challenges facing express delivery services in canada's urban centres

CHALLENGES 

FACING EXPRESS 

DELIVERY SERVICES IN 

CANADA’S URBAN 

CENTRES 

Ryerson 

University 

Institute of Housing & Mobility 

Ted Rogers School of Management 

350 Victoria Street 

(Street entrance: 55 Dundas Street West) 

Toronto, Ontario Canada M5B 2K3 

Tel: 416.979.5000 x 2480, Fax: 416.979.5324 

Email: murtaza.haider@ryerson.ca 

September 16, 2009


Challenges facing the EDS industry in Canada's urban centres 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................................... II 

LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................................. III 

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................................ IV 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ V 

COMPOSITION OF THE PROJECT TEAM ............................................................................................................... V 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................................... VI 

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................. 1 

CHALLENGE .................................................................................................................................................................. 1 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................... 2 

EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES IN CANADA ........................................................................................................... 4 

EDS IN CANADA ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 

INDUSTRY MAKE UP ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE ............................................................................................................................................... 5 

A SNAPSHOT OF THE COURIERS INDUSTRY IN 2005 ............................................................................................................... 7 

Difference in business models .............................................................................................................................. 9 

Performance Indicators by firm size ................................................................................................................... 11 

Fleet mix ............................................................................................................................................................. 14 

MAJOR CHALLENGES FACED BY THE INDUSTRY IN CANADA .................................................................................................... 15 

REVIEW OF URBAN TRANSPORT PLANS ............................................................................................................. 17 

VANCOUVER ............................................................................................................................................................... 18 

CALGARY .................................................................................................................................................................... 18 

EDMONTON ................................................................................................................................................................ 18 

WINNIPEG .................................................................................................................................................................. 19 

HAMILTON ................................................................................................................................................................. 19 

TORONTO ................................................................................................................................................................... 19 

OTTAWA .................................................................................................................................................................... 19 

MONTRÉAL ................................................................................................................................................................. 20 

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................................... 20 

CONCLUSIONS FROM REVIEW OF TRANSPORT PLANS ............................................................................................................ 21 

INTERVIEWING COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MANAGERS IN TORONTO .................................................................. 23 

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND.................................................................................................................................. 23 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................ 23 

Survey sites ......................................................................................................................................................... 25 

PROPERTY MANAGER SURVEYS ....................................................................................................................................... 29 

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Survey questionnaire .......................................................................................................................................... 29 

Response to questions ........................................................................................................................................ 30 

Site visits and findings ........................................................................................................................................ 32 

BEST PRACTICES ........................................................................................................................................................... 35 

CHALLENGES IN EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES ..................................................................................................................... 38 

INNOVATION IN PRACTICE .............................................................................................................................................. 39 

AWARENESS ISSUES AMONGST COURIERS .......................................................................................................................... 40 

HARD TO PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH ............................................................................................................................ 40 

ANALYSIS OF PACKAGE DELIVERY DATA ............................................................................................................ 43 

METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................................... 43 

RESULTS FROM SPATIAL ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................... 44 

OVERLAYING PARKING TICKETS WITH DELIVERY DATA ........................................................................................................... 52 

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................................... 54 

APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................................... 57 

APPENDIX 1: LITERATURE REVIEW OF URBAN LOGISTICS STRATEGIES ...................................................................................... 57 

DEFINING URBAN FREIGHT ............................................................................................................................................ 57 

Couriers and express delivery logistics ............................................................................................................... 57 

LTL freight comprising consumer durables and B2B logistics............................................................................. 58 

CHALLENGES OF URBAN FREIGHT AND LOGISTICS ................................................................................................................ 58 

STRATEGIES TO REDUCE IMPACT OF FREIGHT ON CONGESTION ............................................................................................... 58 

City Logistics from Germany .............................................................................................................................. 59 

Off‐peak delivery mechanisms ........................................................................................................................... 59 

Small‐sized trucks ............................................................................................................................................... 59 

Urban freight consolidation centres ................................................................................................................... 60 

SHORTCOMINGS OF ABOVE‐MENTIONED STRATEGIES .......................................................................................................... 60 

CONCLUDING COMMENTS FROM LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................... 61 

Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................................... 63 

APPENDIX 2: URBAN/TRANSPORTATION PLANNER SURVEY FORM ......................................................................................... 64 

APPENDIX 3: LETTER TO PROPERTY MANAGERS REQUESTING ASSISTANCE ................................................................................ 66 

LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE 1: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR CANADA ...................................................................................... 5 

TABLE 2: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR ONTARIO ..................................................................................... 6 

TABLE 3: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR QUEBEC ...................................................................................... 6 

TABLE 4: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA ....................................................................... 7 

TABLE 5: DIFFERENCES IN REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE BETWEEN COURIERS AND SAME DAY MESSENGERS .......................................... 11 

TABLE 6: DIFFERENCE IN EXPENDITURES BETWEEN COURIERS AND SAME DAY MESSENGERS ............................................................. 11 

TABLE 7: KEY INDICATORS FOR DIFFERENT‐SIZED ESTABLISHMENTS ............................................................................................. 12 

TABLE 8: KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR FIRMS GENERATING MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN REVENUE ........................................... 12 

TABLE 9: FLEET STRUCTURE OF FIRMS GENERATING MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN REVENUE ............................................................... 15 

TABLE 10: COMMERCIAL/COURIER ISSUES IN CANADIAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANS ................................................... 21 

TABLE 11: LIST OF SURVEYED PROPERTIES.............................................................................................................................. 26 

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TABLE 12: NUMBER OF DAILY DELIVERIES MADE TO THE STUDY AREA IN DOWNTOWN TORONTO ...................................................... 48 

TABLE 13: DISTRIBUTION IN DELIVERY VOLUME FOR THE FOUR MONTHS BY DAY OF WEEK ............................................................... 53 

TABLE 14: NUMBER OF PACKAGES PER DELIVERY .................................................................................................................... 53 

LIST OF FIGURES 

FIGURE 1: RAPID INCREASE IN PARKING FINES PAID BY THE EDS IN TORONTO ................................................................................... 2 

FIGURE 2: A BREAKDOWN OF ESTABLISHMENTS BY PROVINCE ...................................................................................................... 8 

FIGURE 3: A BREAKDOWN OF OPERATING REVENUE BY PROVINCE ................................................................................................. 9 

FIGURE 4: A BREAKDOWN OF MARKET SHARE BY PROVINCE ....................................................................................................... 10 

FIGURE 5: A BREAKDOWN OF OPERATING REVENUE PER ESTABLISHMENT BY PROVINCE ................................................................... 10 

FIGURE 6: BREAKDOWN OF PACKAGES/PIECES BY SHIPMENT ORIGIN ........................................................................................... 14 

FIGURE 7: BREAKDOWN OF PACKAGES/PIECES BY SHIPMENT DESTINATION ................................................................................... 14 

FIGURE 8: TRANSPORT PLANNERS CONSIDER COURIERS OUT OF THEIR PLANNING MANDATE ............................................................ 17 

FIGURE 9: MAP OF LOCATION OF SURVEYED BUILDINGS ............................................................................................................ 28 

FIGURE 10: BREAKDOWN OF SIZES OF BUILDINGS .................................................................................................................... 29 

FIGURE 11: DISTRIBUTION OF TENANTS RECEIVING DELIVERIES................................................................................................... 30 

FIGURE 12: DELIVERIES PER TENANT ..................................................................................................................................... 31 

FIGURE 13: LOADING AREA FOR COURIERS AT TD CENTRE OFF WELLINGTON STREET ..................................................................... 33 

FIGURE 14: COURIER VEHICLE UTILIZING LOADING DOCK AT SIMCOE PLACE .................................................................................. 35 

FIGURE 15: DESIGNATED PARKING SPOTS FOR COURIERS AT 207 QUEENS QUAY WEST .................................................................. 36 

FIGURE 16: DEDICATED COURIER SPACE IN UNDERGROUND FACILITY AT 2 QUEEN STREET EAST ....................................................... 37 

FIGURE 17: SMALL LOADING ZONES FOR SMALLER VEHICLES ...................................................................................................... 37 

FIGURE 18: COMMERCIAL VEHICLES QUEUED UP OUTSIDE OF 105 ADELAIDE STREET WEST ............................................................ 38 

FIGURE 19: POOR SIGNAGE CONCEALS RECEIVING AREA AT 2 BLOOR STREET EAST ........................................................................ 39 

FIGURE 20: DESIGNATED, YET PROTECTED, LOADING AREA AT REAR ENTRANCE OF 40 UNIVERSITY AVENUE........................................ 40 

FIGURE 21: ILLEGALLY PARKED VEHICLES IN THE LOADING ZONE IN FRONT OF 70 CENTRE STREET ..................................................... 41 

FIGURE 22: COURIER TRUCK USING PARKING FACILITIES AT 70 YORK STREET ................................................................................ 42 

FIGURE 23: COURIER TRUCK PARKED ON‐STREET AT 70 YORK STREET ......................................................................................... 42 

FIGURE 24: STUDY AREA SHOWING THE TRAFFIC ANALYSIS ZONES (TAZS) IN DOWNTOWN TORONTO ............................................... 44 

FIGURE 25: SPATIAL CONCENTRATION OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE STUDY AREA ................................................................................ 45 

FIGURE 26: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYMENT DENSITY IN THE STUDY AREA ......................................................................... 46 

FIGURE 27: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DELIVERIES AGGREGATED AT THE POSTAL CODE LEVEL ........................................................... 46 

FIGURE 28: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN APRIL 2007 ...................................................................................... 49 

FIGURE 29: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN JUNE 2007 ....................................................................................... 49 

FIGURE 30: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN SEPTEMBER 2007 .............................................................................. 50 

FIGURE 31: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN DECEMBER 2007 ............................................................................... 50 

FIGURE 32: DELIVERY DATA DENSITY IN STUDY AREA ................................................................................................................ 51 

FIGURE 33: OVERLAYING PARKING TICKET DATA WITH DELIVERY DATA ......................................................................................... 52 

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The project team would like to express its gratitude to the individuals who have made this report 

possible. Mr. David Turnbull, president of the Canadian Courier and Logistics Association is 

recognized for providing the opportunity to undertake this very interesting project. Mr. Phil 

Cahley is recognized for providing valuable insights and contacts, which made the task of analysis 

and research much easier. Mr. Gary Breininger assisted the project team with developing 

estimates for market shares. Without his insights, it would have been almost impossible to 

determine market shares for local-level deliveries. 

The project team is also grateful to the representatives of the CCLA who met with the team 

multiple times to provide assistance and later help with acquiring data, which became the focus of 

this research. 

The project team would also like to express its deep gratitude to property managers in downtown 

Toronto who participated in the survey and provided valuable insights. 

The project team is also grateful to The Toronto Star for providing data on parking tickets issued 

in Toronto for 2008. 

COMPOSITION OF THE PROJECT TEAM 

The project a team was headed by Professor Murtaza Haider of the Ted Rogers School of 

Management. He was assisted by the following: 

Ms. Lindsay Lalonde: coordination and planning. 

Mr. Mateen Mehboubi: literature review, survey of property managers, and site visits. 

Mr. Christopher Livett: review of transportation plans, spatial analysis of CCLA data. 

Mr. Derick Spenard: review of freight planning policies. 

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

On any given day, couriers and same day messengers deliver 2.2 million packages to businesses 

and households in Canada. From vital time-sensitive deliveries to hospitals to the delivery of 

flowers and gifts to family and friends, the Express Delivery Service (EDS) industry in Canada is 

helping to move the economy and strengthen the social fabric by delivering packages and 

parcels on time. 

The EDS industry in Canada employs 50,000 workers and contributes approximately $8 billion to 

the Canadian economy. The EDS industry, along with the developments in Communication and 

Information Technology has in fact made globalization possible. The EDS industry accounts for 2.8 

million jobs globally and contributes $80 billion to the global GDP. 

Despite the important role played by EDS in economic growth and social cohesion, the industry 

continues to struggle for recognition for its contribution in enabling a globalized economy. Instead 

of being facilitated by planning authorities, the EDS industry faces censures and parking fines as 

it strives to deliver time-sensitive material to the consignees who generate value and wealth in 

Canada. 

With the economic downturn, couriers and same day messengers are facing additional challenges 

resulting from a decline in revenue and the increase in costs. Given the very thin operating 

margins, EDS industry is extremely sensitive to the variation in operating costs. In addition to the 

uncertainty in costs arising from changes in fuel cost, EDS industry incurs huge penalties running 

into millions of dollars in parking fines. 

Given that couriers and same day messengers are serving the same businesses in the urban core 

that are being served by public transit agencies, it is indeed surprising to see that infrastructure 

such as bus bays and streetcar stops are ubiquitous, whereas designated parking spots for 

couriers and same-day messengers are almost nonexistent. 

Furthermore, municipal governments have considered plans to restrict access to downtown to 

certain hours at night for couriers and same day messengers. These plans are motivated by the 

desire to improve traffic flow in downtowns. However, local governments are not considering the 

adverse impact of restricting access to time sensitive material on businesses located in the urban 

core. 

Given the nature of their business, in which each second counts, couriers and same day messengers 

spend no more than a few minutes at each delivery stop. Therefore, unlike large freight vehicles, 

couriers and same-day messengers cannot stay efficient if they were to search for parking spots 

or wait for their turn at loading docks. In the age of Blackberries and iPhones, the spectre of 

couriers waiting at loading docks would be similar to one waiting in a queue to send an e-mail at 

the post office. 

This report has therefore been prepared for policymakers, media, and the general public to: 

1. document the scope and contribution of EDS to the Canadian economy, 

2. ascertain potential impediments to efficient deliveries in urban cores, 

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3. identify any conflicts between a city’s desires to promote business growth with regulation, 

policy, facilitation, and enforcement, 

4. review parking regulation, administration, enforcement, and penalties, and 

5. provide recommendations for practical short-term and longer-term solutions to urban 

mobility challenges faced by EDS in Canada. 

Based on the review of responses received from various stakeholders involved in the EDS industry, 

namely couriers and same day messengers, municipal planners, property managers, as well as 

detailed spatial analysis of express deliveries in downtown Toronto, this report makes the 

following assertions: 

1. A detailed survey of streets in downtown Toronto and a select list of commercial buildings 

revealed that there is an inadequate supply of necessary infrastructure required for the 

EDS industry so that it could deliver packages and parcels to consignees in an efficient 

manner without disrupting the traffic. 

