Lingering damage to transport infrastructure in the wake of November storms could mean Christmas presents are stuck in warehouses rather than appearing under trees as courier companies and Canada Post deal with a massive backlog.
Couriers around the province have been scrambling to handle the backlog of parcels caught on either side of the devastating floods and mudslides that tore apart the province’s road system.
Al Hasham, owner of Maximum Express Courier in Victoria, recommends that people act now if they want presents to arrive before Dec. 25.
“If you’re trying to get anything out, you better do it now,” he said, adding the best option is to buy locally “and we’ll be able to look out for it and make sure it gets there.”
Hasham said courier companies are in many cases no longer offering guarantees that parcels that need to go beyond the Lower Mainland can get to their destinations within the next week.
“It’s about a four- to five-day delay,” he said, noting they are recommending anyone with time-sensitive parcels to send them by air.
Hasham said delays in shipping and delivery are the result of a perfect storm of factors — staffing shortages, natural disasters destroying Amazon distribution warehouses and a pandemic that has meant more things are being delivered than ever before — compounded by having major transportation routes severed between the Lower Mainland and Interior.
Purolator spokeswoman Courtney Reistetter said the company is doing what it can to process the increased volume as soon as possible.
She said they are moving shipments that would normally travel by ground to air transportation and extending shifts to allow for more time to process packages.
The heavy volume and limited access to ground-transportation mean shipments travelling by ground to, from and within B.C. are experiencing delivery delays of three to five days, she said. She also recommends air courier for time-sensitive shipments.
Courier giant UPS sent a note to clients this week saying full service had resumed in B.C., but warned it was dealing with a large backlog of parcels.
“As crews continue to open arteries into the province, service guarantees for all domestic services to, within and from the province remain suspended,” UPS said in a statement.
In a statement last week, Amazon said the vast majority of its network outside B.C. was operating normally, but some parts of the province would face shipping delays.
Hasham said last year it took until the end of January to catch up with the volume of packages, and he expects that will ring true again this year.
He expects this Christmas season to be as busy as last year, which was the busiest he had seen in 40 years.
He already has about 90 couriers on the road, the same as last year. During the rest of the year, he has about 40 on the payroll.
“Business is very good and a lot of people are shopping local, which is amazing,” he said.
Maximum Express partnered with the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce to provide a free shipping service to promote shopping locally during the holiday season. If you buy something from a business belonging to the chamber, Maximum Express will deliver it within the capital region.
Hasham said they probably break even on the program, as the chamber pays a discount rate, but he knows his customers appreciate it.
