The Ben Mulroney Show - A Canada Post strike too far -- two companies bail for good

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

- Alok Ahuja, CEO & co founder of Trexity - Juhee Cha,  Head of Public Affairs for ChitChats   If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Twitter: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ TikTok: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Enjoy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. Hey, thanks, son. What do I owe you? Don't worry about it. It's payday. Payday, huh? I bet you it went straight into your bank account and you didn't even check your pay stuff. My what? Your pay stuff. Back in my day, you had to wait for a physical check. Then, you had to go to the bank. Deposit it, and wait for it to clear.

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to help grow Canada's economy. Learn more at pathwaysalliance.ca. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. If you've spent even a little bit of time with this show, you know that I stand firmly behind entrepreneurs in this country. I think they've built this country. They build the jobs in this country. They build the businesses in this country.

They pay the taxes in this country. They build communities in this country. And before the last Canada Post strike that saw Canada Post workers try to get job security on the backs of entrepreneurs who do not have job security I beg them on this radio station do not do this

all your problems that you have today will still exist after the holidays but you are going to be taking advantage of these entrepreneurs who have no job security who depend on the holidays to get them through the leaner months

of the year. They did not listen to me they lost me as an ally and I realized at that point they're going to do this again and sure enough they're back on strike And now we have a story and we have two guests from the private sector, entrepreneurs themselves, from the private sector who've said no more, we are going to create a solution for entrepreneurs across this country where they do not have to depend on Canada Post ever again.

Now, before I introduce them, I do want to point out that I do work on the side with a number of entrepreneurs, a number of startups, and one of our guests is one of those, the CEO and my boss. I have been told by this radio station that I am so long as I disclose, and so long as it's of material value to our listeners and to the country, I have full right to bring this man on to tell his story. And for the record, I did not know that any of this was going on until he brought it to my attention just a few short days ago. Please welcome to the show.

Aluk Aloka, who is a CEO and co-founder of Trexity and Jewie Chah, head of public affairs for chit-chats. To the both of you, I say, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you. Sorry, that was a big, that was a big intro. But why don't, Aloka, I'm going to start with you. Do us a favor and tell me why you're here today. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having us, Ben.

And we're here for a simple reason. You know, we built two incredible tech companies. founded, started right here in Canada because we believe that supply chain and logistics has been done in such an archaic way for many, many years. I'm a giant fan of what Chit Chats is building. And at Trexity, we've been doing this for just about seven years now. And we decided to build a platform, a technology platform that would enable any local retailer business, small business, large business, enterprise business to move packages faster than they

could have ever imagined. Truly own their customers' doorsteps in a very intimate way. their customers' data, don't offload to a marketplace, and not having to depend on legacy supply chain platforms that don't do their business justice. And we've been able to scale this across Canada, working with entrepreneurs, small business, large business. And over those years, we caught the attention and they caught our attention as well as chit chats.

And they're doing some incredible work as well. Okay. So let's ask, Julie, tell us about chit chats. Sure. Sure. So we've been around since 2001. Our founder, Derek Nolan, he actually took matters right into his own hands. He drove packages across the border into the U.S. and dropped them off at the post office himself. He was frustrated with the high shipping costs and he saw there was a need. And soon his truck, his little green station wagon was full and he was taking all his other friends and other people were clamoring to get on onto his truck to take the packages across. So now today, Chichats is a full shipping platform. We help and support Canadian entrepreneurs across Canada to save money on postage and make shipping easier. We enable them, as Alok said, to help them continue their business. We provide them innovative platform tools that allow them to directly integrate with their e-commerce

like Shopify, Etsy, and New Commerce. And basically, retailers just drop off their packages at one of our locations or schedule a pickup, and then we handle the rest from customs paperwork and to getting the packages to the final carrier. Okay, so you've got two companies that are addressing aspects of delivery, different aspects. You're banding together. Alok, tell me what you guys want businesses across this country to know this morning. Yeah, absolutely. So with chit-chat, you can go across the border, across the globe.