2. A review of academic and professional literature revealed that only a handful of 

publications have analyzed operations of couriers and same day messengers. The review 

of available literature suggests that there is no silver bullet for reducing congestion in the 

urban core. The review of policies adopted in other jurisdictions, including Europe, 

revealed limited success in reducing congestion. Furthermore, given the differences in built 

form and the transportation infrastructure, European strategies for the EDS industry are 

not likely to meet with success in North America. 

3. A review of transport plans in large Canadian cities revealed that most transport plans 

did not contain either explicit or implicit mention of couriers and same day messengers. 

Most transport plans are focused on passenger transportation, with limited or no mention 

of freight transportation in general and the EDS industry in particular. 

4. An extensive spatial analysis of deliveries made by the EDS industry to a segment of 

downtown Toronto revealed that 80,000 packages and parcels were delivered on a 

given day. 

5. Interviews with property managers in downtown Toronto also revealed a lack of 

awareness and understanding of the EDS industry. It was also learnt that most property 

managers were not disposed to providing any dedicated space or service to couriers or 

same-day messengers as a value-added service to their tenants. 

Based on the analysis conducted, this study recommends the following: 

1. The municipal transport authorities should improve their understanding and planning of 

freight transportation in general, and couriers and same day messenger services in 

particular, in order to be better prepared for regulating mixed modes of traffic in large 

urban centres in Canada. 

2. The municipal transport agencies should include freight and logistics planning as part of 

their mandates, requiring transport planners to conduct studies focusing on freight and 

logistics as well as express deliveries. 

3. Since no explicit infrastructure is provided for couriers and same-day messengers to park 

their vehicles, municipal transport planning authorities should consider undertaking studies 

to provide dedicated parking facilities, examples of which have been presented in this 

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report. Parking bays similar to the ones provided for buses in downtowns across Canada 

should be considered for couriers and same-day messengers as their vehicles stop for 

short periods. 

4. The methodology of issuing parking tickets to couriers and same-day messengers and the 

resulting administrative costs incurred by both the couriers and the city should be 

reviewed. The ultimate objective is to reduce the administrative costs for issuing and 

administering tickets for both parties. Alternatives should be investigated including but not 

limited to dedicated parking facilities, potentially supported by user fees or adjustment 

by streamlining the existing rescinding program. The planning authorities should not treat 

couriers and same-day messengers as merely traffic violators but instead treat the EDS 

industry as value-added service providers. 

5. Technological solutions exist today where Canadian companies have come up with 

advanced GPS solutions that not only facilitate route guidance, but could also serve to 

implement a completely automated system of enforcing user fees. The proposed system 

would use GPS-enabled vehicles to automatically account for user fees for parking in 

designated spots within the downtown and automatically transfer fees to the municipal 

authorities using state-of-the-art wireless communications. Such advanced systems would 

help reduce cost of administering parking as well as improving efficiencies and 

productivity for the city. These user fee regimes could be designed to be demand 

responsive to encourage couriers to pay less by parking on streets with less traffic volume 

during off peak periods. 

6. Couriers and same-day messengers should encourage drivers to park in designated spots 

whenever they are available. 

7. Buildings to be encouraged to offer reasonable drop off and loading facilities. The 

buildings are the indirect beneficiaries of efficient deliveries. This could be applied to 

older buildings as well, given criteria and time for implementation. All new buildings 

should conform to loading bay and drop off regulations. 

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Challenges facing couriers and same-day messengers in Canada 

INTRODUCTION 

Classical economic theory suggests that the three key factors of production are labour, land, and 

capital. These factors were deemed sufficient for producing goods and services until the 

emergence of communication and information technologies (CIT). The modern means of 

communication have changed the way business is being conducted. From telephone and telexes 

for most of the 20th century, faxes in the 80s, e-mail in the 90s, and web conferencing today, 

businesses have readily adopted a host of technologies to improve communication with various 

stakeholders. 

Despite the technological advances, there has been no shortage of demand for paper-based 

communications. The forecasts of paper-based communication becoming obsolete after the 

emergence of e-mail have ultimately proven false. In fact, public and private sector couriers are 

carrying more documents and packages today than they did before the emergence of e-mail. 

The fact remains that as economies and populations grow around the world, the volume of letters 

and parcels also increase. Moreover, globalization and integration of economies, as well as 

advances in logistics, supply chain management, and just-in-time delivery systems have also 

contributed to the growth in volume and distances traveled by letters and parcels. The efficient 

movement of these shipments depend on express delivery services (EDS), consisting of courier and 

same-day delivery businesses. 

This report has been prepared for policymakers, media, and the general public to: 








Challenge 

While different tiers of governments have made significant efforts to ensure that businesses enjoy 

ready access to labour, the same has not been repeated for other necessary factors of 

production, such as letters and parcels. Massive investments in public transit systems and highways 

make it possible for millions of workers to commute to work each day. Subway and streetcar 

stops, bus stops and bus bays facilitate access to work destinations for millions of workers. 

While billions of dollars are routinely spent to create new transit services including bus stops and 

bus bays to bring workers to businesses, ironically efforts are being made to restrict commercial 

vehicles’ access to the same businesses. In the absence of finding creative urban design and 

technological solutions to facilitate delivery of letters and parcels to businesses, the current 

practice is to penalize express delivery vehicles by imposing fines and penalties. It is therefore 

no surprise that in 2006 in the City of Toronto alone, FedEx, United Parcel Service, and Purolator 

were fined $1.5 million for a total of 33,700 parking tickets. It is estimated that FedEx, United 

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Parcel Service, and Purolator accounted for more than 1.3% of the total parking revenue 

generated by the City of Toronto in 2006. 

There has been a significant increase in the number of parking fines and the amounts paid by the 

EDS since 2006. Based on the parking fine data reviewed for this report, our conservative 

estimate puts the increase in the parking fines since 2006 at 70% in 2009. This suggests that 

FedEx, United Parcel Service, and Purolator are expected to pay $2.5 million in parking fines in 

2009 in Toronto (Figure 1). Other couriers in Toronto would pay millions more in parking fines. 

Furthermore, couriers also pay large amounts in fine in other large cities in Canada. 

FIGURE 1: RAPID INCREASE IN PARKING FINES PAID BY THE EDS IN TORONTO 

The courier and logistics industry in Canada generated an estimated $7.8 billion in revenues in 

2006, while delivering on average 2.4 million packages/parcels each day. Businesses across 

Canada rely on such deliveries to compete globally, and in the process these businesses contribute 

to the Canadian economy and to the welfare of Canadians. 

The underlying challenge therefore is to find an environmentally sustainable solution to alleviate 

and minimise traffic congestion in urban Canada, resulting from a lack of ready availability of 

dedicated facilities and infrastructure for express delivery vehicles. 

This report is organized as follows. The discussion opens with a review of finances and market 

segmentation of the couriers and same-day messengers industry in Canada. The focus is primarily 

on the breadth and scope of activity measured in terms of revenue earned and packages/parcels 

delivered. 

Research methodology 

The project team devised the methodology using the stakeholder approach. It was decided that 

the key stakeholders involved with and related to the EDS industry would be studied and 

surveyed. The following stakeholders were identified: 

1. Couriers and same-day messengers (suppliers) 

2. Urban transport planners (regulators) 

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3. Commercial property managers and their tenants (demand originators) 

4. Commuters (drivers, pedestrians, transit users) 

The project team, given the limited budget and timeframe, focussed on the first three stakeholders 

by analysing their needs and apprehensions. This was accomplished through direct interviews 

(wherever possible), data collection, and review of published material. Following is a breakdown 

of the methodology used in this analysis. 

1. Develop a snapshot of the EDS industry in Canada by reviewing its financial and other 

operational details. 

2. Conduct a literature review of academic publications and government documents from 

North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific to identify strategies to regulate and facilitate 

traffic movements in general and movement of express delivery vehicles in particular in 

urban centres. 

a. The literature review focused on regulatory initiatives as well as urban design 

strategies to facilitate movement of commercial vehicles in urban centres. 

3. Review measures, taken by Canadian cities to address traffic congestion in general and 

congestion related with vehicles operated by couriers and same-day messengers. 

4. Undertake a detailed spatial analysis of couriers' data on pickup and delivery by 

focussing on downtown Toronto to determine the demand for couriers and same day 

messengers services. This process consists of the following: 

a. Collect data by postal codes on deliveries to downtown by participating couriers 

and same day messengers. 

b. Geo-code the data using geographic information systems. 

c. Analyze data and prepare colour thematic maps. 

5. Interview property managers in downtown Toronto to determine the issues related to the 

delivery of packages, parcels and letters to tenants in their respective buildings. 

6. Conduct detailed site visits of the buildings whose property managers were interviewed in 

the previous step to develop site-specific insights. 

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EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES IN CANADA 

The Express Delivery Services (EDS) in Canada is part of a global industry that supports 2.7 

million jobs and contributes $80 billion to the global GDP (Oxford Economics, 2009). The industry 

has been growing at a faster rate than the global GDP with higher growth rates recorded in 

emerging economies. The EDS enables the global trade and facilitates growth in the globalized 

world where just in time deliveries enable the fast and rapid pace of economic growth and 

prosperity. 

EDS in Canada 

With $7.8 billion in revenue, the 20,000-plus couriers and same day messengers in Canada are 

busy delivering over 2.2 million packages, letters, and parcels every day. Despite the increase in 

digital communication in Canada, which was once thought it would make paper-based 

communication obsolete, the courier industry in Canada is entrusted with delivering almost 700 

million packages every year and in the process reinforcing the $1.6 trillion Canadian economy. 

This section presents a detailed account of the nature and scope of the courier and same day 

messenger industry. The courier and same-day messenger industry is covered by Statistics 

Canada in an annual survey and the results are reported for the performance and other 

indicators of the industry on an annual basis. The latest available figures from Statistics Canada 

are for the year 2006. However, the 2006 figures are preliminary and the detailed outlook of 

the industry for 2006 has not yet been released. For this reason, we will present a detailed 

review of the industry for the year 2005 only. 

With over 20,000 establishments and almost 50,000 employees, the courier and same-day 

messenger industry was a $7.8 billion industry in 2006. The industry has been growing at an 

annual rate of 5 percent. The operating ratio, which is the ratio of operating expenses to 

operating income, has averaged around 0.91 in the past few years suggesting that the industry 

has been operating on thin margins. 

Industry make up 

The industry can be categorized as couriers and local messengers. Couriers offer national and 

international delivery services and constitute the majority component as far as revenue is 

concerned. The couriers segment is dominated by a small number of large firms which are often 

subsidiaries of multinationals or other companies that were formed by integrating trucking 

companies. 

Of the 20,000-plus establishments recorded in 2006, couriers represent roughly 1600 

establishments with operating revenue of $6.4 billion. This suggests that couriers play a major 

role in the industry and are responsible for generating the lion's share of the total $7.8 billion 

revenue. 

Recently, the courier industry has started facing additional competition as new entrants lead to a 

decline in revenue per establishment. 

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More common are the local messengers which account for roughly 18,500 businesses of the 

20,000-plus establishments registered under the courier and local messenger industry. While 

local messengers are the dominant segment as far as the number of establishments is concerned, 

their revenue does not complement their size. Of the $7.8 billion, local messengers generated 

$1.4 billion in revenue in 2006. Unlike couriers, local messengers have been experiencing a 

decline in their revenue at an annual rate. 

Financial performance 

Table 1 presents the key financial indicators for the period 2002- 2006. The table suggests a 

steady increase in revenue in the industry from 2002 to 2006 and an increase in the number of 

establishments from 19,690 in 2002 to 20,120 in 2006. Also interesting to note is that the 

operating margin doubled from 2002 to 2006 and increased at a higher rate than the increase 

in revenue, which suggests that gains have primarily resulted from pressures to increase efficiency, 

rather than from increases in operating revenue. 

Despite the improvement in operating efficiencies, the current slowdown in economic activity has 

hurt the industry considerably. The increase in fuel costs in mid 2008 and the precipitous decline in 

demand for EDS that followed has hurt many EDS businesses in Canada because of the small 

operating margins. 

TABLE 1: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR CANADA 

Source: Statistics Canada (2008) 

The courier and local messenger industry is dominated by Ontario which accounts for the largest 

source of revenue generated in Canada. Table 2 suggests that almost 45% of the revenue was 

generated in Ontario. Also interesting to note is that the operating margin almost tripled in 

Ontario between 2002 and 2006, whereas it only doubled nationally. 

Quebec is the second-most prominent revenue generator in Canada for the industry. However, 

the key differences between Quebec and Ontario become obvious in Table 3, which suggests that 

though the revenue increased from 2002 to 2006 in Quebec, the number of couriers declined 

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over the same period. Quebec is followed by British Columbia, the third-largest revenue 

generator. Table 4 suggests that the revenue and the operating margin as well as the number of 

couriers expanded from 2002 to 2006, which are indicative of a growing market. 

TABLE 2: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR ONTARIO 


TABLE 3: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR QUEBEC 


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TABLE 4: REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE TRENDS SINCE 2002 FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA 


The above-mentioned tables present the provincial breakdown of the industry. However, while 

the key performance indicators are presented for three provinces, it should be noted that the real 

concentration of the demand for couriers and same day messenger services originates in the large 

urban centres of Toronto and Ottawa in Ontario, Montreal in Quebec, and Vancouver in British 

Columbia. 

As mentioned earlier, only the preliminary findings were available for 2006. Presented below is 

a detailed snapshot of the industry using data from 2005. 

A snapshot of the Couriers industry in 2005 

Almost 19,625 establishments constituted the courier and same-day messenger industry in 2005, 

resulting in a total revenue of $7.2 billion. One can also categorize the industry by the amount of 

revenue earned by firms, consisting of large establishments (generating more than $25 million in 

revenue), mid-size establishments (generating revenue of $1 million to $25 million), and smallsized 

establishments (generating less than $1 million). The 2005 survey by Statistics Canada 

suggests that the large and mid-size establishments, which represent annual revenue of more than 

$1 million, delivered 650 million pieces of packages in 2005 and earned $5.5 billion in revenue 

in return. 

