Saskatoon's Tiger Courier to pounce on STC rural parcel shipping

A Saskatoon-based company appears ready to take over much of the business left behind by the shutdown of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company.

Tiger Courier will keep the parcels moving in rural areas by partnering with Greyhound Canada.

"When we first heard about STC shutting down it was as much a shock to us as it was to everybody else," said Bobbie Tsinkorang, the company's director of business development and marketing.

STC is a victim of the provincial government's most recent budget, and while Tiger Courier can't do much about bus passengers stranded by the closure, it can maintain the shipping routes.

Tsinkorang said that many of Tiger's employees are from rural Saskatchewan and they spoke convincingly about the need to keep STC's drop off points open.

"You know the farmers could still come into the regular places and the community could still go there and meet, whether it is the local gas station or the co-op, or the Chinese food store."

Tsinkorang said the company will begin with 155 STC locations with an eye to expanding to the full 210 routes, if there is a business case to be made for them. She estimated the annual revenue of the rural routes to be more than a million dollars.

Not only will Tiger Courier work to maintain rural connections, Tsinkorang said they will offer customers Canada-wide service, something STC could not.

"If they wanted to ship from Wadena to Watson today they can do that and then if they want to ship from Wadena to Newfoundland they can also do that with us."

Tiger Courier will also be going after some of STC major parcel shipping contracts including the provincial government and the Crown corporations.