phantomcouriers-blog

[phantomcouriers-blog]

No Hassle E-commerce Returns

Any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there! Phantom Couriers | Mark Huggan http://www.phantomcouriers.com Ph: 604-899-5447  | Fax: 604-899-7904

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's best couriers and of course one of BC’s top 100 fastest growing companies, and we're talking delivery. How are you doing today, Mark? 

Mark: Excellent man. Had a great day. 

Mark: So, I had a friend, we're going to talk about no hassle e-commerce returns. I had a friend who actually called the courier to get some product returned to Amazon. What the heck? You guys do Amazon returns? 

Mark: Yeah. So you ordered something from Amazon and you're like, Oh, I was drinking, I didn't need this album, or these pants don't fit, or whatever. It's hard to get the credit sometimes with Amazon.

So we will pick it up from your residence, take it out to the Amazon fulfillment centres and walk it through the process for you. They will send you like a Canada Post return sticker, but we've had instances where like customers call us up and said, yeah, I did it. I did the return. Things go wrong, label gets ripped off, it goes to facility. The new employee of the week loses a package and you don't get your credit, and then they just think you're a satisfied customer. It just gets mixed. There's a, you know how many millions of packages a day, Amazon does in and out. And I tell ya, the lot of people order, and it seems like almost as many people are sending stuff back.

It's this incredible two way stream. So I really liked sending stuff back. It's great because I'm not under pressure to be like, you know, here's a million packages going. We don't know where they're going, but I'll come to your house and pick up your one package and take it out to Amazon because I know exactly what's going on.

Our guys keep in touch with us and we'll walk it through, get a name and signature and an RFA number or whatever. There's a symbol, RFS numbers, and then you'll get your credit and it's easily done. 

Mark: Well, you had me at Canada Post. 

Mark: They're not so bad. I mean, Canada Post is great enough. It's good enough. It does what it's supposed to do. Most of the time. I mean, like they're just, I know they work hard, but there's a way we can circumvent them and do a better job. No complaints with Canada Post. 

Mark: What about other manufacturers? Because there's certainly, Amazon is biggest, but they're not the only e-commerce.

Mark: No. And they're just sending other companies packages back and forth. So we had a Lulu Lemon the other day. It got returned out to a place in New Westminster. And of course, you know, I'm experienced in sending it there, but the new driver wasn't, and the customer wasn't. So with our team here, we just said, okay, look, there was like two, 400,000 square foot warehouses side by each full of semi-trucks. You don't know what door to go in. And you know, if you were just to drive out there on your own, you'd be like oh oh, and you'd be in front of trucks and being nervous and you're going to get crushed. But we're like, we know where it's going, so we can just zoom in on GPS and be like, listen, if you go to the grey door and like the yellow sign, you'll find it.

Boom. Done five seconds. But if we didn't contact them and didn't tell them our stuff, I could see that person driving around those two buildings in a figure eight until they just give up. And it's a confusing big place. I mean those centres are huge, fulfillment centres are huge. Everything we have these days comes in and gets fulfilled and it's a lot of traffic.

So beware. And use Phantom Couriers, because we will get it there hassle-free. Not free, but they're hassle free and make you feel good about it. So that's cool. 

Mark:  So there you go. If you need some returns of your product, e-commerce product, the guys to call are Phantom Couriers for no hassle e-commerce returns, they'll look after it for you.

Make sure it gets back there. You get credited. Call them at (604) 899-5447 and always remember 

Mark: That Phantom Couriers, any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there. 

Mark: Thanks, Mark. 

Mark: You betcha. Thank you.

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https://twitter.com/phantommark

https://vimeo.com/113250604

[phantomcouriers-blog]

Phantom Couriers Now Offering E-commerce Deliveries To The USA

Any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there! Phantom Couriers | Mark Huggan http://www.phantomcouriers.com Ph: 604-899-5447  | Fax: 604-899-7904

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.

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[phantomcouriers-blog]

Phantom Couriers - Bike Couriers

Any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there! Phantom Couriers | Mark Huggan http://www.phantomcouriers.com Ph: 604-899-5447  | Fax: 604-899-7904

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan, the phantom from Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's favourite and best courier service. How're you doing today Mark?

Mark: Totally excellent, how are you?