The courier segment of the business delivered 89% of the total number of pieces, thus generating 

90% of the revenue. Couriers also dominated the next-day or overnight business accounting for 

97% of the revenue in that particular category. Local messengers, which by default primarily 

serve the city that they are based in, delivered 11% of the total pieces and generated 10% of 

the industry's revenue. Since local messengers are serving the same city and specialize in sameday 

services, they accounted for 96% of the market in same-day deliveries. 

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Ontario continued to be the dominant market for messengers and courier services, accounting for 

47% of the revenue. Shipments to Canadian destinations generated 80% of the total revenue, 

whereas shipments destined for the United States accounted for 16% of the revenue. The 

overseas market accounted for a mere 4% in 2005. The large and mid-size businesses, which 

earned more than $1 million in revenue, employed approximately 51,000 in 2005 and hired an 

additional 15,000 independent operators. The large and medium-size businesses operated a 

fleet of roughly 28,000 vehicles. 

As discussed earlier, Ontario dominates the business in Canada accounting for roughly 8,000 

establishments of the 20,000 registered under this industry category. Figure 2 presents a 

breakdown of couriers and same-day messenger establishments in Canada. The business is 

predominantly concentrated in the four large provinces, namely Ontario, British Columbia, 

Quebec, and Alberta. 

9000 

8000 

7000 

6000 

5000 

4000 

3000 

2000 

1000 

0 

Establishments (2005) 

ON BC QC AB MN SAS NS NB NFL PEI YK, 

NWT, 

NUN 

FIGURE 2: A BREAKDOWN OF ESTABLISHMENTS BY PROVINCE 

Source: Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 50-002-X 

The breakdown of revenue across provinces, presented in Figure 3, reveals that Ontario is the 

leading revenue generator for couriers and same-day messengers. What is interesting to note is 

that Quebec is the second-largest revenue generator followed by British Columbia. A comparison 

with Figure 2 reveals that British Columbia has a higher number of establishments registered 

under couriers and same-day messengers than Quebec, however the revenue generated by 

Quebec is larger than the revenue generated in British Columbia. 

Page 8



Operating Revenue in millions (2005) 

$3,500 

$3,000 

$2,500 

$2,000 

$1,500 

$1,000 

$500 

$‐ 

ON QC BC AB MN NS SAS NB NFL PEI YK, 

NWT, 

NUN 

FIGURE 3: A BREAKDOWN OF OPERATING REVENUE BY PROVINCE 


Figure 4 reveals that almost 85% of the revenue is generated by the four largest provinces with 

Ontario at 45%, Quebec at 19%, British Columbia at 13%, and Alberta at 11%. The market 

share in other provinces and territories is less than 5% individually. This suggests that the industry 

is largely focussed around the provinces with large urban centres which are home to services and 

businesses requiring couriers and same-day messengers' services. 

New Brunswick ranked the highest in operating revenue per establishment followed by Quebec 

and Ontario when the total revenue generated in each province was divided by the number of 

establishments registered in each province. Figure 5 also reveals that British Columbia lags 

behind Manitoba, Alberta, and even Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in terms of operating 

revenue per establishment. This suggests that the market is more fragmented in British Columbia 

and may be more concentrated and efficient in New Brunswick. 

Difference in business models 

The industry is primarily divided into couriers and same-day messengers, and a 

comparison of their revenue streams and expenses reveals the structural differences between the 

two main categories of this industry. Table 5 presents a breakdown of revenue and expenses for 

couriers and local messengers. It is interesting to note that salaries, wages, and benefits are the 

most dominant expense for couriers, whereas it is not the same for local messengers. These 

differences suggest that the largest expense for local messengers constitutes purchased services 

representing the outsourced component of their business. 

Page 9



50.0% 

45.0% 

40.0% 

35.0% 

30.0% 

25.0% 

20.0% 

15.0% 

10.0% 

5.0% 

0.0% 

Market Share (revenue, 2005) 

ON QC BC AB MN NS SAS NB NFL PEI 

FIGURE 4: A BREAKDOWN OF MARKET SHARE BY PROVINCE 


$600,000 

Op Rev/ Establishment (2005) 

$500,000 

$400,000 

$300,000 

$200,000 

$100,000 

$‐ 

NB QC ON NS NFL AB MN BC SAS PEI 

FIGURE 5: A BREAKDOWN OF OPERATING REVENUE PER ESTABLISHMENT BY PROVINCE 


Table 6 presents a breakdown of the expenses for couriers and local messengers in percentage 

terms. For couriers, salaries, wages, and benefits represent 40% of their expenses, whereas the 

same represents only 19% for local messengers (Table 6). The energy and supply costs account 

for 10% of the expenses for couriers, whereas it accounts for 20% of the cost for local 

messengers. Similarly, the outsourced component represented 31% of the couriers’ business, 

whereas it represents 40% of the local messengers' expenses. 

Page 10



TABLE 5: DIFFERENCES IN REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE BETWEEN COURIERS AND SAME DAY MESSENGERS 

Income and expenses Couriers Local Messengers Total 

Total revenue in thousands of dollars, 2005 5,771,289 1,448,656 7,219,945 

Total operating revenue in thousands of dollars 5,765,989 1,447,177 7,213,166 

Estimated number of establishments in population 1,408 18,217 19,625 

Total revenue per establishment $ 4,098,927 $ 79,522 $ 367,895 

Total expenses in thousands of dollars 5,373,327 1,278,515 6,651,842 

Total operating expenses in thousands of dollars 5,359,861 1,262,338 6,622,199 

Salaries, wages and benefits in thousands of dollars 2,151,610 240,843 2,392,453 

Cost of energy and supplies in thousands of dollars 546,901 249,919 796,819 

Other purchased services in thousands of dollars 1,636,700 509,613 2,146,313 

Net Operating Margin 406,128 184,839 590,967 

Ooperating ratio 0.93 0.87 0.92 


TABLE 6: DIFFERENCE IN EXPENDITURES BETWEEN COURIERS AND SAME DAY MESSENGERS 

Income and expenses Couriers Local Messengers Total 

Salaries, wages and benefits in thousands of dollars 40% 19% 36% 

Cost of energy and supplies in thousands of dollars 10% 20% 12% 

Other purchased services in thousands of dollars 31% 40% 32% 

Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 50-002-X 

Performance Indicators by firm size 

It was mentioned earlier that the industry can also be categorized by revenue. Table 7 presents a 

breakdown of couriers and same-day messengers by revenue. The large establishments are 

categorized by their revenue of over $25 million dollars, followed by medium-sized 

establishments generating revenue between $1 million and $25 million, followed by the small 

establishments earning less than $1 million. The numbers presented above in Table 7 suggest that 

in 2005 there were 314 large establishments, 207 medium-size establishments, and almost 

19,000 small establishments. The 314 large establishments accounted for almost $5 billion of the 

$7 billion generated by the industry, followed by the medium-sized establishments that 

generated $780 million. The 19,000 small establishments generated only $1.2 billion of the $7 

billion generated by the entire industry. 

Table 8 presents service performance indicators for the industry broken down by couriers and 

local messengers. These numbers are reported for large and mid-size establishments earning 

more than $1 million in 2005 only. Of the 339 couriers reported in Table 8, one can see that 

same-day services accounted for less than a percentage of their revenue in 2005. The dominant 

component of the couriers' business was the next-day/overnight services, which accounted for 

60% of the revenue generated by the 339 couriers reported. The second-day and other 

delivery services accounted for the remaining 40% of revenue. 

Page 11



TABLE 7: KEY INDICATORS FOR DIFFERENT-SIZED ESTABLISHMENTS 


TABLE 8: KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR FIRMS GENERATING MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN REVENUE 


On the other hand, local messengers business was primarily focussed on same-day services, which 

accounted for 80% of the revenue generated by local messengers. The next day and overnight 

Page 12



business accounted for 14% whereas only 6% of the revenue generated by the same-day 

messengers was for the second-day and other service segments of their businesses. 

A breakdown by the number of packages or pieces delivered in 2005 by the select 339 courier 

establishments reveals that 49% of the pieces were next-day or overnight services and another 

51% of pieces were for second-day and other services. Of the 182 same-day messengers 

earning more than $1 million in revenue, 78% of pieces delivered were for same-day services 

and the rest accounted for roughly 22% of the business. 

Table 8 also reveals significant differences in the revenue rates generated by couriers and local 

messengers. In the same-day service category couriers earned $12.40 per piece whereas local 

messengers earned $7.70 per piece. This suggests that local messengers are almost 40% 

cheaper than couriers in the same-day service category. In the next-day overnight service 

category, couriers earned $10.50 per piece whereas local messengers earned $7.90 per piece. 

Again, local messengers are cheaper per piece than couriers in the next-day/overnight service 

category. Finally, for the second-day and other service category, couriers earned $6.70 per 

piece whereas local messengers earned $5.60 per piece. This suggests that local messengers 

compete more aggressively in price for second-day/other services, even though it represents 

merely 6% of the revenue earned by local messengers for second-day/other services. 

A breakdown of the origin of shipments is presented in Figure 6. Ontario continues to be the most 

dominant origin for pieces carried by couriers and local messengers. The courier industry is more 

concentrated in Ontario than the local messengers. It is interesting to note that the Prairies and 

British Columbia represent a relatively larger share of the local messenger business than that of 

the couriers. A breakdown of shipments by destination is presented in Figure 7, which reveals that 

80% of pieces carried by couriers are destined for Canada, followed by less than 20% of their 

shipments destined for the United States. A very small percentage of pieces carried by couriers is 

destined for the rest of the world. The local messenger industry, however, is predominantly 

serving Canadian destinations with 100% of the pieces carried by local messengers being 

delivered within Canada. 

Couriers Local Messengers Total 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

Maritimes Quebec Ontario Prairies British 

Columbia 

Origin 

outside 

Canada 

Page 13



FIGURE 6: BREAKDOWN OF PACKAGES/PIECES BY SHIPMENT ORIGIN 


Fleet mix 

Lastly, we focus on the fleet mix for the industry by presenting a breakdown of the vehicular mix 

by couriers and local messengers (Table 9). It could be seen from the table that 63% of vehicles 

used by couriers consist of cube or stack vans. Such vehicles account for only 34% of the fleet for 

local messengers. On the other hand 40% of the fleet of local messengers is based on 

automobiles whereas only 4% of the fleet for couriers is comprised of automobiles. 

A breakdown by the size of vehicle or fleet suggests that couriers use large-size trucks more than 

local messengers. In fact, local messenger business is such that their prominent reliance is on 

smaller vehicles or even on bicycles, which account for 5% of the total vehicles owned by local 

messengers. 

Another key difference between couriers and local messengers is the structure of their 

employment. Of the large and mid-size 339 couriers reported in Table 9, the total number of 

employees reported stood at around 44,000. Whereas the total number of employees reported 

by the 182 large or mid-size local messengers stood at 6,550 employees. This suggests that the 

average number of employees per establishment for couriers represented 130 employees 

whereas the average number of employees working for local messengers was around 36. These 

numbers are reported for local messengers earning at least $1 million in revenue. 

Unlike couriers, local messengers rely predominantly on independent contractors such that on 

average each local messenger contracted 48 independent contractors compared to 19 

independent contractors for couriers. 

120 

Canada United States All other countries 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

Couriers Local Messengers Total 

FIGURE 7: BREAKDOWN OF PACKAGES/PIECES BY SHIPMENT DESTINATION 


Page 14



TABLE 9: FLEET STRUCTURE OF FIRMS GENERATING MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN REVENUE 


Major challenges faced by the Industry in Canada 

Given the structure and composition of the industry, the profit margins are very thin. The 

operating ratio of 0.92 suggests that operating expenses constitutes 92% of the operating 

revenue. With these slim margins, every penny counts for the industry and any shock to its cost 

structure, from either increased expenses or a decline in revenue, is likely to have devastating 

impacts on its profitability and long-term sustainability. 

In 2008, the industry was exposed to uncertainties resulting from fuel price volatility, which 

caused most couriers and same-day messengers to raise prices using fuel surcharges. However, 

such measures often result in shippers switching to other relatively inexpensive alternatives to ship 

parcels and packages. 

The industry also experienced an increase in costs resulting from ever-increasing congestion in 

urban areas, which often causes unscheduled delays for an industry that makes its money from 

being on time and where every second counts. 

As of late, the couriers and same-day messengers are increasingly concerned by millions of 

dollars in parking fines issued by municipal administrations. These parking fines are issued to 

drivers who park their vehicles on streets primarily because no viable parking facilities are 

available in the vicinity. The sustained increase in the amount of fines cannot be treated as a cost 

of doing business anymore. This report attempts to determine how the industry operates and how 

much attention is paid at the municipal level to understand the needs of couriers and same-day 

messengers, which are different from the needs of less than truckload (LTL) freight transport 

modes because of the time-sensitive nature of the couriers' business that computes times in minutes 

rather than in hours or days. 

Already operating on tight margins, any increases in overhead costs, including increased fuel costs 

or parking tickets, limits the ability of the industry to reinvest in their infrastructure. This prevents 

Page 15



or delays the implementation of fuel-efficient fleets, green vehicles, and modern distribution 

facilities. 

Furthermore, studies have shown that businesses relocate from urban core to the suburbs when 

rents and other expenses increase to a level where the benefits of central location are 

outweighed by the costs. The parking charges pose a considerable cost to the EDS industry, which 

the industry cannot absorb by itself. Once the charges are passed on to the businesses located in 

downtowns, they may revaluate their location decisions in light of rising costs of operating in 

central locations. 

In the past, a ticket rescinding program has existed in Toronto that enables couriers and same day 

messengers to rescind some tickets after they offer proof of delivery to the ticketing authorities. 

However, as more and more street segments are being designated as no stopping allowed, 

parking tickets issued at such spots are no longer covered in the rescinding program. Therefore a 

review of a rescinding program would be timely. 

Page 16



REVIEW OF URBAN TRANSPORT PLANS 

While transport planners in urban areas are responsible for all issues related to transport, it often 

turns out that the planners are more concerned about passenger transportation. The attention 

paid to freight transport in general and the couriers industry in particular is minimal. 

In order to gain firsthand knowledge of planning initiatives related to commercial transportation, 

we designed and administered a survey of transport planners in large urban centres (population 

greater than 0.5 million) in Canada. A copy of the survey form is located in the appendix. 

