News / Tariff turmoil leaves Canada's ecommerce sector unable to plan ahead

Canadian ecommerce has been left in something of a holding pattern amid tariff turmoil from the southern neighbour and, fresh from announcing a huge cut in staff numbers, UPS appears on the hunt for gig drivers to meet online demand.

It has been an up and down few weeks for Canada in its relations with the US, with the hard work put in by prime minister Mark Carney to win round the hostile President Trump seemingly undone by the actions of Ontario premier Doug Ford.

Mr Ford uploaded a video the state had made featuring former US president Ronald Reagan slamming the impact of tariffs on American prosperity, leading to an additional 10% levy.

That the country scored a win after several Republicans went against vice president JD Vance to join Senate Democrats in approving legislation that will revoke Trump-imposed tariffs against Canada and Brazil has not addressed the niggling current issue.

One forwarder told The Loadstar the problem for Canadian ecommerce was, that with little indication on what is happening as far as Canada-US relations go, no one is able to plan accordingly – a refrain heard around the world lately.

The forwarder suggested the opportunities for ecommerce were there, with many international and US sellers considering the country a strong prospect as a staging outpost to, if not avoid, delay the payment of duties.

“But the future for Canadian ecommerce and for cross-border traffic depends on the outcome of tariff negotiations, and even then, we are not expecting to see volumes bounce back to the old cross-border highs anytime soon,” one forwarder said.

Meanwhile, UPS it seems is looking to plug a hole in its driver numbers, or rather looking to bring in more ‘gig drivers’ to help offset the massive cuts to staff numbers, 34,000 in total, and leave it well stocked for ecommerce surges.

The 117-year-old company announced during its Q3 earnings call this week it was trimming back staff alongside the 50% reduction in its business with Amazon by the second half of next year, a decision that has not gone down well with unions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, part of the problem is that UPS’s payment structure is based on an older, more lucrative B2B operating model but with this being usurped by far less-profitable B2C volumes, the company has struggled to retain profitability.

Describing B2C as UPS’s “Achilles’ heel”, former company executive and now president of iDrive logistics Glenn Gooding said the foray into the residential package market was failing to “offset the labour expense”.

By turning to gig drivers, the company hopes to meet sudden surges in ecommerce demand that accompany mass marketing events like Amazon’s Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, without being weighed down by salaried staff the rest of the year.

Unsurprisingly, the Teamsters union is upset by the move – claiming the recent job cull contravened  UPS’s contractual obligation to create 30,000 jobs under the current national master agreement.

The union said: “Make no mistake, this company and its investors don’t give a damn about the Teamsters who create their wealth. Our union has fought to make Teamster jobs at UPS the best in the industry, and now we have to fight to defend them.”