Mark: I'm good man. So bike couriers, we're going to talk about today. Do bike couriers still exist?

Mark: My favourite topic. Of course they do. Like of course, they're everywhere. They're... well I see them everyday because I'm a courier company, but there's just hundreds of them world wide and it's a growing industry.

Mark: What does a bike courier do?

Mark: Every single thing. Everything, like in the day to day business world, we're delivering documents and rolls, and cheques, and standing in line and doing banking, returning cell phones, delivering medicine. And in the evenings, they're delivering food. Tons of Amazon, contact lenses, engagement rings. Getting things done back and forth all day high speed. You know, just rocking it out hard. Lots of deliveries.

Just our regular service, you know, regular call ups, last week there was 500 regular, just get a bike messenger, downtown. And hundreds of different ones like directs and returns and economy's and one hours, but just the 2 hour regular envelope, we had almost 500, 487. Just envelopes. Then everything else.

Mark: And that's just in little old Vancouver.

Mark: I know, and it's a small downtown. But that's downtown. But our bikers go super far, so those numbers I gave you don't present the true number because they take car trips too. That was just bike work, just strict bike envelope.

Mark: So any difference between a bike messenger and a bike courier?

Mark: No, it's just the word. United States is messenger even though the french for courier is messenger. It's just we adopted the word courier. But couriers are better, take it from me, a Canadian.

Mark: How much do bike couriers make?

Mark: Millions of dollars, it's the best job ever. Like our top guys make about 200 bucks a day and it goes down from there. A guy who starts is going to make 15 bucks an hour, is our minimum. It's a you'll make this. It's an entry level job and then if you want to rock it out, you can go hard and make more. And they certainly do, they impress me everyday.

Mark: So why do bike messengers or bike couriers, why do they ride a fixie? What is a fixie?

Mark: So a fixie is like a direct drive, single speed bike. You peddle and you go. Don't ever think you're going to coast or you'll just get hucked over the front of the bike. They're low maintenance, they're fun to ride, they go wicked fast and it's like skiing or skateboarding, you skid around corners. It just gives you more control and they're just super fun. They come from like the velodrome. They're not exactly built for couriering but people rock them out hard and they're super fun to ride.

Mark: So how is this job evolving?

Mark: Well, as I sort of talked about food delivery at night, you see Foodora and Door Dash and Uber Eats and in any downtown core environment, the traffic's a mess. Things got to happen. It's not just the business community that uses bike messengers, it's everybody, because they're a quick on demand solution to I got to be in two places at once. What the hell am I going to do?

We'll come and meet you in a cafe, pick up your stuff and get it somewhere else or bring something to you that you forgot in minutes. And we're more on demand than ever. It's awesome. I remember when they said the fax machine will kill the business. Well that cargo bike delivered a fax machine, so ha-ha, it didn't happen.

Mark: So is that part of what's evolving is the actual bikes themselves are changing, evolving?

Mark: Yeah, well you know, you've got your fast guy downtown just dropping off documents with that fixed gear and then you've got cargo bikes like that one behind us taking up to 400lbs of whatever you're throwing at us. Every bike has got a rack on the front. So they're all putting boxes on them because it's just such a congested environment, we need to roll out. Whatever arrives by Amazon might not be staying in one spot. We've got to go move it around. We go to Microsoft all the time to pick up stuff, take it out to other places. Doing last mile on a bike is you just show up, you never know what you're going to pick up. So freight is a big thing for those guys. Big bags. big.

Mark: So you're saying that it's not only limited to the downtown core, what kind of stuff is going out a little bit further?

Mark: Oh everything. So our guys go from, in Vancouver, from the PNE to UBC, up to 41st by bike, on the rig, all the time. Like today, one guy delivered contact lenses from Clearly Contacts. He picked them up at the Renfrew skytrain station and went all the way out to UBC. He dropped off like 30 of them. So small boxes and he did a big run to residents like that. Otherwise we're up on the south side, Broadway corridor, from all the architect firms picking up rolls, dropping stuff off. Manufacturing, Granville Island. It's pretty unlimited what we'll pick up. Nothing's too crazy. We'll pick it up.

Mark: And what kind of mileage do they do in a day?

