Bike courier hub in old Montreal bus station teeming with activity over COVID-19 holiday

Berri bus station has become bike delivery hub Montreal’s plan to turn the Berri bus station into a delivery hub has taken on a new significance.

MONTREAL — In Montreal, many gifts are delivered by bike.

Montrealers making the rounds for holiday shopping this season have been witness to a novel sight on the street – deliveries being made by bike.

“We don’t have issues with parking, we don’t have issues with congestion, and with Montreal being Montreal, congestion is everywhere,” said Geoffrey Fuzet, who owns Livraison Velo Montreal. He says he can deliver up to 20 parcels in a day by bike.

Fuzet’s company is one of three currently running out of a now unused portion of the old Ilot Voyageur bus station – which is now a delivery hub for bicycle couriers under a city project called Colibri.

Some of the couriers roll using bikes that are close to the traditional size – such as those used by SOS Courier. “With high density areas like Montreal, there’s construction… a lot,” said Olivier Pigeon, the company’s vice president. Using smaller bikes allows his company to make nimble deliveries amid traffic and closed-off streets.

Some of the bikes running out of the hub are the size of pickup trucks – Purolator has a fleet of them. In a single day, Purolator delivered 600 parcels using its fleet of e-cargo bikes, said Roger Alouche, Purolator’s senior director for strategic operations.

Purolator is studying how its operation is running in Montreal with an eye toward introducing the concept in other Canadian cities. It expects to deliver 46 million parcels this holiday season nationwide.