Perhaps one of the most important changes that have happened in the world of business in the past few years is the emergence of e-commerce and online for doing business in every aspect. Since Covid, businesses have scrambled to get on-line! They are working to improve their websites and to allow people to be able to buy from them on-line. This has led to a need for delivery services that can cover the needs of this new online economy because as companies took online orders, they have a need to delivery those orders to customers in a timely and efficient manner.
New Age of Last Mile Delivery
That is where the new age of courier delivery services came in to provide the necessary deliveries. Companies such as amazon already had a strong infrastructure in place to delivery their products to customers in as little as one day. But what about the rest? Walmart for example has really started to to focus on on-line marketing and deliveries and have also put in place a system for delivering to customer’s home in a short amount of time.
The Delivery Fleet
Performing such an action as delivering a package from the warehouse to a customer in less than 1 day is no easy feat! In fact, it takes a lot of technology, plenty of trucks on the road and efficient knowledgeable drivers! The availability of truck is another question mark. Amazon have recently invested in Rivian to supply them with a fleet of electric delivery trucks specifically designed for last-mile delivery. Using gas trucks for delivering products works, but produces lots of greenhouse gases since these trucks are on the road everyday making deliveries.
The Challenge of Delivering to Canadian Provinces
It is a challenge for most of these companies, how to buy and manage a fleet of delivery trucks that is large enough to cover every area of the vast areas of Canada. Rural areas in particular present a challenge because they are not as easily accessible. For example, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Quebec and Northern Ontario are all areas that are difficult to deliver to. A customer who lives in one of these areas can expect to wait for up to two weeks for the product that they ordered to arrive!
Delivering in Southern Ontario & Toronto
In contrast, however, are areas such as the Greater Toronto Area. This area is well served by a number of carriers who can provide product deliveries in as little as 1 day. The type of service that is expected in Toronto is about the same that can be expected in large American cities, which is one day for most orders. Packages and parcels or average size can sometimes be delivered in even less time. Recently, the speed of delivery has even improved further, Evklogistics.ca can deliver packages in 100 minutes or less! A number of courier companies operate in the area that provide reliable services and allow for quick and easy delivery for on-line purchases, whether they are food, merchandise, or packages.
Challenges in the Industry
There has a variety of recent challenges however. One of these is managing the sometimes very large number of packages and orders that need to be delivered every single day. For that, many courier companies have turned to technology. Many of them have turned to real-time apps that can track drivers and help ensure that each package is labeled properly so that it gets to its destination on-time and more importantly, that it gets to the correct address! Another challenge is government regulation, because as delivery vehicles crowd the roads, governments are trying to do what they can to keep a lid on the congestion.
As we move forward with the emergence of technology, social media and people become even more dependent on online services to perform their every day tasks, it is imperative that courier companies adapt so they can provide the type of coverage and deliveries that Canadians expect across all the provinces.