With Trexity, we're hyper-local, right? We get it right from the customers or the merchant's doorstep right over to their house. And for us, that's always been the focus, right? Being that Shop 5 logistics where a small business can sign up within seconds and a couple of minutes later, be on the road doing deliveries to the shoppers that are in their cities. And so what we've decided to do, and we're announcing it here for the first time on the Ben Maroni show, is that Trexity and Chit Chats are officially going to partner

to help blanket all of Canada to empower the needs of these small businesses and retailers so that they can ultimately get their packages to a Chit Chats location in a very efficient way with Trexity and our platform, all tracked in real time, up to the minute, same day delivery. And then once at Chit Chats, spread across whether that's local or across the globe of where it needs to go. Juhi, I'll let you step in and explain that last piece. Sure, yeah.

So you'll be that first mile to bring it to Chit Chats because we know that access is what blocks a lot of people using Chit Chats. They want to see Chit Chats in all the locations. So that will help close that little gap. And then once we get it, we will then process it and hand it off to our carriers. So we work with multiple carriers in Canada and to the U.S. and internationally. So this allows Canadian entrepreneurs to grow their business, open up marketplaces, and

compete globally, which is ultimately our mission is to help them succeed and grow their business. So you guys have been working on this for a couple of years. That's what Alok told me. What was the impetus for starting this conversation? And you can't predict when Canada Post is going to go on strike, but here they were doing it for the second time in under 12 months. Was this strike the final straw, Alec?

I think it was. I mean, chit-chats reached out to us about two years ago. I loved their model. And then they actually started using us as their last mile partner. So we were delivering for chit-chats. And we started to learn more about the team and how they operate. And about a week ago or two weeks ago, they, you know, we have these meetings together as companies and we said, this could be a great time for us.

We think this is going to be happening again. We really hope it doesn't happen twice in less than 12 months, but here we are with another strike. And we said, this is probably a great opportunity for us to join forces because everybody knows this, but all of our users and those that are going to be coming on the platform is at Trexie, we give retailers a multitude of ways to use us, right? Whether that's through an e-com integration or they just log into Trexity, upload their deliveries, and away they go. And so right away, because of that flexibility, we know that this would appeal to a lot of the

retailers that are currently using Chit Chats as well. Okay, so you've got a lot of retailers across the country who feel that they have no option right now. And all of a sudden, they might be hearing this. Who does this work for? You said everyone. Does this really work for every type of retailer? So all retailers across Canada, right, the small to medium business, the Etsy shops, even those on Facebook marketplace, anybody wanting to move items across the city or even across the country.

That's why we partnered, right? Because we've always been Trexie as that local provider. But now that we're arm and arm with Chit Chats, it's not just us bringing it to you locally, but now we can send it, get it over to the Chit Chats location and get that package brought anywhere in the world. And we don't have to depend, unfortunately, on these legacy shipping platforms that choose when and when they don't want to work. And that's a predicament for all retail.

We have less than two minutes left. So I want to get two more questions. And so, Julie, talk to me about the cost. of, like, let's say, let's say it's documents, right? Let's say it's a stack of documents. Is this going to be cost prohibitive compared to what they're used to paying with Canada Post? So some of the service are, like, for the public sector,

like with Canada Post, like they have letter mail. They're the ones that do that. We still have services that you can use that allow you to facilitate shipping that. And we're working on getting it as low as possible. We are focused on like kind of the parcel. That's where we are, specialization is. But we do, during both all the previous strikes, we've had so many people reach out to us.

I've had another government agent say, hey, we need to send these documents out across Canada. Can you help us? Okay. So we're here to support in any way we can. All right. I'm going to give you 30 seconds aloke. If a business says, you know what? I want to try this out right now.

I want to get out of the Canada Post racket. What do you tell them? How do they sign up today? So simple. Go to Trexity.com. T-R-E-X-I-T-I-T. create an account. It takes a couple of seconds. And then a few minutes later, you can be on the road doing deliveries. You upload your addresses. We'll give you templates to help you out. It's very simple to use. We have an extremely low barrier to entry. We've designed this platform for mom and pops. All right. This was we built this off the backs of small business owners across this country and allowing them. And we know they have a lot to do when they're running their business and owning their deliveries and navigating an a logistics platform is not something that they need to focus on. So low barrier to. entry. Go to the website, sign up.

