Shawinigan is on the list because YQB is reachable and busy. 34 scheduled nonstop destinations and 16 operating carriers mean the desk is rarely stuck for a routing, and 2 hours 2 minutes of road means you are rarely too far to take it. Those two facts together are the whole reason Shawinigan has a page of its own.
Open · Canada desk · Shawinigan
On Board Courier, Shawinigan
Time critical hand carry assignments from Shawinigan. One consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature, 2 hours 2 minutes between your front door and the check in desk at YQB.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inShawinigan, Quebec
Nearest gateYQB · Quebec
Drive to the aircraft146 km · 2 hours 2 minutes
Nonstop from YQB34 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
You will usually know the day before, sometimes only in the morning. The desk sends the routing out of YQB, the sealed consignment reaches you or you collect it, and the drive of 2 hours 2 minutes is timed backwards from the check in deadline rather than the departure. Where the routing runs through the Emirates it goes by way of ORD, on one ticket, with the connection booked long enough to be real.
Getting to the aircraft from Shawinigan
Measured door to terminal, Shawinigan to YQB is 146 km and 2 hours 2 minutes. That is the number the desk uses when it decides whether to call Shawinigan for a departure this evening.
At 2 hours 2 minutes the drive from Shawinigan is the risky half of the trip, so it is planned rather than assumed: an earlier departure from home, and where the flight is early, a room near YQB paid by the desk. A backup gate changes what can be promised out of Shawinigan. From Shawinigan, Montreal Trudeau is 2 hours 21 minutes away and flies to 157 airports nonstop, so the desk has somewhere to move a consignment when the first flight goes.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YQB | Quebec Jean Lesage | 146 km | 2 hours 2 minutes | 34 |
| YUL | Montreal Trudeau | 172 km | 2 hours 21 minutes | 157 |
Shawinigan is a city of 38,000 people in Quebec, and the clock there runs 8 hours behind the Emirates in summer and 9 in winter. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes. Only airports this site publishes a scheduled nonstop board for are listed, so a smaller field nearer Shawinigan may exist and still not appear in the table above.
What YQB reaches without a change
The relevant question about YQB is not how big it is but what it flies. 34 nonstop destinations across 6 countries, and the ones with real frequency are listed here.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YUL | Montreal | Montreal Trudeau | about 12 departures a day | 5 operators: Air Canada |
| YYZ | Toronto | Toronto Pearson | about 7 departures a day | 2 operators: Air Canada, Porter Airlines |
| EWR | Newark | Newark Liberty | about 4 departures a day | 1 operator: United Airlines |
| YZV | Sept-Îles | Sept-Îles | about 4 departures a day | 4 operators |
| YHU | Montreal | Montreal Saint-Hubert | about 3 departures a day | 2 operators |
| YGR | Îles-de-la-Madeleine | Îles-de-la-Madeleine | about 2 departures a day | 1 operator |
| PHL | Philadelphia | Philadelphia | about 2 departures a day | 2 operators: American Airlines |
| ORD | Chicago | Chicago O'Hare | about 2 departures a day | 2 operators: United Airlines, American Airlines |
| YOW | Ottawa | Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier | about 2 departures a day | 2 operators: Air Canada |
| YBC | Baie-Comeau | Baie-Comeau Baie Comeau | about one departure a day | 2 operators |
Counting every airport a courier in Shawinigan can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 163 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
What moves out of Shawinigan
This site publishes an industrial register for some airports and not for YQB. Rather than invent one, the honest statement is that Shawinigan produces the traffic every working city produces: signed originals, spare parts, samples and small valuables that missed a cut off.
Why a courier in Shawinigan is useful to the desk
Most of what the desk moves out of Quebec is small, sealed and late. The constraint is never the size, it is finding a person near enough to YQB. Shawinigan is near enough: 2 hours 2 minutes to YQB, on a board with 34 nonstop destinations.
There is no nonstop between YQB and the Emirates, and this page says so rather than implying otherwise. From Shawinigan the best single change is Chicago (ORD), and ORD to AUH is flown by Etihad Airways, about 2 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 18h 00m gate to gate, so an assignment between Shawinigan and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
The nearest other cities on the Canada list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Shawinigan
Trois-Rivières29 km away, YQB in 1 hour 37 minutesSorel-Tracy65 km away, YUL in 1 hour 28 minutesDrummondville79 km away, YUL in 1 hour 47 minutesVictoriaville83 km away, YQB in 1 hour 40 minutesSaint-Hyacinthe105 km away, YUL in 1 hour 8 minutesRepentigny106 km away, YUL in 42 minutesQuebec City120 km away, YQB in 20 minutesSaint-Louis-de-Terrebonne125 km away, YUL in 36 minutesGranby130 km away, YUL in 1 hour 24 minutesSherbrooke145 km away, YUL in 2 hours 19 minutesSaint-Jean-sur-Richelieu146 km away, YUL in 54 minutesSaint-Georges168 km away, YQB in 1 hour 24 minutes
All 54 Canada cities are listed on the Canada courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of YQB and the other airports listed above, between Canada and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 2 hours 2 minutes drive to YQB. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach YQB, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Shawinigan list
01How far is Shawinigan from YQB?
About 2 hours 2 minutes, 146 km by road. The desk has that number for every city on the list and uses it to decide who gets called for a departure out of YQB tonight.
02What can I reach from Shawinigan without a change of aircraft?
YQB serves 34 airports nonstop across 6 countries with 16 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Shawinigan can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 163 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Shawinigan to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Shawinigan the best single change is Chicago (ORD), and ORD to AUH is flown by Etihad Airways, about 2 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 18h 00m gate to gate, so an assignment between Shawinigan and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. The desk is in Dubai and the company is Emirati, but the courier list is worldwide and Shawinigan is on it. Where you live changes which assignments you are shown, not whether you qualify.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The Shawinigan list is free to join and free to stay on. The only money that moves from you to us is the AED 199 Academy, paid once, and it comes back on top of the fee for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
One assignment out of YQB, one fee, agreed in advance. The 2 hours 2 minutes you spend driving there is part of what that figure is calculated on.
Apply to fly out of YQB
If you can be at YQB within 2 hours 2 minutes and you have a passport with room in it, the rest is a conversation.
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