challenges facing express delivery services in canada's urban centres

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