I'm not surprised. It's easier to bang a drum and complain than it is to ensure the business is viable.
Canada Post - Huge losses
- Thread starter raginduck
- Start date
AllistonGT
Well-known member
We've had those boxes in Alliston for 30 plus years. I don't understand what the big deal is. Seriously, unless someone needs something to whine about.
AllistonGT
Well-known member
And the sun still shines.
BigEvilDoer
Well-known member
That’s the thing.
People don’t like change. It’s easy to just open your door, reach around to your mailbox and see if anything’s there.
Getting your shoes on, maybe a jacket etc takes effort. Which people don’t like. Why make it harder than necessary?
My house has a super box… I drive right by it every day in and out of the street. No big deal for me.
Superboxes make mail delivery much easier for sure. But people like the luxury of door to door. CP is in a hard place here.
As this point, I don't really care what whiney people want. The system is broken. I would say start charging $100/yr for door delivery but that won't work as a few would take the offer and a postie would still have to walk the route. Maybe the number needs to be more like $1000/yr to get almost everyone into superboxes.
The superbox would be everywhere already , except CP messed it up completely about fifteen years ago . They started just placing concrete pads and boxes where CP engineers said that would be best . Towns said , wait a minute you idiots , we have bylaws on set backs and installs and your parking your box with no install permits, and no application. One town does it and they all follow, so the super box goes into new areas , but refitting went on hold in most neighborhoods. CP has been a gong show for decades .
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Malks
Well-known member
At least CP would have a plan going forward and be able to justify a government bailout to the taxpayers. Maybe they should defund the CBC to cover the initial cost to change everyone over to super boxes.
I don't know about elsewhere, but here in Orangeville the vast majority of carriers use their personal vehicles to deliver mail to the superboxes. I think i have seen a couple of the CP delivery vehicles in town, but they are not that common. I'm sure there is a fuel allowance for these carriers to use their personal vehicle and it must be a good one because our carrier drives an F-150.
The time to restructure the routes would be done at the same time as the new box locations are being planned. And yes that would take time to accomplish. The end result would be a more efficient delivery of the mail and cost savings as well. As part of this restructuring they could also look at every other day delivery.
We haven't had door-to-door delivery since we moved to Orangeville over 35 years ago. We have lived at three different addresses in that time and every superbox was close enough that we just walked a few doors over to get our mail. The current one is actually located on the flank of our property, so it's almost as convenient as door delivery. So far our neighbours have been respectful and I've only had to pick up a few pieces of junk mail in the past two years.
Super boxes are all fine and dandy until they put it on your front or side yard... When that happens to you I imagine everyone becomes a whiner.
While planned boxes are normally within a few hundred feet of their houses, I expect retrofit boxes may be slightly further. For instance, put 15 or 20 superboxes in a neighbourhood park to service the area. That has minimal use when the posties need access and normally some accommodation for vehicles stopping/parking.I don't even know where a superbox would go in my area, we have no sidewalks here, very little boulevards.
Plus even though I want CP re-structured I do like my door delivery.... too much??
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I think you have to go back to 2011 to see the beginning of the end. Before that, CPC had something north of 65% of the package business in Canada, and 90% of the packages delivered to residential destinations. They were making money. In the last 5 years, they have lost more than 1/2 their package delivery market share in Canada - most of that in the highest profit routes.
CUPW went on strike, the primary demands were the usual: increase pay and reduce workload, but they also bargained to stop CPC from implementing route efficiency updates, and automation if it eliminated jobs. A killer was the elimination of a 2 tier wage system that other carriers used to manage variability on load. This marked the beginning of the end - CPC could not implement productivity improvements, got strapped with higher wages, and had to offset lower workloads with more staff.
You can blame both sides. I've met a great people on the Union side, and in Management. I've also met some people on both sides that I wouldn't hire to sweep floors. At the end of the day, the Union will need to play nice and realize they need to be part of the solution. If management and union don't bring the company back to break even, I see the whole shebang getting sold off to the private sector, much like Germany's post office.
Years ago when a buddy bought his first house I waited until he left for work during his 2nd week of ownership and printed up some official looking Municipality of Durham letterhead with a notice that they would be installing a bus shelter in front of his house and posted it on his door for him to come home to. I also spray-painted a big rectangle on his lawn by the curb. Hook line and sinker (he even called the municipal office to complain).
My neighbourhood is grandfathered. It's relatively finite as far as new housing goes due to the Escarpment Commission. They did manage to squeeze in a few new row homes on gentrified double lots with some questionable rezoning aka a plain brown envelope behind the back to the Ward councillor. They put in a Super Box for those new residences, but the rest of us still get door to door.
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Warren Buffet bought a company in the midwest as it was about to go belly up. He saw that it had too many employees and a massive inventory of parts worth only scrap metal prices. He cut staff 25% IRC and inventory purchase were cut back until things balanced out.
He was hated for the layoffs and reduced parts outlays but no one thanked him for saving 75% of the jobs. CP is in a similar position.
Super mail boxes have problems.
1) One has to go and get their mail (Boohoo)
Solutions
1) Get over it
2) Give the local dog walker, kid, friend etc a key and pay them a few bucks to do it.
3) There's a reason the call it "Snail mail". If you can wait for it, another few days won't matter.
2) Trash
Fliers get thrown on the ground
Solutions
1) Put in a waste bin or stop delivering trash
2) Have open "Help yourself" flier racks.
3) Security and break ins.
Solution
1) Make super mail boxes service once a week (Double savings) Theft opportunity is 1/7th and probably less as there will be more witnesses milling about on delivery day.
2) If your situation is that security critical, hire a private mailbox at UPS or other courier outlet.
3) Put boxes in the local bar or variety shop. Private enterprise.
In short let CP go belly up. It'll hurt places like Trout Creek until the new lean machine sorts it out.
I don't understand how CP is losing money on their deliveries. Whenever I have the option to receive a package from the US for example. I always chose USPS to Canada Post vs UPS. The package arrives just as quick, good service and I don't get scammed for the duty fees that UPS charges. Maybe alot of people don't know about CP as a delivery option?
I found them reliable and quick. Maybe they should promote this service more?
I found them reliable and quick. Maybe they should promote this service more?
I suspect CP has much higher costs than the competition. On the plus side CP doesn't extort us with ridiculous brokerage fees. That would be an easy one for them to add to increase revenue.
USPS stopped accepting items destined for CP now. I'm not sure if they were being staged in the US and they don't want to hold more or if they were being staged in Canada and CP incoming areas are full. In any case, that is another large quantity of consumers that will find another way to get things over the border and may never return. Shippsy, cbs, etc are probably buried right now.
CP is mandated to deliver to every address. Not all those addresses are cost effective;
Paying someone $31/hr + benefits to drive his truck 1-2hrs in rural canada to drop off 1 or 2 boxes then come back, etc.
That is an interesting point. The mandate doesn't appear to have a timeline enshrined but does require that revenue is sufficient to cover costs. While most of our discussions have been around urban areas and issues with mail volume, maybe there can be progress on rural areas first. Waste less time driving by sending a postie out on their long route less often.
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sburns
Well-known member
F9 uses CP, and it's pretty quick.
I was curious about what is happening now and they switched to using Purolator. (which is CP, but probably better run)
