yeah, a person has it, they have their instructions, they know what to do, they're going to get it done. But shipped just means ah-hah.

Mark: Somebody filled out paperwork

Mark: Yeah, it's shipped means... Call Phantom. We will tell you exactly where it is. Like yeah, it could be on a shelf waiting for instructions or something, but generally shipped means nothing.

Mark: It's in the cloud

Mark: Yeah, another one I don't like. Yeah, so call us up. We know exactly where things are. We track them.You know, it's so easy now. GPS and computers, like I can see it. In fact our GPS is so good, maybe I shouldn't use GPS, but our tracking, if I go in, scroll in on the map, I can see our guys on what floor in a building they're in. You know, it's kind of clunky but you're like, "Oh yeah I can see he's not o the street, he's on this floor." So we could tell you where it is - out for delivery.

Mark: So timing. Can I specify a time when my package has to arrive by or how do I know when my package will arrive?

Mark: Yeah ok so, if you want to know when it will arrive, like you select the window of opportunity to drop it off. So anytime in between. But if you said, "Mark needs my package at 2PM, be here by two o'clock". That's specific. That's our target. That's what we're going to be where we're going to be. Two o'clock be there all day, be there two o'clock, two o'clock, two o'clock. Otherwise it's not a good trip and we don't like that. So yeah specifically we love that stuff. That's like the best kind of work.

Mark: Is it a little bit more expensive because of the tight timeframe?

Mark: The most expensive. Yeah for sure. I love those things because we are doing it at a priority service for you, but everybody likes it. I mean they want it. They got it. And there's nothing better than somebody who's like, "Ah that was money well spent". Keeping it premium for a reason you know.

Mark: And for shipping, you guys don't really have any limits on what size or amount of stuff that you can move? You ship everything, everywhere.

Mark: That's right. As somebody is trying to get a hold of us right now. So yeah, we'll ship like anything. An envelope to a full container load. That's a container load, a pallet, engine block and crane wheel cables. Anything. So yeah, we ship it all. Any package, anywhere.

Mark: Phantom Couriers gets it there.

Mark: You know it man, that's our thing.

Mark: So there you go. If you want to ship your stuff in Vancouver, the guys to call are Phantom Couriers. Reach them at 604-899-5447. They're always hopping, they're always busy. Thanks Mark.

Mark: Right on, it's been awesome. Hope you have a great week.