Despite our best efforts, the response from urban transport planners, employed by municipal 

governments, was very poor. After months of lobbying, the project team was unable to get even 

a single transport planner to participate in the survey. In fact, some planners were of the view 

that planning of commercial vehicles, especially couriers and same-day messengers, was not even 

a transportation issue and therefore not part of the transport planning mandate. Consider an 

email response received from the transport planning department in one of the cities contacted in 

Canada that reflects the lack of awareness amongst municipal transport planners about freight 

and couriers. 

FIGURE 8: TRANSPORT PLANNERS CONSIDER COURIERS OUT OF THEIR PLANNING MANDATE 

The lacklustre response by urban planners required us to adopt an alternative approach. The 

project team decided to review the latest municipal transport plans for large urban centres in 

Canada to determine if commercial vehicle planning is addressed. 

Needless to say, the needs of the courier and light goods transportation industry need to be 

accounted for to ensure that Canadian industries are able to conduct business and operate 

efficiently. The points-of-contact between couriers and customers, the pick-ups and deliveries at 

local addresses, are by their very nature transitory and dispersed. As such, the level of 

government with the greatest influence on courier operations is the local, municipal level. In this 

section the transport plans in Canada’s largest city-regions of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, 

Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Hamilton are reviewed. 

Page 17



Vancouver 

The City of Vancouver’s conclusive transportation policy document is the Transportation Plan of 

1997. Progress reports and updates have been published since, but the 1997 plan remains the 

most recent complete policy document. With few expressways and a busy port, the issue of 

goods movement is an important one to Vancouver. This report is fairly practical, focussed on 

concrete plans and improvements as opposed to concepts and policies. But it is clear that the 

emphasis is on heavy and LTL freight transportation, with no mention of the needs of couriers or 

lighter operations. The words “courier”, “freight”, “messenger”, or “express delivery” do not 

appear anywhere in the document. 

Calgary 

The City of Calgary’s most recent policy document on the topic of transportation is the Calgary 

Transportation Plan of 2005. The plan recognizes the existing lack of accounting for commercial 

vehicles. It states that the “City should develop a policy that addresses the operating needs of 

commercial vehicles within the Centre City, while ensuring other modes of transport are not 

jeopardized” (Page 21). The plan states that the topic was studied when “a commodity travel 

survey was conducted in 2001 so that this activity could be included in transportation 

forecasting”, which determined that “commercial vehicles account for almost 13% of all daily trips 

(or 13,360 vehicle/day) into, out of, and through Calgary” (Page 39). The words ‘courier’, 

‘messenger’ or ‘express delivery’ do not appear anywhere in this document. The plan states a 

need to “conduct a long term freight movement study, city wide and regionally” (Page 40). 

Although there is a lack of references to the courier industry in an otherwise comprehensive 

document, there appears to be an identification of the need for improvement. 

Edmonton 

The City of Edmonton has recently produced a comprehensive transportation document, accounting 

for all modes of transportation in their growing region. The Edmonton Transportation Master Plan 

was published in draft form in October 2008. The plan makes multiple references to the need for 

goods and services movement and reinforces how integral it is to the economy of Edmonton. The 

plan expresses the need to account for such movements in the planning and engineering of each 

specific road construction project. The document also refers to parking concerns with relations to 

goods movement, something of great importance to the courier industry. 

The report recognizes that “on-street parking serves two purposes: to facilitate access to 

businesses by customers, and to allow the delivery and pickup of goods. In this context, parking is 

typically shorter-term, and turnover of vehicles is encouraged through limited duration parking 

meters and time-limited parking and loading zones” (Page 62). Although this does offer a 

slightly more specific reference to courier-type operations, the document still makes no explicit 

mention of couriers, messengers or express delivery. 

Page 18



Winnipeg 

The City of Winnipeg is lacking with regards to transportation policy. No transportation plan is 

available on the city’s website. The city’s official plan, Plan Winnipeg 2020 Vision – A Long 

Range Policy Plan for City Council contains no information on the topic of goods movement. The 

words “courier”, “freight”, “messenger”, or “express delivery” do not appear in the official plan. 

Hamilton 

The City of Hamilton presents itself as a hub for transportation due to its location within the 

Southern Ontario and Golden Horseshoe regions. With a freight-focussed airport, a port, and 

good highway access the issue of goods movement plays a major role in the city’s economy. This 

emphasis is made clear in the Hamilton Transportation Master Plan of May 2007. It states 

“Hamilton International [Airport] is an emerging air courier and cargo destination, handling about 

93,000 tonnes of air cargo in the year 2003, composed of 60%-70% courier freight … The 

largest overnight package delivery companies that operate in Canada (UPS, FedEx, Purolator 

and Cargojet Canada) use Hamilton International Airport, and it is Canada’s largest integrated 

courier cargo airport” (Volume 3, Page 32). 

But even with the clear recognition of the role of couriers in the city’s economy, Hamilton’s 

Transportation Master Plan only focuses on highway and airport accessibility, treating the needs 

of intra-city local deliveries much the same as any other city. The document states that 

“commercial vehicles on the roads contribute to truck loading and unloading on streets and 

avenues, an excess of truck traffic on avenues and streets, and trucks using residential streets to 

avoid delays on congested streets or at traffic lights. This suggests the need to clearly define 

future land uses adjacent to transportation corridors and to regulate on- and off-street loading to 

maximize the efficiency of the existing goods movement network” (Volume 3, Page 32). No 

specific mentions of same-day delivery or messengers appear in the document. 

Toronto 

The City of Toronto does not have a specific transportation plan, instead choosing to include the 

issue of transportation in the city’s Official Plan of 2007. This includes a subsection on goods 

movement which emphasizes the importance of goods movement to the economic competitiveness 

of the city, but also states a need to manage and control goods movement to ensure a more 

efficient use of transportation resources. Potential means to maximize efficient use of the 

transportation system include “Joint distribution centres and consolidated delivery services” and 

“Increasing off-street loading, servicing and courier facilities” (Page 2-27). The word “courier” 

appears only once (as noted) in the document, while “express delivery” and “messenger” do not 

appear at all. 

Ottawa 

The City of Ottawa adopted a Transportation Master Plan in September 2003. The importance 

of goods transportation is emphasized throughout the document. It specifically mentions the value 

of maximizing commuter use of alternative modes of transport, such as public transit or bicycle, in 

Page 19



order to minimize road delays allowing for efficient road-based goods transportation. The 

document also includes a section dedicated to the issue of parking, something integral to the 

courier industry. Even with these identified issues, the document fails to mention the words 

“courier”, “messenger” or “express delivery”. 

Montréal 

The City of Montréal produced an elaborate Transportation Plan in 2007. The document 

promotes Montréal’s location as a transportation hub, which includes good highway access, a 

strong railway presence, an airport, and the important Port of Montréal. The document makes 

many mentions of the importance of goods truck traffic, and the issues associated with it. But it is 

clear that the emphasis is on heavy and LTL transportation, with no mention of the needs of lighter 

operations. The document calls for the adoption of a parking policy for the city, which would 

recognize the need to “ensure the delivery of goods” (Page 105). The document also mentions 

the need to limit and control commercial traffic in the city, stating that “Montréal wants to control 

the weight and the size of trucks as well as delivery zones and schedules within certain predetermined 

perimeters including the city centre” (Page 127). The words “courier”, “messenger” 

and “express delivery” are not found in this document. 

Summary and Discussion 

Recent transportation plans in Canada’s largest cities indicate that there is a explicit planning 

focus on decreasing traffic congestion in cities (especially the downtown core), shortening 

commuter and delivery trip distances, and reducing pollution. In particular, policies are generally 

being designed to reduce delays in traffic flows on both arterial and major throughways, 

especially in and near residential areas. The two most widely cited reasons for this policy 

direction are the needs to improve neighbourhood vitality and reduce carbon emissions. 

In order to meet these goals a fairly consistent set of directives are laid out. First, several plans 

identify the need for future commercial development to be more compact and closely-linked with 

distribution centres. Secondly, improvements to transit efficiency and traffic flows are 

emphasized, such as by limiting delays to traffic caused by street parking. In order to meet the 

second directive, plans often indicate that enforcement of strict parking regulations can reduce 

traffic delays. Montreal, for example, calls for the expansion of its parking regulation model to 

the surrounding urban region. 

The review of the transportation plans also indicates that despite commonly stated goals of 

improving commercial transport activity, most transportation regulations may impose additional 

barriers for the EDS industry. Most of the discussion of goods movement is focused on large 

freight transportation and improving – and restricting – goods movement access to major roads 

outside of residential areas. The plans, on the other hand, rarely discuss the need for improving 

transportation access for courier services, and almost never by name (see Table 10). 

Page 20



TABLE 10: COMMERCIAL/COURIER ISSUES IN CANADIAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLANS 

City 

No. of Pages on 

Goods 

Movement 

% of Plan on 

Goods Movement 

Vancouver 3 5.4 No 

Calgary 2 3.3 No 

Edmonton 7 7.1 No 

Winnipeg 1 1.7 No 

Refers to ‘Couriers’ 

‘Messengers’ or 

‘Express Delivery’? 

Hamilton 3 4.8 Yes (“air courier”) 

Toronto 2 1.8 Yes (“courier”) 

Ottawa 3 3.0 No 

Montreal 1 0.9 No 

The implication of this is that courier routes are not being acknowledged as priorities for 

improving access for goods movement. Instead, the plans intend to restrict the types of uses that 

couriers require – a ready supply of street parking and sufficient parking times for delivering 

goods. Both of these requirements are currently being seen as urban traffic problems with little 

consideration of their importance for the efficient and timely delivery of 700 million packages in 

Canada. It is also apparent that goods movement, in general, is not a major topic of 

transportation plans in Canada. With the exception of Vancouver, Edmonton, and Hamilton, 

discussions of goods movement issues never amount to more than 4 percent of transportation plan 

documents (Table 10). 

Conclusions from review of transport plans 

Based on the review of current municipal transport plans, we conclude that urban transportation 

policy in Canada’s major cities is moving towards restricting the availability of transportation 

required for a vigorous courier industry. For one, the place of courier services is rarely 

addressed in direct terms. This is probably on account of the lack of knowledge of the size and 

significance of courier services in commercial activity and the general vitality of cities. 

Minimal recognition is given the existence of courier operations, while at worst couriers are 

treated as an inconvenience that should be expunged from congested central business districts. 

The few references that are made to courier-type transportation are focussed on controlling and 

limiting the activity. What is emphasised is a need to protect traffic flow and to limit deliveries to 

specific zones. 

Page 21



Overall, it is clear that there is a level of ignorance displayed towards the needs and role of the 

courier industry and the businesses it serves. The priority is always the efficient movement of 

traffic and the maximization of automobile capacity. 

A recent survey of freight transport planners undertaken for Infrastructure Canada revealed that 

municipal transport planners are in fact not educated nor trained in freight planning and logistics 

management. 1 Furthermore, municipal planners do not plan for freight or commercial vehicles and 

collect no information on the breadth and scope of the courier industry and the businesses it 

serves. 

1 http://www.regionomics.com/Logistics/Chapters/Chapter_2.pdf 

Page 22



INTERVIEWING COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MANAGERS IN TORONTO 

In this section we present a survey of property managers of office buildings in Toronto’s urban 

core. By seeking their input on courier deliveries for their respective properties, the project team 

attempts to develop a better understanding of the challenges facing building managers 

regarding tenants’ needs for couriers and same day messenger services. The survey findings 

highlight some strategies that have been adopted by property managers at the surveyed 

locations in downtown Toronto. 

Introduction and background 

The goal of surveying property managers is to determine if they are involved in improving courier 

service for their tenants. The project team understands that many buildings face challenges in this 

regard due to various geographic and infrastructure limitations often associated with the age of 

the buildings and the construction standards in place at that time. There is a need to better 

understand whether or not the building management companies understand the challenges facing 

courier companies when they make deliveries to their buildings. In case they are aware of the 

challenges, what steps have they taken to rectify the situation? This will help devise strategies to 

improve courier delivery to busy downtowns with minimum impact on the environment and existing 

traffic. 

The project team hypothesized at the start of the project that the property managers were either 

oblivious to the needs of their tenants for courier services or were not willing to rectify any 

shortcomings. From the initial feedback, it appeared that many management companies adopted 

a laissez-faire approach and left most of the work to courier companies and tenants. Ideally a 

management company should see timely delivery as a value-added service offered to its tenants 

and should strive to make the process as convenient as possible for couriers and same-day 

messengers. This would involve a much more proactive approach involving all stakeholders and 

regular interaction. 

Research Methodology 

This section outlines the methodology for the survey. 

1. Identify 50 properties in downtown Toronto. 

Initially 50 properties were identified for the survey. The properties were chosen based 

on the following criterion: 

a. The properties were selected from the area bounded by Bloor Street to North, 

Spadina Avenue to the West, Church Street to the East and Lake Ontario to the 

South. The study area is also known as the Financial District of Toronto and is home 

to numerous large international and Canadian firms specializing in finance, 

insurance, and real estate. 

b. Selected properties should represent a variety of property management 

companies. 

Page 23



c. Selected properties should be representative of various sized buildings, both in 

terms of the total numbers of floors as well as the rentable square area of office 

space. 

2. Contacted property managers for interview 

In order to solicit detailed information, the appropriate personnel had to be found for the 

survey. This was easier for some than for others, but in general it was found that most 

property management companies do not readily post the names of their property 

managers in their buildings. Oftentimes finding the contact info of the property 

management representatives required contacting leasing contacts either by phone or 

email. 

Most often the surveys were sent out with an introductory email giving the property 

manager the option to complete the survey electronically and send it back or to set up a 

convenient time where they could be contacted by phone. This method was preferred as 

the project team found that it was often hard to get in touch with the property managers 

via phone and voice mails were rarely responded to. 

Initial contacts with property managers were made over the phone. Since property 

managers’ contact info was not readily available, often initial contact was made with 

leasing agents of specific buildings or using general information numbers for the 

management companies. The task of making a contact over the phone, even when the 

correct telephone numbers were available, proved harder than anticipated. However, 

when the concerned party was finally reached over the phone, the remaining tasks proved 

straightforward. 

The challenge came in actually making the connection and getting through to the 

managers. Most often voicemails were left and these were rarely replied to. As a result, 

a much more active search was taken to find email addresses of property managers. 

Emails were sent with a letter of introduction and an electronic version of the survey, 

giving them the option to either complete the survey electronically to return by email or to 

arrange a convenient time when the survey could be completed over the phone. 

