What can't a regular courier carry?
Quick answer
A regular commercial courier can't take undeclared dangerous goods, temperature-controlled freight it has no refrigerated equipment for, or loads beyond its vehicles' weight and size limits. Some freight also falls outside the service model — household moves and consumer parcels for a B2B courier, for example. Cannabis is a special case: under the federal framework, common carriers may move it for licence holders, with strict documentation and security expectations.
Most freight is fair game for a commercial courier: cartons, crates, skids, equipment, materials. But every carrier has a list of things it can’t or won’t take, and finding out at the truck’s tailgate is the expensive way to learn it. The refusals fall into four honest categories — regulated goods, wrong equipment, over-limit loads, and freight outside the service model — plus one heavily regulated exception worth understanding on its own.
Undeclared dangerous goods
No legitimate courier will knowingly carry undeclared dangerous goods, and this is the hardest line on the list. Canada’s Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) regulations put the duty to classify and declare regulated goods on the shipper — things like flammables, compressed gases, corrosives and lithium batteries. Once declared, it’s the carrier’s call whether it has the training, documentation and equipment to handle that class of goods, and many general-freight couriers don’t.
The failure mode isn’t the shipper who declares and gets a “no” — that shipper just finds a specialized carrier. The failure mode is the box of aerosols or the pallet of lithium batteries that nobody mentioned. If there’s any chance your freight is regulated, say so when you book and verify the requirements with Transport Canada. Educational rule of thumb: if the product carries hazard markings, the shipment probably needs declarations.
Temperature-controlled freight
A courier running dry vans and box trucks can’t take freight that must stay chilled or frozen — the vehicles physically can’t do it. Refrigerated transport needs a reefer: a powered refrigeration unit, an insulated box and temperature control, which is a different class of equipment run by specialized carriers. A dry truck in a Southern Ontario summer is not “cool enough for a short run”; it’s an uncontrolled environment.
Sonic Transport is in this category — we don’t offer temperature-controlled service, and we’d rather say so than improvise with someone’s product. The reasoning is covered honestly in why couriers decline refrigerated freight.
Loads beyond the vehicle’s limits
Every vehicle has a payload and a box, and freight that exceeds either doesn’t ride — full stop. On our fleet, the ceiling for a straight truck is the 26-foot box truck at up to 10,000 lbs; a skid heavier than the truck’s rating, or a piece longer or taller than the box, needs different equipment. Dimensions matter as much as weight: an item can be light and still impossible to load through a box truck’s door.
Two things soften this in practice. First, “different equipment” often exists within the same fleet — long bar stock and pipe that won’t fit an enclosed box can ride an open-bed pickup with tie-downs, and multi-skid loads that outgrow a van move up to a 26-foot box truck. Second, beyond 10,000 lbs or a full truckload, a regional carrier like Sonic arranges a semi through transportation partners rather than turning the shipment away. Accurate dimensions and weight at quote time are what make the right assignment happen.
Freight outside the service model
A B2B courier’s “can’t carry” list also includes work that isn’t freight at all. Household moves, junk removal and consumer parcel delivery are different trades with different equipment, insurance considerations and workflows — a commercial courier moving business freight between businesses isn’t set up for them, and a moving company isn’t set up for a same-day skid run. The line between the two is drawn clearly in courier versus moving company.
None of this reflects on the freight’s legitimacy. It’s the same logic as every other refusal on this page: carriers do well what they’re built for, and the honest ones tell you when a shipment belongs elsewhere.
The cannabis exception
Cannabis looks like it should sit on the banned list, but B2B cannabis freight is legal, regulated work in Canada. Under the federal Cannabis Act, production is licensed by Health Canada; in Ontario, retail stores are licensed by the AGCO, and the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) is the province’s exclusive wholesaler of recreational cannabis to authorized retailers. Within that framework, common carriers may transport cannabis on behalf of licence holders in the course of business — the licence belongs to the shipper and receiver, not to the truck.
What separates it from ordinary freight is the discipline around the move: sealed shipments, documented chain of custody, direct routing and incident reporting. If you hold a licence and need product moved between licensed points, talk to the carrier about your specific requirements — and verify the current rules with Health Canada, the AGCO or the OCS, because they evolve.
How to know before you book
The way to avoid a refused shipment is to describe the freight completely at quote time: what it is, dimensions and weight, anything regulated or unusual about it, and how it loads at each end. A dispatcher who knows the full picture either assigns the right vehicle or tells you straight that the freight needs a different carrier — both outcomes beat a truck that shows up and can’t take the load. If freight vocabulary is getting in the way, our freight terms glossary translates the jargon.
For everything a general courier can carry — which is most of what B2B shippers move — Sonic Transport runs same-day direct service across the GTA, Golden Horseshoe and Southern Ontario. Describe your shipment and a real person will tell you honestly whether it’s a load we can take, and quote it if it is.
Related questions
What happens if I ship dangerous goods without declaring them?
Undeclared dangerous goods are a serious compliance failure under Canada's TDG regulations, and the declaration duty sits with the shipper. Beyond the legal exposure, an undeclared hazard puts the driver and everyone sharing the road at risk. If you're not sure whether something is regulated, ask the carrier and check with Transport Canada before booking.
Can a courier take freight heavier than its biggest truck's limit?
Not on that truck — payload ratings are hard limits, not suggestions. What a good regional carrier does instead is arrange a semi through transportation partners so the shipment still moves with one point of contact. Give accurate weight up front so the right equipment is assigned the first time.
Will a B2B courier deliver to a person's home?
B2B couriers deliver commercial freight to business receivers. A delivery address can occasionally be residential — a contractor's home shop receiving materials, for instance — but consumer parcel delivery and household moving are different services with different carriers.