Thank you. All right. Look, we got to leave it there. So Trexity X chit-chats, it's a made-in-Canada solution for entrepreneurs across this country. Thank you to both of you. We'll keep our listeners posted. Don't go anywhere. Much more on the Ben Mulrooney show. This is the Ben Mulrooney Show. Excellent, excellent song choice. Thank you very much. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show. We want to hear from you, 416, 8,7. 6,400 or 1-8-225 Talk, give us a call. In our previous segment, we talked about the private sector, finding a solution, finding a workaround, finding a way to help small and medium-sized businesses across this country deal with the fact that for the time being, Canada Post has abandoned them.

In an effort to secure a better deal with their employer, the workers have walked off the job. And so there are solutions out there by private industry, and they are coming to the rescue for as many small and medium-sized businesses across this country as possible. Trexity and Chit-Chats have joined forces, and I've told you before, I have a working relationship with Trexity. But this, in my opinion, is news that I want to share with Canada because I stand firmly shoulder to shoulder with the entrepreneurial class, with the people who start businesses, with the people who hire people, with the people who pay tax. taxes, with the people who provide services, with the people who do so at a great risk to themselves, with their own capital, with their own livelihood. And so, yeah, I'm going to, if it's a story that I have been working on, if it's a company I have been working with, yeah, I'm going to share it with you. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that,

but I do want to hear from you, 4168700 or 1-3-8-225 talk. Are you an entrepreneur? You're a small business owner. Have you been affected by Canada Post? Are you frustrated? Are you looking for a solution? Here's the problem for Canada Post. Trexity and Chit Chats are not going to be the only ones who do this. There will be other workarounds. There will be other companies that come to the rescue of these businesses that need help getting goods to market. And when a Canada Post and the workers ultimately come to some sort of conclusion to this strike, they're going to come back to a smaller pie.

They're going to come back to less revenue, less packages, less traffic, less. less work for their 50,000 workers to do. And this is a, this is, you know, 12 years in the making. You know, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, you, we contract that back to Stephen Harper making the, making the decision to put in community mailboxes and hopefully inspiring Canada Post to think more innovatively about, about their future. And Justin Trudeau came in and canceled that, fired top management. And what you have today is, you know, a, a.

dinosaur, a relic that is costing us $10 million a day. Let's welcome Frank to the conversation. Frank, thank you for calling into the Ben Mulroney Show. You're welcome, Ben. Good morning. Good morning. There are a lot of, there's a multitude of benefits. The ones that I see that that are going to be significant is that it's going to create competition with other competitors, American companies like FedEx and Purellator and another Canadian company, and that in turn is going to drive costs down. If that happens, that's a great thing. This starts taking away the market share from Canada Post is going to put a wrench in their plants.

It may result in a long, long lockout. And ultimately, at the end of the day, Canada Post or the people that are responsible at the helm will get what they want. And so it's going to be really bad for the union and its employees in the long run. I agree with you. And just think about while they're sitting there fighting over

what they see is, you know, their market, these other companies are innovating. As you said, there's others are going to cut costs and they're going to find efficiencies. They're going to build partnerships. They're going to streamline. And when ultimately Canada Post comes back to the world and says, we're ready to deliver again, it's not going to be the same world that they left. They are going to be further relegated to sort of, I won't say the dustbin of history

because I believe there's always going to be a role for Canada Post in some way, but they are going to be increasingly less valuable. to the end user. And that's because they're not sitting there thinking, how can we become more efficient? They're asking themselves, the employees are saying, how can we get job security for 50,000 people,

even though we're delivering less mail today to more people? And it's only going to get worse when they ultimately wake up from this fugue state that they're in. Frank, thank you so much for calling. We appreciate it. Take care, Ben. Take care. Yeah, so let us know.