Fortunately when the initial contact was made, there were very few instances where the 

manager was not willing to complete the survey. 

This proved to be a much more efficient way of conducting the survey and resulted in a 

much higher response rate. Only two surveys were completed electronically and the rest 

were completed over the phone. The quality of the surveys did vary depending on the 

manager’s willingness to participate but generally the basic questions were all answered 

with some managers willing to spend more time to go into greater detail, often adding 

valuable insights. 

3. Completed at least 25 surveys 

Once the contacts were made, the phone responses were transcribed and saved along 

with the e-mail responses until a minimum of twenty-five surveys were completed. 

4. Analyzed survey responses 

Page 24



After conducting surveys, responses were compiled and analyzed. 

5. Visited sites of the 25 completed surveys and collected primary data 

The project team visited the 25 sites to observe the building operations as they relate to 

couriers and same-day messengers as well as the physical infrastructure available at the 

site. Where available, a dialogue was attempted with the building security guards to 

determine their level of involvement in receiving courier deliveries. The project team 

walked the building perimeter to determine how difficult it would be for a courier or 

messenger to find a location to park their vehicle. Clearance height of loading areas was 

also noted and photos were taken of front entrances, loading areas and any other 

characteristics that stood out. Bicycle accessibility was also evaluated to see if there were 

nearby locations to park the bicycle as well the ease of access to the building. 

Survey sites 

The survey sites were chosen based on geographic location. The majority of examined properties 

were in the financial district where the land is most valuable, leading to greater challenges in 

offering infrastructure to facilitate deliveries. Areas outside the traditional financial district were 

also examined to recognize other potential solutions or challenges facing buildings in other 

locations. 

A range of building sizes were selected, ranging anywhere from 100,000 sq. ft. to multi-million 

sq. ft. complexes. The diversity in size and type of the building allowed analysis of the varying 

needs and challenges associated with each building type. The following is a list of all the 

properties surveyed as well as a map showing the locations of the properties. 

Page 25



TABLE 11: LIST OF SURVEYED PROPERTIES 

Name of 

Complex Name of Building Address 

TD Centre 

Scotia Plaza 

University/Dundas 

Total Complex 4300 

Ernst and Yonge Tower 

TD Bank Tower 

Royal Trust Tower 

TD Waterhouse Tower 

95 Wellington Street W 

Canadian Pacific Tower 

222 Bay 

66 Wellington W 



95 Wellington Street 

W 


Northern Ontario Building 330 Bay 150 

200 University 260 


Simcoe Place 200 Front W 806 

Exchange Tower 130 King W 963 


HSBC Building 70 York 194 


Total Complex 

40 King W 


11 Adelaide 


33 Yonge 510 

Mclelland and Stewart 

House 481 University 224 

Maclean Hunter Building 

210 Dundas 

70 Centre 

Rentable office 

space 

(thousands of sq. ft.) 

Page 26



College Park 

Commerce court 

137 Edward 

2 Queen E 463 

Lombard Place 105 Adelaide W 176 

Prudential House 55 York 125 

120 Bloor E 210 

Wildeboer Dellelce Place 365 Bay 98 


444 Yonge 153 

21 College 227 

Empire Plaza 2 Bloor E 534 

Queens Quay Terminal 207 Queens Quay 500 

154-158 Pearl 65 

277 Wellingotn W 108 

Canada Permanent 

Building 301/320 Bay 300 

Total Complex 25 King W 1702 

West 1200 

North 237 

East 167 

South 98 

CI Place 151 Yonge 300 

Page 27



FIGURE 9: MAP OF LOCATION OF SURVEYED BUILDINGS 

The property sizes ranged from 65,000 square feet at 154/158 Pearl Street to approximately 

4.5 million square feet for the TD Centre. The following figure presents the breakdown of building 

sizes. 

Page 28



4500 

Property Sizes (thousands of square feet) 

4000 

3500 

3000 

2500 

2000 

1500 

1000 

500 

0 

154-158 Pearl 

365 Bay 

277 Wellingotn W 

55 York 

330 Bay 

105 Adelaide W 

70 York 

120 Bloor E 

40 University 

70 University 

200 University 

100 University 

151 Yonge 

301/320 Bay 

University/Dundas 

College Park 

2 Queen E 

207 Queens Quay 

33 Yonge 

2 Bloor E 

200 Front W 


Commerce Court 

Scotia Plaza 

TD Centre 

FIGURE 10: BREAKDOWN OF SIZES OF BUILDINGS 

Figure 10 shows that most properties carry less than 500,000 square feet. This is most likely 

similar to the distribution of property sizes in Toronto. The three largest properties are complexes 

of multiple buildings, i.e., Commerce Court, Scotia Plaza and TD Centre respectively. 

Property manager Surveys 

The survey questionnaire is briefly discussed below before survey findings are presented. 

Survey questionnaire 

The project team asked a variety of questions in order to find trends in management techniques 

and to try to initiate a dialogue with property managers that would allow them to share the 

challenges and strategies facing their building. While the project team recognized that the 

different buildings would have different challenges and strategies depending on their particular 

characteristics, they chose to ask all property managers the same series of questions in order to 

be consistent. 

A total of 14 questions were put to each respondent and the project team insisted that every 

question be answered, though a response of “I don’t know” would be accepted. Efforts were 

also made to ensure that the property managers understood the vital difference between courier 

deliveries and regular bulk/LTL freight. 

Page 29



Response to questions 

As the responses were collected it became clear that some managers were much more involved in 

the delivery process than others. Most surprising was the fact that nearly all managers did not 

know how many deliveries were being made to their building. Most could only estimate a number 

that was often a range. It is understandable that the numbers will vary but it was apparent that 

most buildings did not document the number of deliveries. 

Building managers found questions regarding how many tenants receive courier and same day 

messenger deliveries hard to answer. For example, when asked how many of their tenants would 

receive deliveries, nearly a third had no idea and the majority answered with answers along the 

lines of “nearly all”. 

Percentage of tenants receiving deliveries in the 

average day 

14 

12 

Number of properties 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

N/A 0-24 25-49 50-74 75-100 

FIGURE 11: DISTRIBUTION OF TENANTS RECEIVING DELIVERIES 

Figure 11 shows the distribution of the ranges of the percentages of tenants receiving deliveries in 

the average day. The N/A range represents properties where the manager was unable to offer 

an estimate for the number of tenants receiving deliveries per day. 

The largest group of the respondents stated that 75-100 percent of their tenants receive 

deliveries, revealing how important couriers and same day messengers are to the businesses that 

are located in Toronto’s core business district. Based on these responses, we can also see that the 

property managers are aware that most of their clients depend on these deliveries. 

Figure 12 shows the number of deliveries per day per tenant and reveals that 10 of the 25 

respondents were not able to offer an estimate of the number of deliveries per tenant for their 

building on an average day. It should be understood that it is difficult to analyze properties 

Page 30



based on the number of tenants without knowing the size of the rented area for each tenant. 

Cases where a single tenant occupies more than fifty percent of the office space will skew the 

results and make analysis more difficult. This is also true in cases where one tenant receives a 

considerably greater than average portion of the total deliveries. However, it is worth noting that 

nearly half of the properties reported that their tenants are receiving, on average, at least one 

delivery per day which again shows the importance of the deliveries to most tenants. 

Number of deliveries per day per tenant 

12 

10 

Number of properties 

8 

6 

4 

2 

0 

N/A 0-0.99 1-4.99 5-9.99 10+ 

FIGURE 12: DELIVERIES PER TENANT 

The surveys suggested that the property managers were not keen to improve courier service to 

the tenants in their buildings. The status quo was acceptable from the managers’ point of view. 

This impression was reinforced by the response to the question regarding steps to improve courier 

and express deliveries to the building. The majority respondents’ response was “nothing” when 

asked if they would consider improving package delivery and pickup for their tenants. Of the 

ones that did have a response, surprisingly many of them were along the lines of “better signage” 

or “better communication with courier companies”. However, there was no interest in dedicating 

physical space in the building to assist courier service to their tenants. 

The general feeling was that property managers take a passive approach to dealing with 

deliveries. It seems to be a reactive process in which changes are only implemented when there is 

a complaint from their tenants. 

Page 31



It was also surprising to learn most managers were not aware of the number of couriers entering 

their premises. Only one property out of 25 surveyed had a central shipping area to receive 

deliveries (including couriers) and distribute them throughout the building. This is advantageous for 

the couriers who may not have to run from floor to floor delivering or picking up packages. A few 

buildings spoke about past issues with couriers in their buildings. These issues ranged from 

damage of building property to disputes with loading dock hands. 

Another very positive approach taken by some buildings with public parking facilities is to offer a 

certain time of free parking (often a half hour). While this service is not restricted only to couriers, 

the limited time allowed makes it clear that couriers may be the targeted market. This strategy is 

strengthened by also offering reserved parking spaces for couriers within the parking lot allowing 

the couriers a spot often near the elevators where they can stop, make a delivery, and leave 

without worrying about receiving a ticket. 

Site visits and findings 

The visit to the survey sites contributed to an improved understanding of ground realities at the 25 

buildings. The visual inspection of access and egress routes helped the team develop a better 

understanding of the constraints faced by the couriers and same day messengers. A key 

observation that emerged from the site surveys suggested that the underground parking lots often 

prevented courier vehicles to enter because of height restrictions. 

The project team also observed that the property managers' understanding of how the building 

behaves may not necessarily be accurate. For instance, the property managers during surveys 

revealed that deliveries through the front lobby were discouraged and were allowed for only for 

high priority deliveries. However, our conversations with security guards revealed that regular 

deliveries were made through the main entrance. 

Key findings from individual site visits are presented in the following paragraphs. 

The visits to the 25 sites revealed different practices at the large, midsize, and smaller buildings. 

It was observed that large complexes had more structured procedures for couriers and same day 

messengers. Whereas midsized and smaller buildings operated on ad hoc principles. 

The largest complex surveyed was the TD Centre, comprising 4.3m sq. feet of rental space. Here, 

the couriers did not use the loading dock. Instead couriers parked in designated spots located 

next to the garage (Figure 13). Unlike other large complexes where couriers delivered to the 

main desk, couriers at the TD Centre delivered directly to the tenants. The staff on-site complained 

about couriers parking in spots designated for tenants. 

Page 32



FIGURE 13: LOADING AREA FOR COURIERS AT TD CENTRE OFF WELLINGTON STREET 

25 King St. W., also known as Commerce Court, was the second largest building complex with 

1.7m sq. feet of space over 57 floors. Couriers were heading straight to the loading dock. We 

observed that Purolator had rented space in the loading dock from where it operated a depot 

for the packages heading to financial district. Currently there is no central shipping/receiving for 

the buildings, but there are plans to possibly put one in place in 2009. The building administration 

at present offers a service for accepting deliveries, however most deliveries are made directly to 

the tenants, some of whom have their own central mail rooms. The building administration expects 

resistance to the idea of a centralized depot to receive all deliveries. However, property 

managers believe that the centralized depot is likely to improve service for both couriers and the 

tenants. 

Scotia Plaza, 40/44 King St. W. and 11 Adelaide Street, is another large complex of three 

buildings with 2.5m sq. feet of space. The building does not allow direct delivery to higher floors. 

However, some exceptions are permitted. Most courier vehicles were seen parked in the large 

loading dock. However, some high-priority couriers had clearance to park in front of this building. 

The staff on-site advised us that the tenants were happy to continue preventing the couriers and 

same day messengers from having access to the floors. 

Page 33



The staff at medium-sized buildings, such as 151 Yonge St., suggested that the expense of a 

permanent dockhand cannot be justified and therefore the loading dock was largely unmanned. 

Because of the lack of directions at the loading dock, couriers entering the building would not 

know how to get to the consignee. For this, the couriers entering from the loading dock must go to 

the front of the building to talk to reception. Couriers were observed to park in the loading dock 

as well as the alleyway behind the building. 

At 2 Queen St. E., which is a medium-sized building, most couriers parked their vehicles at the 

loading dock. The loading dock was managed by a full-time facilitator from 7 AM to 5 PM. Some 

tenants also have mail rooms in the same area. 

Some smaller establishments, such as 277 Wellington St. W., provided the loading docks for 

couriers. However, the staff complained that couriers were using their space to deliver to other 

buildings in the vicinity. 

Smaller establishments, such as 33 Yonge St. or 40 University Ave. were either reluctant to answer 

questions during site visits, or were unaware of details related to tenants, number of deliveries, 

and other related arrangements for expediting courier and same day messengers services. 

As for the smaller establishments that allowed us to observe courier activity, such as 55 York St., 

we observed that the loading dock was located at a significant distance from the building, which 

would have required couriers to take the extra time to park and walk to the building. 

Furthermore, the loading dock had limited capacity. Therefore, it appears that Tim Horton's is the 

only business using the loading dock, whereas couriers and same day messengers are parking on 

the street. 

Just like the large commercial buildings, some smaller buildings also restricted deliveries to the 

main reception desk. At 100 University Ave., deliveries were made to the reception desk, whereas 

tenants could arrange to leave packages with the superintendent's office for the couriers. 

It appeared that large tenants in small buildings often had their own mail rooms on the main floor. 

For instance, 70 York St. houses an anchor tenant that leases more than half of the building and 

has its own mail room on the ground floor. While there is a freight elevator, it is only 

operationalized when required. Similarly, another small building, 70 University Ave., has two 

large tenants with their own mail rooms on the ground level to receive deliveries. There were no 

bike racks observed around the building. Couriers were using loading dock as well as parking on 

the street. 

In some very small buildings, such as 154 and 158 Pearl St., couriers were seen parking their 

vehicles in private parking lots for delivery. 

The financial district relies to a great deal on bicycle couriers who mostly operate for same day 

messengers. Given that couriers are not allowed to carry their bikes with them in the building, they 

are expected to leave the bikes outside. Since most buildings did not provide bike racks, couriers 

had locked their bicycles arbitrarily to structural elements of the building, which resulted in 

scratches to the walls and floors, often made with expensive materials such as granite. Providing 

bicycle racks will not only facilitate same day messengers, who could park their bicycles with 

ease, but it would also prevent the building from unnecessary wear and tear. 

Page 34



However, the staff at 100 University Avenue reported that bike messengers were leaving their 

bikes in non-designated places, resulting in damage to the property anyway. Similarly, the staff 

at 200 University Ave. were also concerned about the clutter caused by bikes and had moved the 

bike messengers to the rear of the building. 

