challenges facing express delivery services in canada's urban centres

Institute of Housing & Mobility
Challenges facing the EDS industry in Canada's urban centres
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.
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