Canada Post - Huge losses

[Mad Mike]

Initially, it would cost them millions upon millions of dollars.

Yes it would. But a supermail box returns it's investment in under 1 year.

The superboxes are not cheap. They are installed by contractors. They need to get city approval for locations of the boxes.

They are much cheaper than the labor required to deliver mail door to door. The average installation cost (box+install) is under $100/mail slot.

Then they need to buy a sh1t ton of delivery vehicles.

How does the mail get to the local carrier right now?

Need to restructure all of the routes, which takes several months to accomplish.

That needs to be done anyway. The legacy system of rewarding tenured carriers with 3-4 hour workdays has to go.

Then there will be a huge revolt by the people not wanting superboxes…

Seen that before. Too bad, so sad... they'll join the rest of the plebes that suffer supermailboxes.

They will definitely reduce labour costs in the long run, but initially, it would be a very very hefty investment. If CP is as bad off as they say, then this can’t be accomplished due to the amount of capital expenditure necessary.

CPC reduces costs by $1.50-$2.00 per stop by using supermailboxes. My Supermailbox site has 60 slots, so the savings would be at least $90/day. If a Superbox cost $8,000 to install, Canada Post would return the investment completely by the 90th delivery day. From there on they would save $23K every year on my 60 stop street.

When CPC started in the late 80's, they did 1M mailboxes, exclusively in new subdivisions. Those 1M mailboxes saved $1.3B in the first 5 years.

Each million addresses converted to superboxes saves Canada Post $300M/year. Just converting the existing home delivery stops to Superboxes would return CPC to to profitability.

 

[Mad Mike]

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.

CPC gets mail to most places in Canada, but they don't go to every address. Many rural dwellers drive to community mailboxes, or designated drop points up to 50km away.

I doubt there are any 1-2 hour drives with 1 or 2 boxes. Destinations that remote get served by supply chain contractors, not CPC directly. I had customers who traveled an hour to the nearest CPC pickup location.

 

[Evoex]

CPC gets mail to most places in Canada, but they don't go to every address. Many rural dwellers drive to community mailboxes, or designated drop points up to 50km away.

I doubt there are any 1-2 hour drives with 1 or 2 boxes. Destinations that remote get served by supply chain contractors, not CPC directly. I had customers who traveled an hour to the nearest CPC pickup location.

Well i wasn't being literal lol, but point taken.

 

[Scuba Steve]

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?

My experience has been the opposite stolen mail terrible service no attempted deliveries why would I ever want to use them

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[GreyGhost]

My experience has been the opposite stolen mail terrible service no attempted deliveries why would I ever want to use them

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I choose usps/cp for cross border as the other couriers all extort you for brokerage fees. I have no problem paying duty but they often tack on fees that are more than the thing I ordered.

 

[Mad Mike]

My experience has been the opposite stolen mail terrible service no attempted deliveries why would I ever want to use them

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It happens.

Most of my experiences with CPC were great, I did experience a few insider thefts, and way too many complaints of carded deliveries (no attempt).

I used CPC because their prices and service standards were excellent. I think the service standard is still great, prices -- not so much these days, UPS and FedEx are often cheaper.

 

[GreyGhost]

Not a bad interview with management. Now, wtf is "Vice president of strategic communications" at CP? Seems like that role would have been called "spokesperson" before but with a VP title you can pay them way more.

Canada Post and striking union look to resume contract negotiations

The Canada Post strike has been going on for over two weeks, putting some holiday deliveries in jeopardy. Melanie Ng hears from the union and speaks with the Crown Corporation on what it will take to get negotiations back on track.

toronto.citynews.ca

 

[FullMotoJacket]

CPC gets mail to most places in Canada, but they don't go to every address. Many rural dwellers drive to community mailboxes, or designated drop points up to 50km away.

When I lived in Wendake Beach I had a box inside the General store in Wyevale. Instead of going straight from work (Midland) to the bay and south I had to go south to the store, across to the bay, then double back up. Mabe an extra 2 miles to pick up my mail vs. not. No big deal.

 

[Dirty Frank]

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.