Best practices 

We did find some examples of best practices relating to courier and same day messengers 

services. Simcoe Place, at 200 Front St. W., is an example of a large building with best practices. 

Most deliveries are made to the loading dock and utilize the freight elevator. The project team 

witnessed a Purolator truck parked at the loading dock (Figure 14). The staff on-site records and 

documents all incoming deliveries. Hand-delivered pieces are not subject to such scrutiny. The 

building management provides three dedicated underground parking spots for couriers. In 

addition, the public parking is free for first 30 minutes. The provision of three dedicated 

underground parking spots for couriers frees up the loading docks for larger freight delivery 

vehicles. The management was concerned that not all couriers and same day messengers were 

aware of the dedicated free parking spots. 

Delivering parcels and packages to a centralized facility on the main floor of the building, a 

practice observed in some midsized and large buildings, is likely to reduce delivery delays. This 

would guarantee that couriers would spend the least amount of time in the buildings, therefore 

occupying the designated parking spots for a brief time. 

Also worthy of mention is the practice of having dedicated mail rooms for individual tenants on 

the ground floor where couriers could directly make the deliveries. The ability to pick up 

packages from the same mail room, rather than locating shippers on higher floors, would further 

improve the process. 

FIGURE 14: COURIER VEHICLE UTILIZING LOADING DOCK AT SIMCOE PLACE 

Page 35



At 207 Queens Quay West, couriers are provided with three designated spots in close proximity 

to the building, which allows couriers to make a quick delivery and thus occupy the space for a 

limited amount of time (Figure 15). These designated courier parking spots are in addition to the 

four loading docks available nearby for larger freight vehicles. 

FIGURE 15: DESIGNATED PARKING SPOTS FOR COURIERS AT 207 QUEENS QUAY WEST 

Even when large loading areas available for full-size trucks, certain buildings provide small 

loading areas for automobile-sized trucks and vehicles to make quick deliveries or pickups. Scotia 

Plaza is one such example where smaller loading zones are available for small sized vehicles for 

quick pickup and delivery (Figure 17). 

However, it should be noted that the surface parking made available at 207 Queens Quay West 

is a result of available open space near the building. This is not possible in other parts of 

downtown, where road space is extremely limited. In such instances, having access to dedicated 

space for couriers in the loading area, such as the one at 2 Queen St. E., allows couriers to deliver 

and receive packages efficiently (Figure 16). 

Page 36



FIGURE 16: DEDICATED COURIER SPACE IN UNDERGROUND FACILITY AT 2 QUEEN STREET EAST 

FIGURE 17: SMALL LOADING ZONES FOR SMALLER VEHICLES 

Page 37



Challenges in Express Delivery Services 

Some buildings refuse to provide adequate infrastructure to couriers and same day messengers, 

forcing them therefore to park illegally on street. The Canada Permanent Building located at 

304/320 Bay St. is one such example. While the building establishment provides direct delivery 

to tenants with their own mail rooms, couriers are forced to park illegally on Adelaide Street 

despite requests from couriers and same day messengers for a designated loading area in front 

of the building. Similarly, another old building, 330 Bay St., suffers from the same issues. This 

could also be a result of the fact that these buildings were constructed before the modern 

transportation and logistics systems were set in place. Therefore, designated spaces are often not 

available for couriers and freight operators. The same is true for the building located at 365 Bay 

St. 

Often inadequate signage results in couriers being unable to find the designated parking 

facilities and hence end up parking illegally. The inadequate signage near 2 Bloor Street East is 

one such example (Figure 19). 

Even in instances where couriers and freight vehicles attempted to follow regulation, poor service 

at the buildings resulting from inadequate building design or insufficient space resulted in long 

queues of commercial vehicles parked outside the building waiting for their turn to offload. While 

visiting 105 Adelaide St. W., the project team observed a long queue of commercial vehicles and 

trucks waiting to have access to the loading docks (Figure 18). This results in frustration for both 

commuters and couriers, who end up parking illegally on the street since they cannot afford to be 

stuck at the loading dock for hours. We observed similar delays at 33 Yonge Street where trucks 

were waiting for over an hour to have access to the loading docks. 

FIGURE 18: COMMERCIAL VEHICLES QUEUED UP OUTSIDE OF 105 ADELAIDE STREET WEST 

Page 38



FIGURE 19: POOR SIGNAGE CONCEALS RECEIVING AREA AT 2 BLOOR STREET EAST 

Innovation in practice 

The project team observed a positive innovation at 40 University Ave (Figure 20). The loading 

area at the rear of the building uses barriers to prevent unauthorized vehicles parking in the 

designated spots. The current practice is to allow commercial vehicles, couriers are still prohibited 

from using the designated loading areas, after the security unlocks the designated space (Figure 

20). The project team believes that similar arrangements could be made at other loading areas, 

especially where space is available at the rare of the building, to allow couriers to self-manage 

the on-street parking facility for a fee to be paid to the building management. This practice of 

surface parking, which is not on street, but instead is located on the curb, will allow couriers to 

operate with speed without causing congestion and delays to others. 

Page 39



FIGURE 20: DESIGNATED, YET PROTECTED, LOADING AREA AT REAR ENTRANCE OF 40 UNIVERSITY AVENUE 

Awareness issues amongst couriers 

It was observed that some buildings provided designated spaces for couriers and same day 

messengers, such as 481 University Ave., 210 Dundas Street West, 70 Centre St., and 137 

Edward St. However, such facilities remained underutilized. The staff at the above-mentioned 

locations was of the view that couriers and same day messengers may have not been aware of 

the facilities provided for them. The need for improved communication between couriers and 

building managers could help improve deliveries to these buildings. 

Hard to practice what you preach 

While commuters often complained about trucks being parked illegally on the road, they too are 

also prone to violations by parking in designated spots for commercial vehicles. Consider the 

loading zone at 70 Centre St., where three vehicles are illegally parked even though a sign is 

posted prohibiting parking of noncommercial vehicles (Figure 21). 

Page 40



FIGURE 21: ILLEGALLY PARKED VEHICLES IN THE LOADING ZONE IN FRONT OF 70 CENTRE STREET 

We also observed that places where designated facilities were available for couriers, some 

drivers parked at the designated spots, whereas others parked on the street. Consider the 

example of 70 York Street, where we found a FedEx truck using the loading area within the 

building (Figure 22), whereas a Purolator truck was parked on street at the same location (Figure 

23). 

Page 41



FIGURE 22: COURIER TRUCK USING PARKING FACILITIES AT 70 YORK STREET 

FIGURE 23: COURIER TRUCK PARKED ON-STREET AT 70 YORK STREET 

Page 42



ANALYSIS OF PACKAGE DELIVERY DATA 

This section explores the spatial trends and concentrations that are characteristic of the courier 

industry. Given that the industry is primarily utilized by the services sector, which is predominantly 

located in urban areas, it should come as no surprise that a very large number of packages are 

delivered to and retrieved from urban areas. 

The analysis presented here reveals the spatial concentration of the couriers' activity. The data 

collected from a select group of couriers and same day messengers allows us to shed light on 

where and how many packages are delivered on a daily basis. This contributes to the primary 

purpose of this report, which is to improve awareness amongst urban transport planners and 

municipal politicians about the important role played by couriers and same day messengers in 

sustaining economic activity in urban centres in Canada. It was therefore decided to undertake a 

spatial analysis of the packages delivered in various cities to identify the extent of activity by the 

couriers and same day messengers. 

The fact that most stakeholders concerned with urban mobility (i.e. commuters, planners, municipal 

politicians, and others) watch vehicles carrying logos of couriers and same day messengers 

parked on busy city streets, yet are seldom aware of the extent of the spatial concentration of 

the courier industry. Thus, urban planners and municipal politicians along with commuters are 

likely to be not fully cognisant of the role played by couriers and same day messengers in 

maintaining the vitality and the activity of an economy that relies on the 700 million deliveries 

every year to Canadian businesses and individuals. 

Methodology 

In consultation with industry stakeholders, the research team concluded that the best way to 

educate the stakeholders i.e., municipal planners, politicians, and commuters in general, is to 

introduce them to the intensity of couriers and same day messengers activity in various parts of 

large urban centres. The initial plan for package delivery analysis was as follows. The leading 

industry stakeholders were approached and requested to share the disaggregate data on 

package deliveries to designated areas in downtown Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and 

Toronto. It was also decided that the package/parcel delivery data were to be observed for 

four one week durations during four different months to obtain a sense of seasonality in packages 

delivered to and picked up from these areas. Therefore, a week's worth of package delivery 

data from 2007 were collected for the months of April, June, September, and December each. 

Once the data were compiled from all sources, it became obvious that the complete dataset was 

available for only Toronto. Most industry stakeholders provided data for Toronto, while only 

some provided for Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal as well. Since Toronto data were most 

complete, the research team would proceed with the analysis of Toronto data, which was further 

scoped down to primarily focus on downtown Toronto. 

The research team used geographic information systems (GIS) to geo-code data. Geo-coding is a 

process that attaches longitude and latitude coordinates to all deliveries so that the data can be 

plotted on a map and analyzed. Once the data were geo-coded, the research team first 

aggregated the data at the postal code level, and later aggregated the data further at the 

traffic analysis zone (TAZ) level, which are the spatial delineation zones used by the transport 

Page 43



planning departments in the Greater Toronto Area to study traffic flows. The motivation to 

aggregate data at the TAZ level was the desire to observe the spatial trends for the 

concentration of package delivery which becomes obvious with data aggregation. Also, the 

planning department would find it convenient to relate to the analysis since we are using their 

zonal system. 

Once the data were geo-coded, the research team consulted industry experts and Statistics 

Canada to determine the expansion factor for the data used in the analysis. The expansion 

factor, derived from consultations with the industry, allowed the research team to expand the 

numbers to reflect the activity of the entire industry, rather than just that of those firms whose data 

were used in the analysis. 

Results from Spatial Analysis 

Figure 24 presents the study area. The shaded blue part constitutes the original study area, which 

is bounded by Jarvis Street, the Rosedale Ravine, and Yonge Street on the east; Dupont Street 

and McPherson Avenue to the north; Bathurst Street on the west; Lake Ontario to the south. The 

brown colour boundaries identify traffic analysis zones that are either fully contained within the 

study area or are intersected by the study area and hence extend slightly beyond the study 

area. 

FIGURE 24: STUDY AREA SHOWING THE TRAFFIC ANALYSIS ZONES (TAZS) IN DOWNTOWN TORONTO 

Page 44



Figure 25 presents the spatial distribution of employment in this study area. To have an 

appreciation of the extent of activity generated by couriers and same day messengers, it is 

important to have an estimate of the number of persons employed within the study area. The 

2006 traffic survey in Toronto revealed more than 400,000 person trips made to the study area. 

The two TAZs coloured in red attracted more than 26,000 employees each on a given day in 

2006. To the east of this hyper concentration of employment is the yellow coded zone that 

attracted more than 20,000 daily employees. The figure suggests high concentration of 

employment in the area bounded by Yonge Street to the east, York Street to the west, Queen 

Street to the north, and Front Street to the south. 

FIGURE 25: SPATIAL CONCENTRATION OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE STUDY AREA 

Map layers 

CCLA TAZs Dest 

hbwatt24h 

7099 and below (34) 

7100 to 12999 (20) 

13000 to 19999 (1) 

20000 to 25999 (1) 

26000 and above (2) 

0 .5 1 1.5 

Kilometers 

A more vivid picture emerges when one plots the employment distribution as employment 

densities, which revealed that the most concentrated employment zone boasted employment 

density of 300,000 persons per square kilometre. This is the same zone whose boundaries 

constitutes Yonge, Bay, King, and Front Streets and is coloured red in Figure 26. With such heavy 

concentration of service-based employment, the demand for courier and same day messenger 

services is expected to be high in this particular part of Toronto. 

Page 45



FIGURE 26: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYMENT DENSITY IN THE STUDY AREA 

As it was mentioned earlier, the disaggregated delivery data were aggregated at the postal 

code level, before it was further aggregated to the TAZ level. Figure 27 below presents the 

spatial distribution of deliveries at postal code level provided by one stakeholder. The spatial 

distribution of deliveries is typical of the industry, such that data from other couriers and same 

day messengers exhibited almost the exact same spatial distribution. 

FIGURE 27: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DELIVERIES AGGREGATED AT THE POSTAL CODE LEVEL 

Page 46



Figure 27 reveals that the highest concentration of deliveries is in the area bounded by Yonge 

street to the east, University Avenue to the west, Wellington street to the south, and Queen street 

to the north. The area around Yonge and Dundas streets also received a large number of 

deliveries. Furthermore, a little to the north of downtown, one can observe the concentration of 

deliveries along the Bloor street corridor, where key intersections along Bloor street attracted a 

significantly large number of deliveries. 

Also, obvious from Figure 27 is the fact that courier deliveries are spatially concentrated to 

specific segments of the street network in downtown Toronto. This implies that their concentration is 

ubiquitous, but not random. This may allow the possibility of providing courier-specific parking 

infrastructure in select destinations in downtown Toronto. 

Using the expansion factors derived from consultations with the industry experts, the survey data 

were weighted to represent the extent of deliveries made by the entire population of couriers 

and same day messengers. The project team estimated that the study area receives on an 

average 81,000 packages per day (Table 12). As mentioned earlier, there is some seasonality 

observed in the data where the volume of packages delivered in December is higher than volume 

of packages delivered in June and September. However, packages delivered in April were found 

to be the second highest in volume after December. 

Page 47



TABLE 12: NUMBER OF DAILY DELIVERIES MADE TO THE STUDY AREA IN DOWNTOWN TORONTO 

Pckages delivered Number 

April 80,256 

June 76,188 

September 78,353 

December 89,038 

Average (study area) 80,958 

Total packages in Canada 2,460,614 

The next four figures present the spatial distribution of deliveries to the downtown area for one 

week each in April, June, September, and December of 2007. The spatial distribution of 

packages delivered in April is presented in Figure 28, which also highlights the Yonge and King 

Street intersection. The other three key intersections i.e. King and Bay, Bay and Queen, and 

Yonge and Queen are also marked by dots in Figure 28. It should come as no surprise that the 

area highlighted earlier with the highest concentration of employment in downtown is also the 

area where the highest volume of deliveries is observed. The three TAZs which received the 

highest deliveries, averaging around 7,000 deliveries per day, are located immediately to the 

west of Bay street bounded by King street to the south and Queen street to the north. The second 

highest concentration is observed for the TAZ located immediately to the south-west of Yong and 

King street intersection. Given that 80% of deliveries consist of a single package (see the 

discussion later), such high numbers represent a very high volume of couriers and same day 

messengers in a very small space. 