Mark: Yeah, 50k for us is like a slow day. Like they all have Garmin on their phones and "I only did 50kilometres today". Some guys ride in super far, other guys just go really far. We go over the bridges, we'll sea bus to North Van, drop off packages because the price is right.

Mark: So there you go. Bike couriers. If you're looking for fast delivery for all kinds of stuff as you heard. Everything from picking up cheques to standing in line at the bank and waiting at the Immigration office. These guys do it all. Phantom Couriers 604-899-5447 to book your courier and they'll look after you. Thanks a lot Mark.

Mark: Like you said, Any Package Anywhere, Phantom Couriers Gets It There man.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhuggan

https://twitter.com/phantommark

https://vimeo.com/113250604

[phantomcouriers-blog]

One Day Shipping Delivery FAQ’s

Any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there! Phantom Couriers | Mark Huggan http://www.phantomcouriers.com Ph: 604-899-5447  | Fax: 604-899-7904

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's favourite courier company and we're going to talk about one day shipping FAQ's. How you doing today Mark?

Mark: Doing good yeah. Everybody's favourite, all the time, they love us. Well you know, next day shipping is super popular with us and we try to make it as easy as we can. So fire some frequently asked questions and I'll give you some frequently given answers. How's that sound?

Mark: Sounds wonderful. So how much does one day shipping cost?

Mark: So we do a flat rate for Canada. So say you wanted Vancouver to Toronto. We would do it for a regular envelop starting at $37 and then it could be a little less or a little more depending on it it's a little or big package or a little further away or rural areas. But most major cities. So pretty simple flat rate keeps it simple.

Mark: So how does next day delivery work?

Mark: Yeah, call us or you just use our app and you order the trip. We'll send a courier to pick it up. We bring it here. We'll manifest it, make sure it gets down to the airport, put on a jet and we'll track and trace it for you. So proactively you don't have to think about it. Once it's gone, once you've ordered it, stop thinking. We will do address corrections, all sorts of you know, right down to the delivery and then we send you a proof of delivery email. It's so simple.

Mark: That sounds awesome. So what's the cutoff time for next day delivery?

Mark: Yeah cutoff time, right. I want them here by 3 o'clock. So a lot of people call us, they're like.. "Oh, I thought you said call us by 3." We will hustle but really, we need to have it here by 3, get everything properly done and back to the airport. So 3 o'clock is our cutoff but we're pretty, we try to be flexible. And no it's not a perfect world. International, it needs to be here by 2 because there's usually customs docs or something that goes with it if it's going out of the country.

Mark: Of course and you guys are still working on that time warp thing.

Mark: Yeah got it under control. You know, I've been testing myself lately - I just got back and stuff like that. We also do like overnight to the Island and same day, so like on demand. A lot of people forget about that. They might just like Purolator it but a similar cost we could fly it over. So the Island's not cheap. It's cheaper to go to Toronto sometimes that Vancouver Island. So we can go same day for $65 or $37.40 for overnight. Same easiness.

Mark: And is it next day, overnight - is it the same type of deadline time deadlines?

Mark: Yeah. Most businesses get their stuff by like between 10:00 and 12:00. They're dropping all day but you could say generally between 10:00 and 12:00. Any residential areas outside the downtown or metropolis, it'll be by end of day because there's a lot more ground to cover. Any rural ares or suburban areas, they're going to go by end of day.

Mark: So there you go. The guys to see if you have a package to ship next day in Vancouver, Phantom Couriers. You can reach them at 604-899-5447. They're always working. Mark's crazy. He just want to deliver your stuff right now.

Mark: I'm not leaving until you call. For sure Mark. Yeah thanks man it's been a great interview.

Mark: bye

Mark: See you.

[phantomcouriers-blog]

Phantom Couriers - International Shipping Part 2

Any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there! Phantom Couriers | Mark Huggan http://www.phantomcouriers.com Ph: 604-899-5447  | Fax: 604-899-7904

https://www.facebook.com/VancouverCouriers/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhuggan

https://twitter.com/phantommark

https://vimeo.com/113250604

[phantomcouriers-blog]

Phantom Couriers International Shipping FAQ’s

Any package anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there! Phantom Couriers | Mark Huggan http://www.phantomcouriers.com Ph: 604-899-5447  | Fax: 604-899-7904

https://www.facebook.com/VancouverCouriers/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhuggan

https://twitter.com/phantommark

https://vimeo.com/113250604

[phantomcouriers-blog]

http://phantomcouriers.com         (604) 899-5447

 Mark:   Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local Lead Generation, we’re here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver, they’re Vancouver’s best phantom courier, they’re Vancouver’s best courier’s period.  How‘re you doing today Mark?

