There are no borders on the Internet, the saying goes, but Canadians who sell to international buyers on eBay or though their own websites disagree. The man, who sells small sporting goods items on eBay and Kijiji, said he saves about $6 on a package destined for another province by shipping back into Canada from the United States. One Ontario online seller, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the savings are substantial, particularly for goods travelling across Canada or to rural areas. Nolan says he has a few Canadian customers who ship back into Canada via the U.S., but it takes longer and he doesn't recommend it. Yet that is, in some cases, cheaper than paying Canada Post to handle it alone. Postal Service, back over the border and into the hands of Canada Post, which delivers it to the buyer. Their boxes follow a circuitous route: Into the hands of a courier in Ontario, over the U.S. Some Canadian online sellers even ship into Canada from the United States. Parcels are the fastest-growing line of service in the core Canada Post business, growing 6.2 per cent to $952-million in revenue in the first nine months of the fiscal year.Ĭanada Post also owns 91 per cent of courier company Purolator Inc., which earned $29-million before tax in the first nine months of the fiscal year, compared to a $165-million pretax loss at the core Canada Post unit. Package delivery is one of the few bright spots. The federal Crown corporation said this month it would phase out home delivery and shed as many as 8,000 jobs in an attempt to save $700-million to $900-million a year and get a handle on its massive pension deficit. The competitiveness of those services also represents a challenge for Canada Post Corp., which hopes to rely more on its parcel delivery service for profit as letter mail declines. North American consumers are spending more of their money online than ever, giving a boost to package-delivery companies, from giants FedEx Corp. His customers include candle makers, craftspeople and sellers of collectibles with a value of less than $200. Nolan, who charges 65 cents a package for the service. "Our business grew out of my necessity to get mail to the post office," said Mr. Nolan's company took about 200,000 packages over the border, up from 25,000 two years ago. His company, Chit Chat Books, has evolved into Chit Chats Express, a courier business with two Toronto-area warehouses that helps small online sellers reach international markets by skipping Canada Post's more expensive parcel service. Nolan makes the trip these days, it's in a cube van or one of three parcel trucks stuffed with boxes destined for American – and some Canadian – buyers. "People would say to me: 'Are you going down? Can you take my stuff down?'" Mr. His little green Suzuki gradually became fuller – and the trips more frequent – as other small booksellers turned to him to save postage costs and reach the massive American market. customers to save the fees charged by Canada Post. Online bookseller Derek Nolan used to make an occasional 90-minute drive from Toronto to a post office in Niagara Falls, N.Y., where he would mail packages to U.S.
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