As one moves away from the key business area around Yonge and King, one could observe a 

decline in the delivery rate for couriers and same day messengers. However, the TAZ located 

immediately to the north-west of the Yonge and Bloor intersection in mid-town, marked as yellow 

in Figure 33, suggests a very high concentration of courier activity resulting from high 

concentration of service industry in that area. 

Figure 29, Figure 30, and Figure 31 present the spatial distribution of the courier delivery data in 

the study region. It is obvious from these figures that the spatial distribution of the deliveries does 

not change with the season because an identical pattern is observed in these figures. What is 

interesting in Figure 31 is the higher rates of deliveries where the pink colour represents the 

delivery of 8,000 or higher, which is significantly higher than the highest categories observed for 

April, June, and September. 

Page 48



 

 

 

Yonge and King 

 

FIGURE 28: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN APRIL 2007 

Market_Apr_Pkgs 


800 to 1999 (15) 

2000 to 3599 (7) 

3600 to 6999 (4) 


0 .5 1 1.5 

Kilometers 

 

 

 


 

FIGURE 29: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN JUNE 2007 

Market_Jun_Pkgs 


900 to 2399 (14) 

2400 to 3799 (6) 

3800 to 6999 (3) 


0 .5 1 1.5 

Kilometers 

Page 49



 

 

 


 

Market_Sep_Pkgs 


800 to 1999 (15) 

2000 to 3799 (6) 

3800 to 6999 (4) 


0 .5 1 1.5 

Kilometers 

FIGURE 30: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN SEPTEMBER 2007 

 

 

 


 

Market_Dec_Pkgs 


1000 to 1999 (13) 

2000 to 3999 (8) 

4000 to 7999 (4) 


0 .5 1 1.5 

Kilometers 

FIGURE 31: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DAILY DELIVERIES IN DECEMBER 2007 

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Another measure of the intensity of courier and same day messenger activity is to plot delivery 

densities in downtown Toronto. The three-dimensional plot reveals that the busiest TAZ in the study 

area attracts a delivery density of 80,000 parcels per square kilometre per day. 

FIGURE 32: DELIVERY DATA DENSITY IN STUDY AREA 

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Overlaying parking tickets with delivery data 

The project team obtained parking ticket data from the City of Toronto to determine the high 

concentration zones for parking tickets in Toronto during 2008. We obtained data for all 

addresses or locations where the ticketing authorities issued in excess of 1,000 tickets. The 

parking ticket data were geo-coded before being analyzed using GIS. Figure 33 presents the 

spatial distribution of the parking tickets, overlaid with the spatial distribution of the courier 

deliveries in the downtown area for December 2007. The pink dots are scaled to represent the 

number of parking tickets issued. It could be seen from Figure 33 that there is a strong overlap 

between the high volume of deliveries and multiple locations where more than 1,000 parking 

tickets were issued in the area bounded by Bay Street to the east, York Street to the West, Front 

Street to the south and Queen Street to the north. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Market_Dec_Pkgs 


1000 to 1999 (13) 

2000 to 3999 (8) 

4000 to 7999 (4) 


Num_Tickets 

 

 

10000 5000 2500 

0 .5 1 1.5 

Kilometers 

FIGURE 33: OVERLAYING PARKING TICKET DATA WITH DELIVERY DATA 

Since the delivery data were obtained for a week in four different months, the project team also 

estimated daily differences in delivery patterns. It appears that the delivery activity usually picks 

up over the course of a week where Monday represents lower volume than other days of the 

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week and Friday represents the highest volume during the week. Despite the rising trend, Table 

13 suggests that the daily distribution is roughly 20% of the week’s deliveries. 

The project team also analyzed the number of packages per delivery and determined the 

averages across the four study months. Table 14 suggests that the primary delivery activity 

involves a single package, with only one in five deliveries involving more than one package. 

Table 14 reveals little difference in the composition of deliveries over the four month period. 

Approximately 80% of all the deliveries contained a single package whereas 14% of deliveries 

contained two to four packages. A small minority of 7% of the deliveries contained five of more 

packages. 

TABLE 13: DISTRIBUTION IN DELIVERY VOLUME FOR THE FOUR MONTHS BY DAY OF WEEK 

Day of week 

MON TUE WED THU FRI 

APR 19.0% 19.4% 20.2% 20.1% 21.2% 

JUN 18.2% 17.9% 21.2% 20.5% 22.1% 

SEP 20.0% 19.2% 20.1% 20.0% 20.5% 

DEC 19.4% 19.6% 20.6% 19.6% 20.8% 

19.1% 19.0% 20.5% 20.1% 21.2% 

TABLE 14: NUMBER OF PACKAGES PER DELIVERY 

Number of packages 

1 2 - 4 5 or more 

APR 78.3% 14.3% 7.34% 

JUN 81.4% 12.5% 6.03% 

SEP 78.4% 14.6% 6.99% 

DEC 79.4% 14.3% 6.29% 

79.4% 14.0% 6.66% 

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 

Couriers and same-day messengers deliver 700 million letters, parcels, and packages every year 

to millions of businesses across Canada. The nearly $8 billion industry serves businesses, 

households, and other institutions that would not be able to conduct their operations without the 

value-added services provided by the Canadian couriers and same day messengers. 

Imagine buying or selling a property, which requires legal documents along with property keys to 

be shipped back and forth between lawyers on the very same day. Imagine a local business 

whose operation depends upon the timely arrival of a critical computer or assembly component. 

Imagine retailers, who depend upon just-in-time deliveries of small packages of goods from many 

different suppliers. Without same-day shipping services, the buyers and sellers would end up 

paying hundreds of dollars (at times additional thousands of dollars) in bridge financing. Imagine 

buying a gift on E-Bay one day and being unable to get it delivered to your home the next day. 

These transactions would not transpire if there were no couriers and same-day messengers. The 

industry behaves similar to infrastructure; hidden but working silently to ensure flows of goods 

and services continue to reach their intended destinations. 

Despite the important role played by EDS in economic growth and social cohesion, the industry 

continues to struggle for recognition of its contribution in enabling the globalized economy. 

Instead of being facilitated by planning authorities, the EDS faces censures and parking fines as it 

strives to deliver time-sensitive material to the consignees who generate value and wealth in 

Canada. 

This report has therefore been prepared for policymakers, media, and the general public to: 








This report concludes that while the importance of couriers and same-day messengers to 

businesses, hospitals, and households is paramount, their utility is not recognized by municipal 

transport planners. While billions are being spent in improving accessibility for workers to the 

business districts across Canada, almost no infrastructure is being dedicated for couriers and 

same-day messengers. Their presence ensures that businesses that choose to locate in central 

business districts are able to receive packages and parcels on time so that they could continue to 

be competitive in a global marketplace. If billions could be spent on bus and LRT stops in 

downtowns, which also take road space away from, why is no dedicated infrastructure being 

planned for couriers and same day messengers whose delivery model measures time in seconds 

and minutes. 

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This report also concludes that various stakeholders are ignorant of the magnitude of operations 

conducted by couriers in Canada. It comes as no surprise that most transport planners and 

municipal politicians in Canada are not fully aware of the fact that couriers and same-day 

messengers deliver 700 million packages and parcels per year. In downtown Toronto, which 

serves as the financial hub for Canada, almost 80,000 parcels, packages, and letters are 

delivered by couriers and same-day messengers each day. 

This report concludes that municipal transport planners are not well-versed with freight and 

logistics planning in general and couriers and same-day messenger services in particular. The 

response from transport planning authorities across Canada suggests that the planning community 

is yet to focus its attention on freight and couriers and same-day messenger services in particular. 

This report finds that transport planning authorities do not collect information about couriers and 

same-day messengers and hence their planning activities are not based on empirical analysis. In 

worst case scenarios, the planning authorities do not consider couriers and same-day messengers 

as a transport planning issue. 

It therefore seems that modern transport planning, as it pertains to regulating couriers and sameday 

messengers, has become dependent upon issuing parking tickets or banning commercial 

vehicles from business districts in Canada as solutions. The practice of banning commercial 

vehicles goes back to ancient Rome when Julius Caesar promulgated the Law of Municipalities in 

44 BC banning wagons from sunrise to sunset on the streets of Rome. It is high time that innovative 

solutions are proposed, which should be better than the ones deployed in ancient Rome, to 

facilitate traffic flow in large urban centres in Canada. 

This report also found that property managers in downtown Toronto, which served as a sample 

for this study, do not recognize improving couriers' services as a value-added service to their 

tenants. The survey of property managers revealed no specific actions being taken in downtown 

Toronto to improve delivery and pickup of express delivery packages, letters and parcels. 

This report did not find a silver bullet to improve freight and logistics in large urban centres. The 

literature review presented in this report did not discover a relevant and pragmatic solution to 

improving couriers and same-day messenger deliveries as well as the LTL freight transportation in 

large urban centres. The practice of using freight consolidation centres, restricting deliveries to 

downtowns during peak periods, and using rail to deliver freight are not practical for the courier 

industry. The proposed alternatives reviewed in the literature are likely to increase delivery times 

and costs, which are likely to reduce competitiveness of businesses located in downtowns. 

Already, businesses have started to shy away from the central business districts because of the 

excessive burdens resulting from higher taxes, restrictive planning practices and the like. The 

results from a recent market study in February 2009 suggest that 50% of all industrial real estate 

transactions in the Greater Toronto Area in fact occurred in Mississauga and not in the City of 

Toronto. 

This report recommends the following: 

1. The municipal transport authorities should improve their understanding and planning of 

freight transportation in general, and couriers and same day messenger services in 

Page 55



particular, in order to be better prepared for regulating mixed modes of traffic in large 

urban centres in Canada. 

2. The municipal transport agencies should include freight and logistics planning as part of 

their mandates, requiring transport planners to conduct studies focusing on freight and 

logistics as well as express deliveries. 

3. Since no explicit infrastructure is provided for couriers and same-day messengers to park 

their vehicles, municipal transport planning authorities should consider undertaking studies 

to provide dedicated parking facilities, examples of which have been presented in this 

report. Parking bays similar to the ones provided for buses in downtowns across Canada 

should be considered for couriers and same-day messengers as their vehicles stop for 

short periods. 

4. The methodology of issuing parking tickets to couriers and same-day messengers and the 

resulting administrative costs incurred by both the couriers and the city should be 

reviewed. The ultimate objective is to reduce the administrative costs for issuing and 

administering tickets for both parties. Alternatives should be investigated including but 

not limited to dedicated parking facilities, potentially supported by user fees or 

adjustment by streamlining the existing rescinding program. The planning authorities 

should not treat couriers and same-day messengers as merely traffic violators but instead 

treat the EDS industry as value-added service providers. 

5. Technological solutions exist today where Canadian companies have come up with 

advanced GPS solutions that not only facilitate route guidance, but could also serve to 

implement a completely automated system of enforcing user fees. The proposed system 

would use GPS-enabled vehicles to automatically account for user fees for parking in 

designated spots within the downtown and automatically transfer fees to the municipal 

authorities using state-of-the-art wireless communications. Such advanced systems would 

help reduce cost of administering parking as well as improving efficiencies and 

productivity for the city. These user fee regimes could be designed to be demand 

responsive to encourage couriers to pay less by parking on streets with less traffic 

volume during off peak periods. 

6. Couriers and same-day messengers should encourage drivers to park in designated spots 

whenever they are available. 

7. Buildings to be encouraged to offer reasonable drop off and loading facilities. The 

buildings are the indirect beneficiaries of efficient deliveries. This could be applied to 

older buildings as well, given criteria and time for implementation. All new buildings 

should conform to loading bay and drop off regulations. 

There may be several ideas that will blend together a workable solution. For example rescinding 

plus registered courier companies with signed vehicles. In addition a longer term solution with the 

building owners, could be an efficient method, since infrastructure costs will have to be borne by 

the commercial enterprises and their tenants 

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APPENDICES 

Appendix 1: Literature review of Urban Logistics strategies 

This section reviews issues associated with urban freight in urban centres. In some Canadian urban 

areas commercial vehicles are estimated to account for approximately 15% of all vehicular 

activity. Therefore a review of strategies to improve the flow of commercial vehicles and reduce 

their impact on traffic and environment is of great value. (Hunt and Stefan, 2007). It is also 

important to note that cities across the world are struggling with traffic congestion, which has 

worsened over the years and, if left unaddressed, is unlikely to fix itself. 

While research suggests that freight characteristics do not vary greatly in different urban centres 

(Dablanc, 2007), other factors such as road geometry and local governance make it impossible to 

find one solution that will be appropriate for all cities. Regrettably, the most common action taken 

by cities is strict regulation or ban on large truck traffic, leading to the frustration of freight 

companies (Dablanc, 2007). These companies are rarely consulted when such policies are 

developed or put into practice leaving freight operators and logistic companies to work around 

regulations and find their own solutions, which could hardly be regarded as effective transport 

planning. 

While LTL freight is destined for loading docks, courier and same day messenger vehicles have to 

deliver packages, parcels, and letters to businesses in downtowns, and hence are often forced to 

park on roads as dedicated parking spots are not provided for the industry. In 2006 alone, three 

major express delivery companies (FedEx, United Parcel Service and Purolator) were awarded 

34,000 parking tickets amounting to approximately $1.5 million in fine (Chung, 2007). Currently 

these fines are included in the cost of doing business, however a solution is needed where couriers 

and same day messengers can work with municipal governments to develop solutions to remedy 

the situation. 

Defining Urban Freight 

Urban freight can be defined as the movement of goods within a city. This comprises both the 

freight that must be distributed once it arrives into a city and the deliveries made between 

locations in the same city. Urban freight can be further broken down into two sub categories: LTL 

freight carriers and couriers and same day messengers. Couriers and express delivery companies 

often face different challenges than those dealing with LTL freight. 

Couriers and express delivery logistics 

Express delivery companies most often transport letters, parcels, and packages to and from city 

centres. The intercity modes employed by these companies, such as the cargo planes used by 

FedEx and UPS, are not analyzed here. Instead the focus is on the urban part of the trip. For 

deliveries, couriers often employ small trucks or vans since they require less capacity to carry the 

relatively small parcels and letters that are often delivered by these couriers. 