In my neck of the woods as the rural areas get more gentrified a plot of land with a shack to be torn down for new construction on it gets quite a build up by the real estate set as a existing address will still get home mail delivery while the plebs that build on vacant land face the horror of driving to the super mailbox and the shame attached to that.

 

[BigEvilDoer]

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.

Those are RSMC’s. (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers). They, for the vast majority, supply their own vehicles.
Yes. They are paid fuel and mileage - the exact amount, I don’t know. They have a slightly different contract compares to regular LC’s (Letter Carriers).

The F-150 is a semi common vehicle in the RSMC “fleet”. Most use mini-vans, and the only pick up trucks typically have a cap on the back. The mini-vans are easier to use in general, as they have side access doors instead of tail gate only.

 

[BigEvilDoer]

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.

We live in a society of Karens nowadays…
I had a complaint lodged against me that their maiil was wet, on a day of torrential rains…

Like seriously. WTF.

 

[BigEvilDoer]

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 agree pretty much 100% with what you say. Only problem is the once a week delivery. Does that include parcels and packets? Or just letter mail?

 

[Evoex]

We live in a society of Karens nowadays…
I had a complaint lodged against me that their maiil was wet, on a day of torrential rains…

Like seriously. WTF.

The best is the New Yorker! Melts like sugar.

 

[BigEvilDoer]

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.

Info Source - Responsibilities | Canada Post

www.canadapost-postescanada.ca

As I said earlier in this thread, CP needs to adapt a regional delivery fee. Just like UPS, FedEx, Purolator etc.
Right now it costs the same to mail a letter across the street as it does from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island.
Germany charges more for internal lettermail than CP does., And you can fit Germany into Ontario approximately 5x….
Food for thought.

 

[BigEvilDoer]

How does the mail get to the local carrier right now?

We sort our routes, pull the mail and put them into relay bags. These relay bags get delivered around the city by either “CUS” (contracted workers, non CP) or part time CP workers with vans.

That needs to be done anyway. The legacy system of rewarding tenured carriers with 3-4 hour workdays has to go.

I have no idea which reality you’re living in, but 3-4 hours a day is completely a falsehood. I challenge you to walk 25km in 3-4 hours.
That’s a shorter route. Many routes are over 30km a day if you have to hit most houses.f
FYI, we are allowed 1 hour to sort our routes, go through packets, get delivery cards prepared, stuff everthing into bags for delivery AND cab to our start point of the route.

When CPC started in the late 80's, they did 1M mailboxes, exclusively in new subdivisions. Those 1M mailboxes saved $1.3B in the first 5 years.

Indeed a good thing.

Each million addresses converted to superboxes saves Canada Post $300M/year. Just converting the existing home delivery stops to Superboxes would return CPC to to profitability.

$300M is still less than half of what they claim they are losing annually.

 

[crankcall]

We are on a super box now , I don’t mind it at all , the guy that loads it is pleasant and professional. Sometimes it’s pouring rains and he tries to keep stuff dry , all you can do is try . Literally two blocks away is old school door to door , buddy lives there . He says he would prefer a superbox . Everyone is different on this . It’s a six mile trip to the post office for my son to get mail in rural Alberta . He goes about once a month, I’ll text him if I’ve sent him anything .


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[Malks]

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.

I have one on my side yard. It's fine. Nice and close to get the mail.

 

[GreyGhost]

It’s a six mile trip

Interesting. I was going to ask for the iPhone decoder ring but quoting your post does it for me. In your post is [emoji 6 42].

Edit:
Added spaces as typing what I saw parsed as graphical 6. So confused about what it is doing.

 

[Evoex]

Interesting. I was going to ask for the iPhone decoder ring but quoting your post does it for me. In your post is .

I saw this in a few of his posts the other day

 

[nobbie48]

We live in a society of Karens nowadays…
I had a complaint lodged against me that their maiil was wet, on a day of torrential rains…

Like seriously. WTF.

My late brother did a lot of handyman stuff and he was approached by a lady who saw that her friend had a mail drop that put the mail in a box in the closet by the front door instead of having it drop on the foyer floor.

When my brother started cutting a hole in the closet wall to facilitate the chute she freaked out. She didn't want a hole in the wall. Duh.