Expedibox Partners With Virtual.com to Join the Virtual Network
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Aiming to Deploy 700 Expedibox Lockers on the Virtual Network in Q2 and 1,000 more locations planned before the end of 2026, Virtual Network Offers Scalable, Carrier-Agnostic Infrastructure for Last-Mile Logistics
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MONTREAL — Expedibox, a leading Canadian smart locker provider, and Virtual.com, a premier transportation technology and pudo (pick up and drop off) network, are excited to announce a strategic partnership with Expedibox joining Virtual Network, North America's largest and fastest-growing Carrier-Agnostic Infrastructure for Last-Mile Logistics. The initiative will deploy over 1,700 locker locations across Canada within the next 12 months, enabling carriers and local businesses to access shared, scalable infrastructure for deliveries, returns, and pickups.
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Expedibox joins Virtual Network, North America's largest and fastest-growing Carrier-Agnostic locker and pudo network for Last-Mile Logistics.
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This Virtual Network of open-access locker and pudo (pick up and drop off) locations is designed to solve one of the last-mile industry's biggest challenges — accessibility and efficiency at scale. By combining Expedibox's existing locker network with Virtual.com's pudo (pick up and drop off) network and logistics tools, the collaboration offers couriers, retailers, and local businesses a fast, secure and low-cost way to expand delivery and return capabilities with zero infrastructure investment.
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'This partnership with Virtual.com represents a major step forward in our mission to simplify and secure last-mile logistics across Canada. By joining the Virtual Network, we are not just expanding our footprint — we are building the infrastructure of the future for a more open, collaborative and efficient parcel ecosystem,' said Francis Campbell, CEO of Expedibox.
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1,700 lockers planned across Canada to scale out through 2026
Virtual Network is a general, fully carrier agnostic network
Expedibox offers customizable locker configurations designed to support residential, commercial, and public access environments.
Expedibox ensures carrier and client satisfaction with market-leading uptime, high quality parcel lockers and high end bilingual tech support
Virtual Network couriers and partners gain instant access to new and existing Expedibox locker locations
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This initiative also opens the door for retailers and logistics partners to join Virtual network, quickly expanding their reach without the operational overhead of stand alone locker systems.
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'With Expedibox joining Virtual Network, partners will benefit from their existing locker footprint and 2025 expansion plan,' said Virtual.com's CEO Jonathan Spence. 'Expedibox will benefit from Virtual Network software solutions, network footprint, carrier partners and additional revenue streams.'
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The deployment of in production Expedibox locker locations is scheduled for Q2 2025, with national expansion planned throughout 2025. Locations are being selected based upon data analysis by Virtual and Expedibox to carefully select sites with the fastest ROI.
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Contacts
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Virtual Media Contact:
Jonathan Spence
CEO, Virtual
sales@virtual.com
1-888-655-6258
https://virtual.com
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Global News
41 minutes ago
- Global News
Canadian premiers turn to New England governors for support on Trump tariffs
A group of Canadian premiers appear to be setting high expectations as they pursue negotiations with American governors to mitigate the impacts of United States-imposed tariffs on their economies. Premiers from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Quebec's economic minister are scheduled to meet with New England governors on Monday in Boston. New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said the premiers look to the New England governors for insights on how to deal with the White House and U.S. President Donald Trump. 'I mean, ideally, what we would get is every governor … agreeing to articulate in loud and formal terms their objection to the tariffs to their administration,' Holt told reporters Thursday. 'If we can get everyone agreeing that the tariffs are negatively impacting Americans and passing that message on to the White House, that would be a win.' Story continues below advertisement 5:32 Economist says counter-tariffs on the United States would hurt Canada Holt also said she plans on raising 'critical' energy and infrastructure files. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said last month that the leaders hope to discuss how they can work together and maintain economic relationships in the face of Trump's tariffs. 'Canada is Massachusetts' No. 1 trading partner,' she said in a May 5 statement. 'For generations, we have enjoyed a strong partnership and a healthy exchange of energy, lumber, dairy, cars and car parts, seafood and more. Our businesses and our residents all benefit from this relationship. But President Trump's tariffs are undermining this partnership, making it harder for businesses to keep their doors open, and increasing the cost of everything that the New England and Canadian people rely on.' Holt said New Brunswick supplies a lot of energy products to New England. Story continues below advertisement 'I think 90 per cent of the cars in Boston are driving with gas that comes from the Irving refinery and us. They are keen to make sure we will continue to be a reliable supplier of energy to them,' she said. 