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Same day messengers often deal solely with the transport of goods within the urban core of a 

city, employing at times bicycle messengers almost exclusively. Bicycle messengers have the 

advantage of being able to manoeuvre between traffic with ease even during times of high 

congestion. Same day messengers occasionally employ other modes of transport, such as walking 

or skateboarding, as well as automobile messengers when there is a demand for those services. 

LTL freight comprising consumer durables and B2B logistics 

LTL freight comprises consumer durables delivered to retail establishments to be sold to customers 

and goods exchanged between businesses to be used as intermediate inputs to the production 

process. The retail establishments and businesses that are frequent recipients of deliveries have 

often been designed with features that make accepting freight easier. Features such as delivery 

bays and loading zones make it easier to distribute to these areas compared to deliveries made 

by express couriers, which are often made to street side buildings in busy urban cores. 

Challenges of urban freight and logistics 

Congestion proves to be a major issue in most cities. All levels of government continually struggle 

to find a solution to this issue with little success. Urban freight has been recognized as a major 

contributor to traffic in urban cores. Cities rely on the delivery of goods to function, making this 

issue even more difficult to deal with. Most strategies targeting urban freight movements put forth 

by cities are to primarily designed to deal with this issue. It can be seen as an umbrella issue that 

encompasses the other challenges associated with urban freight. Solving these concerns would 

likely lessen other issues as well. 

Congestion continues to worsen with the increase in population and automobile ownership. In some 

cities, public transit systems are reaching capacity during peak hours, making auto driving a more 

attractive option. As congestion worsens, bans on commercial vehicles are suggested as a solution 

to mitigate congestion woes. While this may help in reducing congestion to some degree, freight 

deliveries must be made at some point, which could simply lead to the extension of peak traffic 

hours. 

Safety is becoming an increased concern when operating in the urban environment. Delivery 

vehicles are often larger and heavier than most other traffic making them harder to manoeuvre, 

which can lead to safety issues (Visser, 2006). 

Strategies to reduce impact of freight on congestion 

This section examines the strategies adopted by various jurisdictions to address concerns resulting 

from freight transportation. Various cities have adopted various strategies to deal with these 

problems with varying results. The following sections outline some of these strategies and results. 

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City Logistics from Germany 

City-Logistik is a system set up in Germany with the goal of better organizing the delivery of 

goods within urban areas to increase efficiency. A generic carrier company is used to carry goods 

from various forwarding companies to reduce the number of vehicles necessary for delivery. 

In the early 90s many City-Logistik projects were undertaken in Germany and Switzerland with 

promising results. Unfortunately in the second half of the 90s many transport companies stopped 

participating in City-Logistik programs (Visser, Binsbergen and Nemoto, 1999). The reasons cited 

by these companies were both commercial and due to the lack of public policy support. 

While the concept seemed beneficial for the involved parties, it was not implemented in such a 

way to make it attractive to all users. Lessons can be learned from City-Logistik on the execution 

of similar strategies. 

Off-peak delivery mechanisms 

This strategy consists of limiting the time when deliveries can be made to the off-peak hours of the 

day. Sometimes, this strategy allows deliveries during the time between the morning and 

afternoon rush hours, but oftentimes it restricts deliveries to evenings only. These restrictions are 

often carried out through policed bans, but other methods, such as voluntary avoidance, are also 

possible. 

The idea behind this strategy is that if large truck operations are removed from peak periods, 

trucks can travel when there is less congestion and loads on the streets can be reduced during rush 

hours. In theory this would be beneficial to both the deliverer as well as the community, since 

congestion during peak hours is reduced. The higher operating speeds that could then be 

achieved would lead to less time spent on the road, increasing efficiency and reducing associated 

emissions (Campbell, 1995). 

There are several issues associated with this strategy. The most important is the fact that 

oftentimes it is not possible for freight deliveries to be made in the evening without impairing 

business operations. Requiring extended staffing and operations outside of regular work hours 

leads to increased costs associated with accepting deliveries. In addition, evening deliveries and 

pickups would add an extra day to any task that requires a shipment to be sent or received. 

These bans should not affect express deliveries as much since couriers and same day messengers 

use small step vans and automobiles along with bicycles, which are not usually restricted under the 

ban. There would be some congestion relief because of this measure but it is often difficult for 

cities to impose such bans because previous attempts have shown adverse economic impacts for 

couriers as well as the increased concern over noise pollution in the evenings (Campbell, 1995). 

Small-sized trucks 

This measure is closely related to the previous one. The benefit of using smaller trucks depends on 

the nature of freight being carried. For express deliveries, small trucks prove to be the most 

effective since they are carrying smaller parcels and letters. Also smaller sized trucks allow for 

greater mobility in the narrow streets in urban centres. 

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Oftentimes large truck bans can also lead to a shift to smaller sized trucks by freight deliverers 

(Campbell, 1995). However, this shift would simply negate any effectiveness of a large truck ban 

and can be counterproductive in reducing congestion due to the increased number of smaller 

trucks on the road (Castro, Hyodo and Kuse, 2003). 

A consultation with industry leaders suggested that the EDS industry relies primarily on smaller 

vehicles for pickup and delivery to urban centres and large trucks constitute only a small percent 

of the fleet operated by EDS in Canada. 

Urban freight consolidation centres 

Urban consolidation centers (UCCs) are areas around the edge of a city that act as points where 

freight from various locations can be brought together for the purpose of consolidating those with 

similar destinations for fewer truck trips into the urban core. This strategy has been implemented 

in various cities with varying results. Some European cities have attempted to set up similar urban 

consolidation centres but have found that the associated costs outweigh the benefits (Dablanc, 

2007). Some of these benefits are not easily quantifiable and are often not taken into account in 

analysis. Some governments are implementing policies, such as carbon taxation, that would make 

the benefits of UCCs, such as the reduction of environmental impacts, more attractive to 

companies. 

However this has not been the case for all the attempts to implement consolidation centres. Most 

examples that have been successful have been public sector ventures with initial incentives to 

encourage freight suppliers to use the services offered. One consolidation centre in Bristol, United 

Kingdom, was supplying various merchants in a retail strip and was effective and popular with 

suppliers. It initially was funded by the European Union but found that it was soon able to 

negotiate a fee from the users for the services offered and reduce its reliance on funding (Jack, 

2006). 

There is also an example in Amsterdam that has proved to be very successful. Shippers in 

Amsterdam face two difficulties. The city’s core is difficult to navigate by trucks due to the 

presence of canals and narrow, pre-automobile era streets. The city has a restriction in place that 

all deliveries must be made between 7 and 11am. Due to the light rail transit (LRT) system not 

being affected by road congestion because light rail is segregated from the street network, the 

local government decided to test a pilot program using a UCC and freight cars on the LRT lines to 

deliver goods into the core. The dense LRT network and the presence of sidings on the LRT 

network allow freight cars to be unloaded close to their destination without blocking either 

automobiles or public transit. The program has proven to be a success and as part of its initial 

agreement will continue to operate without subsidies. Through this system it is estimated that 

approximately half the truck traffic into the city core could be eliminated (Barrow, 2007). 

Shortcomings of above-mentioned strategies 

Although successful, conditions comparable to Amsterdam do not exist in any major Canadian city. 

The light rail system in Canada is as much affected by congestion as other vehicles because for 

most part street cars operate on shared right of way. Furthermore, the passenger generated 

demand for light rail services is such that it leaves at present no existing capacity that could be 

Page 60



used by EDS. And lastly, the expensive adjustments required to retrofit the light rail stops and 

street configuration for loading and off loading freight may make this option unviable. 

Unfortunately the above-mentioned strategies have not been proven to be fully effective 

wherever they are used. They are being adjusted and adapted in various cities to work to their 

full potential. It is often difficult to take a strategy that works in one location and transfer it 

elsewhere with the same results because there are many unique factors specific to each city. 

Strategies must be developed for specific cities with the cooperation of all involved parties. 

Consider the case of UCC in Canada. First, most EDS operators have their hubs located in urban 

areas from which they serve the urban markets. Some EDS operators have their hubs located 

within 2-km of the CBD. However, large scale location of hubs in downtowns is unlikely to result in 

improved efficiencies and lower congestion. This is because the in-bound traffic of larger trucks 

would then increase to downtowns. The large sized trucks are used to serve the hubs where 

parcels, letters , and packages are moved to smaller vehicles for delivery to final destination. 

While the urban consolidation centres worked well in some cities, they failed in others. This was 

either due to poor implementation or the general inappropriateness of this system in that city. 

One theme that is inconsistent in the literature is the importance of the cooperation of the private 

and public sectors in planning solutions to urban freight issues. This is vital in order to make 

decisions that will represent the best interest of all involved parties. 

Concluding comments from literature review 

The purpose of the literature review was to examine what strategies to improve urban logistics 

have been successful in Canada and other jurisdictions. The second purpose of the review was to 

determine if experiences from other jurisdictions could be repeated in Canada. With all the 

challenges facing freight carriers, they have always managed to make adjustments to deal with 

them. Communities are constantly trying to deal with congestion issues and environmental concerns, 

leaving the freight industry struggling to maintain profits in an increasingly competitive market 

(Taniguchi, 2002). 

Some strategies outlined in this literature review may prove to be effective in reducing congestion 

thereby making streets in urban cores easier to navigate. Unfortunately, most strategies observed 

in other jurisdictions attempt to reduce congestion by making it more difficult for freight vehicles to 

operate. Large truck bans often do not affect express deliveries; however they do force regular 

freight operators to make deliveries at times that are often not ideal. This leads to additional 

costs that must be passed down to the end consumers. 

The literature review suggests that most strategies do not consider the adverse impact of 

interventions on EDS. It is apparent that if strategies were devised in a more participatory 

environment, EDS companies would be involved in the planning and development of strategies to 

combat urban congestion. 

Most research in urban freight focuses on LTL freight, which mostly comprises large item deliveries 

to retail locations and shipments between businesses. Express and courier deliveries are very 

poorly represented in the literature. This area of research requires in-depth analysis to ensure 

that stopgap measures, such as banning all commercial vehicles from urban core in peak hours of 

Page 61



business, do not end up hurting an industry that delivers 700 million packages to Canadian 

businesses and consumers. 

Page 62



Bibliography 

Barrow, Keith (2007, November). Light ideas for urban freight. International Railway Journal; Nov 

2007; 47, 11. 

Campbell, James F. (1995). Using small trucks to circumvent large truck restrictions: Impacts on 

truck emissions and performance measures. Transpn. Res.-A. Vol. 29A, No. 6, pp. 445-458. 

Castro, Jun T., Hyodo, Tetsuro and Kuse, Hirohito (2003, October). A study on the impact and 

effectiveness of the truck ban scheme in metro Manila. Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for 

Transportation Studies, Vol.5, October, 2003. 

Chung, Andrew (2007, June 17). Curbside justice nets $80 million. The Toronto Star, NEWS A01. 

Dablanc, Laetitia (2007). Goods transport in large European cities: Difficult to organize, difficult 

to modernize. Transportation Research Part A 41 280–285. 

Hunt, J.D. and Stefan, K.J. (2007). Tour-based microsimulation of urban commercial movements. 

Transportation Research Part B 41 981–1013. 

Jack, Simon (2006, May 6). Logistics – Diverting deliveries. Retrieved from Factiva, Inc. 

Oxford Economics (2009). The impact of Express Delivery Industry on the global economy. Oxford, 

United Kingdom. 

Pivo, Gary, Carlson, Daniel, Kitchen, Matthew and Billen, Don, (2002). Learning from truckers: 

truck drivers’ views on the planning and design of urban and suburban centers. Journal of 

Architectural Planning and Research 19:1. 

Taniguchi, Thompson (2002). Modeling city logistics. Freight Transportation 2002 (1790):45-51. 

Visser, Johan, Binsbergen, Arjan Van and Nemoto, Toshinori (1999, July). Urban freight transport 

policy and planning. First International Symposium on City Logistics, Cairns, Australia. 

Visser, J.G.S.N (2006) Urban freight transport policies and planning in Europe: an overview and 

classification of policy measures. National Urban Freight Conference February 1-3, 2006, 

Conference Papers, Long Beach , CA . 

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Appendix 2: Urban/Transportation Planner Survey form 

Hello (name of recipient): 

My name is Mateen Mahboubi and I am completing research at Ryerson University on the subject 

of courier and express delivery in Canadian urban cores and would like to request your time in 

completing this survey. We hope that this research can help to point out and address the 

challenges facing this industry in Canada. The focus of this research is courier (i.e. FedEx and UPS) 

and express delivery (i.e. bicycle messengers and one man operations) businesses. We are 

currently not looking at regular freight or standard mail deliveries. 

If you could please read over the survey and answer any questions you can, it would be greatly 

appreciated. Thank you for your time. 

1. Approximately how many courier companies operate in your city? 

2. How many express delivery businesses operate in your city? 

3.a) On average, how many packages/parcels are delivered during a weekday in your city by 

these forms of delivery? 

3.b) How many in the downtown core? 

4. Do you provide for the special needs of Express and Courier deliveries within the downtown 

core using any of the following methods? Please explain. 

- Dedicated Loading bays 

- Dedicated Parking areas (on or off street, for free or for charge) 

- Dedicated right of way 

5. Do you have any provisions for couriers and express delivery companies in your transportation 

plan? If yes, what are they? 

Page 64



6.a) If funds were available, what would you do to improve the letter and parcel delivery 

services for the businesses located in your city in general? 

6.b) How about the ones located in the downtown core or other congested places? 

7. Do you see any problems facing express/courier delivery in your city? If yes, please 

elaborate. 

8. On a scale of 0-5, 0 being none at all and 5 being the highest: How do you find these 

companies contribute to congestion? 

9. Are there parking/loading zones designated for couriers/express delivery in your downtown 

core? 

10. Do you find that bike couriers pose a safety risk to the public in the downtown core? 

11. How many parking violation officers are employed by your city? 

12. What is the total revenue generated from parking tickets in your city? 

13. How much of this revenue comes from express delivery businesses and couriers? 

14. Any final comments that you would like to share regarding courier and express deliveries in 

your city? 

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Appendix 3: Letter to property managers requesting assistance 

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challenges facing express delivery services in canada's urban centres

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