The CEO of an Ottawa–based last-mile delivery company says, with the ongoing woes at Canada Post, more businesses than ever are abandoning the traditional carrier. “A lot of small to medium businesses and even the larger retailers we deal with have basically said, ‘I don’t think there is any going back for us,’ when it […]
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The CEO of an Ottawa–based last-mile delivery company says, with the ongoing woes at Canada Post, more businesses than ever are abandoning the traditional carrier.
“A lot of small to medium businesses and even the larger retailers we deal with have basically said, ‘I don’t think there is any going back for us,’ when it comes to using a legacy organization like that,” Alok Ahuja, CEO of Trexity, told OBJ Friday.
“We’re hearing a lot of what we heard back in December, which is that the trust is gone,” he added. Trexity operates in Ottawa and eight other cities across the country.
Ahuja said that companies that switched from Canada Post to Trexity after the first labour strike have stuck around and more have followed over the past few months. For many companies that were holding out, the second strike that began two weeks ago was the final straw.
“So many said they probably should’ve switched over to protect themselves, their business and their customers from this happening again, and here we are,” he said. “It’s less frustration and more this sentiment amongst retailers to say, ‘We should’ve known better. We shouldn’t have waited this long.’”
For Trexity, the surge in demand has allowed it to continue expanding into new cities and to establish partnerships with other delivery companies across North America to create its own network.
Now, with the holiday season about to kick off, Ahuja said the company is seeing a “massive uptick” in volume — about three to four times higher than last year and eight times higher than two years ago.
In the coming weeks, Trexity will be looking to establish a new consumer-to-consumer service to fill a growing gap in that market, he said.
“When Canadians are continuing to be left high and dry because of Canada Post they’re stranded, just like every other business,” said Ahuja. “So we’re going to step up and solve that gap.”
Ahuja noted that some Canadian businesses, including Trexity itself, still rely on Canada Post. But in coming years he expects the role of the Crown corporation to change.
“A Canadian postal service is important and it’s something we need as a country. Canada Post is (Trexity’s) provider for international shipments and they do an incredible job of it. However, when it comes to local delivery, it probably isn’t the best choice,” he said.
“There is an opportunity here on a global scale, for the entire world to look at Canada and say, ‘They figured it out.’ They took their legacy business, which does an incredible job moving things internationally, and realized the areas in which they’re not as strong. There were deficits and they filled that with great Canadian companies to build a great, consolidated postal solution. We can set the precedent.”
