Purolator wants to deliver to metro stations
Pierre-André Normandin says Purolator wants to deliver parcels in the metro, but it’s not exactly true. What they want is to place lockboxes near metro stations so people can pick up delivered items more conveniently if they’re not home all day.
I’m not clear how this is better than Canada Post’s flex delivery service, with which it would compete (according to Wikipedia, Purolator is 91% owned by Canada Post anyway), and it doesn’t have the sheer offhand convenience of the outfit that sells hardware doodads and lets you pick them up at any metro dépanneur (no box, no keys, no vandalism).
dhomas 11:52 on 2019-01-13 Permalink
If you ever order from 123ink.ca/living.ca/primecables.ca (all part of the same company, Shopper+), they already deliver to the majority of the Montreal metro’s dépanneurs, free of charge and within a day or two. I actually try to use them instead of Amazon whenever I can. I would prefer this model to the one Purolator is proposing, which seems unnecessarily complex. The dépanneurs receive shipments regularly already and they are always staffed. I’ve had a great experience with this model, and I would say the only downside is that the selection is limited to what the Shopper+ network has to offer.
Kate 12:22 on 2019-01-13 Permalink
Yep, that’s the outfit I’ve bought cables and other oddments from. Any metro dep with Chinese owners will take delivery for you – it’s great.
Chris 12:25 on 2019-01-13 Permalink
But could that system really scale? Those places surely have very little storage space.
Kate 12:38 on 2019-01-13 Permalink
Chris, I don’t think they could – I was just praising that system in passing.
But the Canada Post flex service does have room, and they should be doing more to publicize it. If postal stuff comes to my home address it ends up at an inconvenient postal counter in a strip mall where I never go, instead of which I can pop in and pick something up a block from the metro, where it’s stored inside.
I think what I’m trying to say is that Canada Post has already invented this thing.
Bill Binns 14:15 on 2019-01-14 Permalink
I have not found Flex delivery to the post office to be convenient in the least. For some reason. it always ads a day or two to the delivery times. Worse, the closest post office to me is inside a Pharma Prix and has a single employee. I either get stuck in a long line or in a short line behind someone with extremely complex post office business that takes eons to complete. I am all for lock boxes but I’m sure Purolator will find a way to screw it up.