 Mark:  Pretty good, excellent, thank you.

Mark:  So we’re going to talk a little bit about the history of Phantom, kind of our first broadcast on talking about the Phantom.  What’s the history and what do you guys do?

Mark:  Well the history is that I started off as an independent bike messenger, it was like a part time temporary thing and after about eight hours I’s hey this is better than anything I’ve ever done before so I was obviously working for another company called International Parcel Service, the owner was a cool guy and I said I’m going to quit, I’ve got to start may own company and he said well that’s fine, then he called me up half an hour later and said let me be your biggest client so I’m just zooming around making friends, walking through doors and that’s like it just took off and I want, it was super simple, I went to a Kinko’s one day, put out a flyer and the pagers started ringing and just everywhere I went people seemed to have a need to get things done quick and fast, no confusion so I found a niche, it kept it busy, it was super creative and I had a lot of fun so that’s the basic start of it.  It started in 1996 and I haven’t looked back since, it’s been full bore since we started, got a huge awesome crew now and everybody likes it.

Mark:  So what’s different about what you guys do right now?

Mark:  I just think that all courier companies are the same and it’s just each company’s a different flavour and I think our flavours, people like it more, it’s a lot, it’s really simple to join up as a client and basically nobody wants to let anybody down, that’s the basic thing, nobody likes being in trouble and everyone likes it when you solve a problem so if you’re a problem solver you’re always getting a pat on the back and a thank you and I think our crew’s made up of problem solvers and it’s almost like everybody who works at that is an entrepreneur and they’re always in startup mode and they’re always wanted to please and they’re like I can do this, so I think maybe that’s our, our secret right now.

Mark:  And what kind of plans do you have for the future?

Mark:  Well of course everybody’s concerned about, there’s lots of concerns and courier peoples often throw out like they’re fossil fuel users but really we take cars off the road every day, you know, a company could send out five employees to do things or you can call Phantom Couriers and we can do ten things with two people and that’s something we really monitor and our efficiency is something that our, we have a huge technological side at the office and it’s all about efficiency so we’re always doing route planning which is efficient, you know, everyone gets on Google Maps like how can I get to the markets sooner but we do it with like how can we get to   15 different businesses faster so by using super good technology gps tracking and all of our drivers and awesome communication, that seems to be better for the environment and better fuel efficiency, better for profits for us and less expense for drivers and company and we’re also moving into more EV Vehicles so we’ve been investigating which ones we want to buy and where we’re going to start so EV is basically where we’re heading in the future.  We’ve got our plan rolling out and plans starting at end of the summer so I’m looking forward to 2017 as being a better year for us with EV Vehicles.

Mark: Awesome, so if you’re looking for the most reliable courier company, guys who just get it done period, their motto is “Any package, anywhere, Phantom Couriers gets it there” and they’ve got some amazing stories, look forward to some incredible things that they’ve pulled off.  These guys you can call them in Vancouver 604-899-5447 or check out their website, you can book everything right there phantomcouriers.com.  Thanks a lot Mark.

Mark: Excellent Mark, thank you.

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[phantomcouriers-blog]

www.phantomcouriers.com 604-899-5447 Phantom Couriers is Vancouver’s oldest independent courier service. We are also the fastest courier service in Vancouver. You need your deliveries to get to their destination on time and we can do that - every time. Envelopes to containers, we can do it all.

[phantomcouriers-blog]

www.phantomcouriers.com 604-899-5447 Phantom Couriers is 100% locally owned and operated in Vancouver, BC. The owner is also the dispatcher, meaning he is hands on and knows what’s going on at all times. Constant communication is the keystone to our success. Our quality customer service and online ordering and tracking keeps clients loyal to us. We offer bike and car delivery service anywhere in Metro Vancouver. Any package anywhere, Phantom Courier gets it there!