Cross-border parcel service

Pitney Bowes and eShipper have partnered to create a Cross Border Service called PBX.

It is designed to help Canadian users to minimize delays, undeliverable shipments, and shipping costs for all of their shipping to the U.S., and lift restrictions on shipping FDA registered products across the border. The service is fully integrated with the eShipper platform.

According to a study by Pitney Bowes, 27 million parcels will be shipped from Canada to the U.S. by the end of this year. The collaboration began when the two companies were looking for a partner to create a reliable, cost-effective and technologically powered cross-border service.

Induct in Buffalo

Standard practice for most Canadian businesses in the GTA has been to induct their shipments into Buffalo, New York, then ship to their customers no matter where they live across the U.S. With tens of thousands of shipments going to Buffalo each day, delays are imminent, especially during peak times such as the Covid-19 lockdown, as well as the upcoming Black Friday and holiday seasons.

Not only are delays inevitable, so are higher shipping costs. When delivering to customers in California for example, shipping from a hub across the country in Buffalo is going to inevitably increase rates.

Instead of inducting shipments into an already crowded hub, eShipper’s PBX will use the Pitney Bowes 450,000 square foot fulfillment centre in Indiana.

The automated sortation system there decides where shipments should be inducted depending on the zip code of the end customer. Once packages leave, they are routed through to their final destinations via USPS. As demand increases for the cross border service, eShipper plans to branch out fulfillment into Pitney Bowes other hubs located in the East and West Coast.

FDA products

eShipper users can choose from either Select Parcel service, with 3-7 days transit time, or First Class mail with guaranteed 3 days transit time.

PBX Service includes capabilities to ship FDA products, competitive rates for USPS for both heavy and light parcels, and minimized returns.

Pitney Bowes’s software corrects wrong addresses before shipping out, reducing the risk of undeliverable shipments. All returns will come to eShipper’s US hub in Florida to be consolidated and sorted before being shipped back to its hub in Canada, unless the merchant chooses to re-ship to another address or destroy the product.

Today, eShipper has free pickups from facilities in specific locations within the GTA, while drop-offs are available to the eShipper hub, allowing businesses outside of these pickup locations to utilize the service. In the next six months, eShipper plans to expand across the country in Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton, where coast to coast service will be available with multiple entry points into the US.

PBX is now available within the GTA.