Give us a call. Are you a business owner? What sort of workaround have you found? How are you getting your goods tomorrow? market. How are you getting your deliveries to people who need them delivered either locally, nationally or internationally? We'd love to hear from you. Ruth, thank you for calling in. Hi. Hi. Yeah, I love your show, by the way. Thank you. So I started a company last year. It's a greeting

card business. Okay. And because I'm a stand-up comedian and I make these funny cards. Nice. Yeah. And so what's the business called? It's called Tee He cards. T-E-E-E-H-E-E-E-H-E-E. It's on Etsy right now. Okay, great. So last year, we used Chit-Chats, but because of the Canada Post, right, as well. So it was okay, but they've raised their prices now. I can't make money now.

And we had $5,000, $6,000 in sales last year. That was our first year. I'm sorry. And so this year, I'm kind of screwed. Like I had to shut down the shop for now But it's like Yeah and look Not every solution is going to work for everyone

I mean that's a It is what it is But as they as these As these private companies Try to find partnerships and solutions They may drive cost down So that it is acceptable You know that that sucks

Here you are as an entrepreneur Cutting out on your own Trying to take a risk And the company that you depended The service that you depended on That you know because it comes from the government You're thinking it's going to be great if they can't keep their act together,

I mean, what, what happened to you over Christmas last year? You would think that right before Christmas would have been a great time for you to sell a ton of greeting cards. Yeah, and that's my best-selling card is a Christmas card. Right. But, so we use chit-chat, but this year, it's just, I don't know, I don't know if it's going to work.

Yeah, well, listen, as it's... Yeah, they're holding the whole country hostage. The selfish part of me would say, take a look, because maybe this partnership with Trexity brings those costs down. I have no idea. Yeah. But take a look.

and also keep your eyes open for other alternatives out there. There may be other companies that are doing their best to grab market share because it's all up for grabs now. And so some companies may be taking a loss in the hopes of getting your business and holding onto it for a long time. But I'm really sorry that happened to you. Tehe cards, I hope it comes back to business in business soon. I wish you the very best of luck, Ruth.

Thank you. Thank you. Bye. All right. Zach, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you, Ben? I'm good, I'm good. So do you, how has your life changed since Canada Post went on strike?

Well, absolutely not getting mail is difficult for everybody, including businesses and the customers that the businesses serve, which are the citizens of Canada. I feel, I understand that everybody's mad, but it is important for businesses to also stand up and citizens for Canada Post. Every single job is being taken care by robots soon. you mean the last little things we have is mail coming to us with a person you know so i i understand that everybody's mad but there's more to the situation that we understand now yeah well you listen if that's true zach that eventually it's all going to be delivered by robot mail carriers

if i take you at your word if if i believe that what you're saying is the future then what the heck are we doing negotiating for job security with 50 000 workers yeah we should do big good things than that, right? Yeah, like what? Like, what do we do? If nobody has a job to do, how are we all going to take care of ourselves? Well, yeah. Well, then it's about, then, then that's about job retraining in the, that's about job retraining in the future for the jobs of the future. That, that is a whole thing. I'm saying maybe this is a catalyst that, that is going to take precedence on that, right? Oh, you're the optimist, man. You have to be. No. I thought we made it out here. Oh, Zach, I appreciate the optimism, my friend. You take care.

Oh, if anybody thinks that a crisis like this is going to be used by any level of government to do things differently. Oh, have I got a bridge to sell you to nowhere? My goodness. That's pretty good. Yeah. No, that's great. And anyway, thank you to all those calls. I really feel bad for Ruth and her card company because, like I said, she's the type of person who would have made a ton of money last year during the holidays.

But Canada Post had other plans. anything. She couldn't do anything. Anyway, thank you for all your calls. This fall on Top Chef Canada. It's super surreal being here. The search for Canada's top chef starts now. Let's go. Ten chefs are on a culinary quest. Taste like fear. anxiety all at the same time, but delicious. Only one will be crowned. It's tough. One of the hardest things I've ever done.

Two minutes! Two minutes! Top Chef Canada. New season, October 14th on Flavor Network. Stream on Stack TV.