Ontario Courier Service Provides Greener Alternative
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 10.16.06
Kingston, Ontario business owners Charles Lapointe and Isabelle Racine wanted their small package delivery service, Go Local Courier, to stand out from the other companies offering similar services in town. So, in addition to adopting a professional look often lacking in courier services, the couple decided to "green" their business by making their deliveries in sub-compact Toyota Echos. Now the company promises that it makes swift deliveries while burning 55% less gas than competitors:
It was actually an inexpensive launch as the company began with just three cars - two of them Toyota Echos, which sold for a base price of about $13,000 last year.The plan seems to be working -- after just over a year in business, Lapointe and Racine already have expansion on their mind: two more employees, and two more Echos. ::Business Edge NewsLapointe also had a local software developer design a dispatch-free system that avoided the need to hire a dispatcher and allowed customers to order deliveries on the company's website.
Each delivery car has an HP wireless pocket PC called an IPAQ that receives the orders. The company's drivers co-ordinate with one another over who delivers which packages to which addresses.
"We're not big enough yet that it becomes a headache," Lapointe quips.
Lapointe believes Go Local Courier may be the only courier company in North America using a dispatch-free system that can track orders and provide customers with online billing and paperless connectivity.
He also promotes Go Local Courier as Kingston's only green local courier service, in line with Natural Resources Canada guidelines.
Efficient cars are nice, but why not use bike messengers? My company switched couriers when our previous provider switched entirely to cars. Now we exclusively use bike messengers unless our package is so large it cannot be pedaled.
Nate -- You're right that there are greener options out there... that's part of the reason I chose to use "greener" instead of "green" in the title. I really can't comment on the feasibility of bike messengers/couriers in Kingston, as I don't know the city. If it's fairly centralized, bikes are a great option; if it's more sprawling, it might be harder to put that in place...
I live in Kingston, and see these cars darting around all the time here. There are bike messengers here in town, but they are not always the best way to get your packages around. the city is quite large geographically with pockets of business stretched out quite far. For the most part, cars are a little better to use around here if you are delivering across town. For the city centre bike couriers are much more effective and are quite heavily used by many businesses. The only sad part is that the major company that provides bike service, uses contracted drivers who supply their own cars. The cars are rather run down and are not the most green, so any credit you can give them for having bikes is pretty much washed away by the poorly maintained cars.
Bike messengers in Kingston work just fine. I ran a service for a few years in the 90s and then sold it. Not sure if it is still in operation, but we made alot of money.
I'm a bike courier who worked exclusively in Toronto for several years on and off,
I moved to London in the spring and have recently got my courier bike and bag from storage.
I saw two bike messengers here in london and came across your page while looking for work in london.
and in a smaller town, your right about in town or downtown work and the odd distance run.
I guess the distance or across town and boxes are better left to cars.
preferably hybreads.