'We see the U.S. as a market to sell energy in a way that is profitable and beneficial to New Brunswick.' Healey said an analysis showed that tariffs on Canadian energy would raise gas and heating oil prices by over 30 cents a gallon and could cost nearly $1.4 billion a year for people in Massachusetts, and $3.4 billion for those in the New England area. Ontario is also looking to discuss energy and minerals with the U.S., said Grace Lee, spokeswoman for Premier Doug Ford. 'Ontario is proud to have one of the cleanest and most reliable energy grids, alongside mineral rich areas ready for development and a highly skilled workforce that the U.S. needs and relies on,' she said in a statement. 'Premier Ford will advocate for his vision of Fortress Am-Can, a renewed strategic alliance that makes Canada and the U.S. the richest, most prosperous, safest and most secure two countries on the planet.' 1:57 Polling finds 'Buy Canada' support remains strong Prince Edward Island Premier Rob Lantz's office did not respond to a request for comment. Story continues below advertisement Léa Fortin, spokeswoman for Quebec's economic minister Christopher Skeete, said the meeting is a chance to reiterate ties between Quebec and the United States, as well as the Atlantic provinces. Sonja Pomeroy, spokeswoman for Premier John Hogan said Newfoundland and Labrador exported approximately $4.5 billion of goods to the United States in 2023, representing 37 per cent of the province's total exports. For example, she said in any given year, 60 to 80 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador's seafood exports go to the United States. So the meeting is an opportunity to reinforce the social and economic value of Canada's long relationship with the United States, she explained. 'Barriers to trade are bad for both national economies,' Pomeroy said.
The Market Online
an hour ago
- The Market Online
A leading provider of integrated drone solutions across North America
Canadian based Volatus Aerospace Inc. is a leading provider of integrated drone solutions across North America with expanding operations in Latin America and globally. The company serves civil, public safety and defense markets. And in May, the company announced a transformative merger with Drone Delivery Canada. Lyndsay Malchuk recently caught up with Glen Lynch, CEO of Volatus Aerospace to discuss the company's background, their technology, and how Volatus stands apart from all the rest. The following is a transcription of the above video, and The Market Online has edited it for clarity . Lyndsay: Let's start with just a bit of a background if we could, can you walk us through Volatus' journey and really how it's grown into a key player in the drone tech and services space? Glen: Certainly. So, the company was founded about six years ago with the belief that drones would replace piloted aircraft for specifically logistics and aerial survey intelligence type works. And then eventually it would actually start to replace human beings in jobs that were dull, dirty, or dangerous, which is really the theme of autonomous or automated systems. So now the company has become an innovator in aerial intelligence and logistics. We grew fairly quickly, 50% from organic growth and 50% through acquisition. So we are an acquisitive company. And last August with the completion of Drone Delivery Canada, that was our 18th acquisition. So now we have a service that basically delivers intelligence and cargo services globally. We've got a strong presence in public safety, infrastructure, oil and gas and energy. We've pioneered off-grid nested drone solutions. So basically autonomous drone in a box that are dropped off at mining and industrial sites and operated remotely and really become known for our regulatory strengths that have allowed us to operate beyond the confines of typical regulations through waivers and special applied operating certificates. Lyndsay: What are some of those standout technologies or platforms Volatus has built? Let's expand on that a little bit. I mean, how do these set you apart from others in the drone industry? Glen: Well, funny enough, R&D is part of our DNA, and we have a portfolio of technologies. What really sets us apart from many is that we're truly a technology agnostic company. We've developed more of an integrated ecosystem of aerial solutions that include much of our own technologies, but also other people's technologies. The concept is to leverage our remote operations capabilities from our OCC in the Toronto area for the remote operation of air vehicles beyond visual line of sight of the pilot. So a lot of the IP was for remote operations came from Drone Delivery Canada including our ground-based infrastructure and many of the cargo delivery drones. And today we conduct nearly daily flights where the air vehicle is more than 3000 kilometers away from the pilot operator in Toronto. On the inspection side, we've got AI driven inspections. We do thermal leak detection, remote sensing activities and I should also mention our Volatus Academy, which I'm quite proud of. That's our training and education platform where we focus on platform agnostic training and STEM programs, specifically our SEAR program, which is our scientific experiential aerial research program that works with high school students to have them understand drone technology, sensors and use data that they collect to populate algorithms that ultimately can contribute to things like the early detection of Dutch Elm disease, projects like that. And then of course, the last thing is focusing on our regulatory approvals that allow us to use all of this ecosystem or engage it in operations that are beyond what most companies can. Lyndsay: Let's just walk over to the financials if we could. Can you break down some of those highlights for us? You know, revenue growth, profitability, any big investments or partnerships that have helped drive that performance for you? Glen: So, the