Ottawa delivery company Trexity sees surge in business as postal woes drag on

“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.”

Canada Post workers to switch to rotating strikes

Mail delivery is set to resume on a limited basis after the union representing Canada Post employees announced it would transition from a countrywide strike to rotating stoppages starting Saturday morning.

The decision, announced late Thursday night, will get mail and parcels moving again, even as the Canadian Union of Postal Workers said rotating strikes will begin at 6 a.m. local time.

The move is helpful to small businesses that rely on the postal service, but still doesn’t provide the certainty they need, said Canadian Federation of Independent Business president Dan Kelly.

“CUPW’s strategy to push more customers away from Canada Post to more reliable alternatives was bizarre,” he said in a statement. “While it is good news to see some resumption of service, rotating strikes will mean continued uncertainty, backlogs, delayed deliveries and frustrated customers. We urge the government to bring a full end to the strike and press forward with their announced reforms as soon as possible.”

CUPW, which represents 55,000 members of the postal service, declared the countrywide strike on Sept. 25, hours after the federal government announced changes to Canada Post’s business model. That included the eventual end of door-to-door mail delivery for nearly all Canadian households.

Other government measures include an end to a moratorium on community mailbox conversions. That authorizes the mail carrier to convert the remaining four million addresses that still receive door-to-door delivery in a move that would save nearly $400 million annually.

The government also said it would end a moratorium on closing rural post offices that has been in place since 1994, covering close to 4,000 locations. It said closing some offices in regions that are no longer rural will reduce duplication in overserved areas.

Meanwhile, non-urgent mail will be cleared to move by ground instead of air, reflecting a decline in delivery volumes. Ottawa said this would save Canada Post more than $20 million per year.

—With files from The Canadian Press