Dempster delivery: Whitehorse dealership delivers cars to N.W.T. border during pandemic

During a pandemic, everything becomes more difficult.

For residents in the N.W.T.'s Beaufort Delta region, buying a car has become even more of a hassle since many need to leave the Northwest Territories to pick it up, making self-isolation a requirement upon return.

"When this pandemic hit all of a sudden we thought, 'OK, we can't sell in Inuvik,'" said Justin Boucher, owner and operator of Klondike Chevrolet Buick GMC in Whitehorse.

But then, Boucher got a request from a Beaufort Delta resident in April.

"He said, 'Can you deliver it? Because I can't come down to pick it up, because I would have to self-isolate for two weeks, and I just can't afford that,'" Boucher said.

"That one became two, and that two became three ... And just to let you know we [now] have seven vehicles ready to go up," he said.

Boucher said his employees drive the vehicles up to the border patrol area near Fort McPherson, N.W.T. Their customers meet them and drive it the rest of the way home.

When the vehicles arrive there is a sanitization process that happens with the key, driver's seat and audio controls. The rest of the car is sanitized before it leaves Whitehorse.

There is a fee to bring the car up, but Boucher said it would be around the same price for residents who would have to spend money to get to Whitehorse to pick up their vehicle.

He said one customer asked if they could pick some stuff up from Canadian Tire and Walmart that could be packed in the vehicle.

"We are kind of doing some shopping before the car went up," Boucher said. "As long as we are sending cars up, I don't mind."

He said his dealership has been hiring weekly to deliver the cars, and so far have delivered 16 vehicles.

Flat tires and challenges

There's been a bit of a learning curve. Boucher has had a driver experience a couple of flats during the drive up the Dempster Highway and one vehicle had to be brought back up after the ferry on the Peel River was closed for about a week due to a cable snapping.

"We think about this every day and how difficult it must be for these people to shop online, buy sight unseen," said Boucher. "It's a different mentality to have, but knowing where you live, I guess you start to adapt."

Boucher said a big percentage of customers are from the N.W.T.'s Beaufort Delta region, and because of this new delivery system, his dealership has been able to maintain that.

"It is a great news story for us as a dealership to find just a different way to do the business that we were used to doing before, and really we have not seen a decrease from the business coming from the Delta region because of this," said Boucher.