company has experienced some decent growth. We're still a small business by definition, but our revenues in 2021 were basically $660,000 and 2024, a few years later, were $27 million, and we're targeting $50 million in 2025. We've pivoted a lot towards recurring revenue models where we're dealing with long-term contracts with oil and gas and power utilities versus the early days of individual one-off type contracts. Not to say that we don't still have a fair number of individual buildings or projects that we will inspect, but a lot of our focus now is on larger scale, bigger customers, bigger contracts basically. On the equipment sales side, we have about $12 million in unfulfilled demand in Canada alone for solution sales. So big opportunities there. Our defense strategy focuses on ISR or intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance type services with a focus in Canada, Europe, and Southeast Asia. A lot of focus around NATO allies. Our revenue mix is about 60% on the service side, which is basically our turnkey services, our training and our consulting services, and 40% on solution sales. That's expected to shift more and more towards the service side of the business as we continue to grow. Margins have also grown. So, from about 24% to about 35%, we're targeting 40% to 45% in the near future. That's a year over year growth that will continue to improve as our business mix changes and as our business evolves. And one key thing, I'm quite proud of our post-merger strategies, our synergies that we were able to realize with Drone Delivery Canada. We forecast $3 million in savings in the first 100 days. We actually achieved $3.8 million and near break even in Q4 last year. 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Lyndsay: So, it wasn't just that, which was the big news. the company also announced a major national expansion of its drone services on May 27th of this year. What does that rollout actually look like on the ground, and how does it fit into your bigger picture goals? Glen: So that's really about nationwide beyond visual line of sight. In other words, where the air vehicle is at a long distance away from the operator. It makes us very scalable. It enables coast to coast remote operations of drones but with an internal self-approval mechanism. So as long as we fall within the confines of our approval, the conditions of the approval, it allows us to self-approve a large percentage of the operations that we would be working towards. So, it advances our national drones as a service model, our nested drone solutions, basically drone in a box, industrial drone in a box that are just deployed. And it gives us immediate scalable benefits and increased gross margins in intelligence, the remote sensing area and in the logistics business. And it's a significant support of many of the federal government's goals that were announced yesterday during their news conference. Lyndsay: You have so much going on, and even more so the big news that just dropped. So, with Canada's fast tracking military spending and prioritizing domestic vendors, is Volatus quietly positioning itself for an elephant sized defense contract? And if so, why aren't these prospective wins that you're speaking of not reflected in your baseline forecast? Glen: So, largely because they're elephants. The simple truth of the matter is many of these are very large scale opportunities, and if you forecast them in your model, they're big misses. If you don't forecast them, they're big wins. Right? And frankly, these are new opportunities if you think about it. Back in November, we knew that things were changing from a geopolitical standpoint, and in fact, Volatus engaged a full-time lobby firm, David Pratt & Associates in Ottawa to support us. But right after that, in January our previous Prime Minister stepped down from government, which basically put everything on hold until May 27th when the government effectively started to operate again. And of course, June 9th was a big day for the announcement of some of the policies that we've been expecting. So that's part of why, with an election and a new government, you really never know how much momentum is going to go in which direction. But we followed that pretty closely. And the big deal now is the federal mandate, or the government stated goals aligns with the defense and economic and security objectives that Volatus is well positioned to fulfill. We provide cost effective ISR and logistics for the border, for the Arctic. We can work on everything from security to public safety to sovereignty issues. It's a major opportunity for growth in defense contracts and domestic innovation, especially as the government attempts to repatriate that $0.75 of every dollar that we spend in the defense industry south of the border. Their goal is to become an energy superpower and that creates inspection and monitoring opportunities for Volatus. And of course, in the resource sectors, things like mining, like the Ring of Fire in Ontario and rare earths in British Columbia and Quebec. Those are all opportunities in every phase of the development, from the exploration to the development and management of the mine to the transportation infrastructure, roads and railways that are going to carry are all opportunities for Volatus. And that ties in also with the major acceleration in infrastructure programs and investment which align with our capabilities and mapping and inspection services. So, I think there's a significant opportunity, let's say it's more like a herd of elephants right now. I think we've got some good opportunities, not just for Volatus, but for the entire Canadian aerospace and RPAS industry. Lyndsay: Well, let's look ahead here then, Glen. What's next in terms of growth and innovation for Volatus and how do you plan to stay ahead in a space that's really moving as fast as drone tech? Glen: So, we'll continue to scale our drones as a service, particularly with the remote drone in a box or drone infrastructure