Purolator and UPS have paused shipments from some courier companies as they try to work through a deluge of deliveries brought on by the Canada Post strike, creating even bigger backlogs at the height of the holiday shipping season.
“The Purolator network is currently experiencing service disruptions due to severe weather and a significant increase in volume,” the company said in an email.
It froze service for some partners this week, citing the need to ensure employee safety and “prioritize critical shipments.”
Alternative couriers such as eShipper and ShipTime act as middlemen between smaller e-commerce businesses and large carriers including Purolator and UPS. The couriers bundle packages sent by small businesses to secure lower rates than the mom-and-pop shops could get through individual orders with the big players.
Now, eShipper is among the companies temporarily barred from sending packages through UPS and the Canada Post-owned Purolator, affecting many of its 20,000-plus clients.
A notice sent from eShipper to clients and obtained by The Canadian Press says “no shipments will be processed or moved by these carriers” for 48 hours, starting Wednesday.
UPS did not respond to requests for comment.
Montreal-based Félix & Norton, an eShipper client that ships gourmet cookies across the country, says the cargo halt and broader postal strike fallout could cost the company its “whole holiday season.”
“This is absolutely insane and infuriating for everybody that doesn’t even use Canada Post,” chief operating officer Simon Paquin said, stressing the ripple effects of the strike. Most of Félix & Norton’s business relies on shipped cookies rather than baked goods bought in-store.
Big carriers such as Purolator, UPS, FedEx, Canpar and DHL are “not equipped” to pick up all the slack left by the Canada Post work stoppage, he said.
“They’re overloaded, I’m hearing, until after the holidays … We can’t even process orders anymore because there’s no shipping available.”
The bakery is scrambling to arrange alternate deliveries in Montreal and Toronto by last-mile carriers, which typically deliver packages from a shipping hub to the buyer’s doorstep.
“But let’s say you’ve got to deliver something in the north of Quebec, you just can’t anymore. So I will lose a lot of business for sure,” said Paquin.
Canada Post said Thursday it was reviewing new counter-proposals submitted by the union representing more than 55,000 postal employees, who walked off the job three weeks ago.