type capabilities. We want to expand our US and international regulatory envelope so that we can achieve the same level of operations as we can in Canada. We'll be pursuing waivers to support larger drone operations as the regulations evolve. We've got a change in regulations in November. Volatus has already positioned itself to adapt and capitalize on those opportunities. But we've already started looking at saying, 'okay, now with the baseline or with the bar having been raised, now we will look to go one step beyond that into larger and more capable drones.' We have a real eye on industrial and logistics use cases with some of our partner technologies that are being enabled by these new regulations that are coming. And ultimately if you look at the objectives of the government in terms of targeting economic leadership on a global scale and achieving more security independence, those are all areas that Volatus will be very tightly focused on in the days, months and years ahead. Lyndsay: Well, Glen, I really appreciate you taking the time and giving us really a peek behind the curtain at what Volatus is really building. You can find Volatus Aerospace trading on the venture under the ticker symbol FLT, and on the OTCQB under the ticker symbol TAKOF. Check them out at for more information. Join the discussion: Find out what everybody's saying about this stock on the Volatus Aerospace investor discussion forum, and check out the rest of Stockhouse's stock forums and message boards. The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. For full disclaimer information, please click here
Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
Canadian premiers turn to New England governors for support on Trump tariffs
Published Jun 13, 2025 • 3 minute read Premier of New Brunswick Susan Holt speaks to media following the First Minister's Meeting in Saskatoon, Sask., Monday, June 2, 2025. Photo by Liam Richards / The Canadian Press FREDERICTON — A group of Canadian premiers appear to be setting high expectations as they pursue negotiations with American governors to mitigate the impacts of United States-imposed tariffs on their economies. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. 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Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Premiers from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Quebec's economic minister are scheduled to meet with New England governors on Monday in Boston. New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said the premiers look to the New England governors for insights on how to deal with the White House and U.S. President Donald Trump. 'I mean, ideally, what we would get is every governor … agreeing to articulate in loud and formal terms their objection to the tariffs to their administration,' Holt told reporters Thursday. 'If we can get everyone agreeing that the tariffs are negatively impacting Americans and passing that message on to the White House, that would be a win.' Holt also said she plans on raising 'critical' energy and infrastructure files. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said last month that the leaders hope to discuss how they can work together and maintain economic relationships in the face of Trump's tariffs. 'Canada is Massachusetts' No. 1 trading partner,' she said in a May 5 statement. 'For generations, we have enjoyed a strong partnership and a healthy exchange of energy, lumber, dairy, cars and car parts, seafood and more. Our businesses and our residents all benefit from this relationship. But President Trump's tariffs are undermining this partnership, making it harder for businesses to keep their doors open, and increasing the cost of everything that the New England and Canadian people rely on.' Holt said New Brunswick supplies a lot of energy products to New England. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I think 90 per cent of the cars in Boston are driving with gas that comes from the Irving refinery and us. They are keen to make sure we will continue to be a reliable supplier of energy to them,' she said. 'We see the U.S. as a market to sell energy in a way that is profitable and beneficial to New Brunswick.' Healey said an analysis showed that tariffs on Canadian energy would raise gas and heating oil prices by over 30 cents a gallon and could cost nearly $1.4 billion a year for people in Massachusetts, and $3.4 billion for those in the New England area. Ontario is also looking to discuss energy and minerals with the U.S., said Grace Lee, spokeswoman for Premier Doug Ford. 'Ontario is proud to have one of the cleanest and most reliable energy grids, alongside mineral rich areas ready for development and a highly skilled workforce that the U.S. needs and relies on,' she said in a statement. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Premier Ford will advocate for his vision of Fortress Am-Can, a renewed strategic alliance that makes Canada and the U.S. the richest, most prosperous, safest and most secure two countries on the planet.' Prince Edward Island Premier Rob Lantz's office did not respond to a request for comment. Lea Fortin, spokeswoman for Quebec's economic minister Christopher Skeete, said the meeting is a chance to reiterate ties between Quebec and the United States, as well as the Atlantic provinces. Sonja Pomeroy, spokeswoman for Premier John Hogan said Newfoundland and Labrador exported approximately $4.5 billion of goods to the United States in 2023, representing 37 per cent of the province's total exports. For example, she said in any given year, 60 to 80 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador's seafood exports go to the United States. So the meeting is an opportunity to reinforce the social and economic value of Canada's long relationship with the United States, she explained. 'Barriers to trade are bad for both national economies,' Pomeroy said. Sunshine Girls World Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls
