Canada Post to stop home mail delivery

[Shawnski]

Plastic bags and Beep?

Heck, I remember the milkman bringing GLASS bottles. Man they stayed SO cold in our icebox.

He always seemed oddly familiar to me, on those days I would be up early and meet him at the door. "How you doing son?"

Sure got used to drinking ice cold beverages from glass early on due to that...

[missdpuck]

I looked at a few old milk boxes on eBay and they were ungodly expensive..

[Voodooman]

Beep is back....in Nova Scotia

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/busi...akes-comeback/

They brought it back last summer, and continued this year.

Once again Alberta gets screwed. All I know is that someone from our Halifax office is going to be boxing up some sugary goodness and shipping through the internal mail to me next July.

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I think that Canada post should get a zepplin per city with 100's of advanced super cannons that can fire the mail through peoples windows.

I would pay for that service.

Just outsource mail delivery to Amazon and let the drone strikes begin.

[Deegee]

We are moving to a community where everyone goes to the post office to pickup their mail.

The residents don't seem to care because they have more important things in their life to worry about.

[getbak]

Between the super mailboxes that have been around for more than 25 years; rural people who get their mail at the post office; and multifamily buildings that have communal mail boxes, I wonder what percentage of Canadians actually even get direct home delivery currently?

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by getbak

Between the super mailboxes that have been around for more than 25 years; rural people who get their mail at the post office; and multifamily buildings that have communal mail boxes, I wonder what percentage of Canadians actually even get direct home delivery currently?

This thread prompted that conversation a few minutes ago. My husband grew up in a small northern town where you either lucked out and got a mailbox at the PO, or you picked it up at the counter, as 'General Delivery.' I haven't noticed any superboxes up there but we weren't looking for them either. So they never had home delivery.

I don't ever recall having home delivery either. We lived on a rural route or two growing up (we moved all over Alberta with a stint in the NWT) so we had delivery to the mailbox at the end of the lane. Since my husband and I have been together/married, which is 24 years, it's always been pick up at the PO or superboxes.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Check your stats, then notice the trend. Canada Post recorded profits for 16 consecutive years until 2011. It has reported losses for nine consecutive quarters since then. So obviously something needs to change to make it profitable again. Regular mail (asides from parcel) in in serious decline. I'd say that that is the exactly the kind of streamlining we need. Or they could wait a decade and go belly-up, or rely on government subsidization.

It's not job losses per-se, it's not re-filling spots after natural attrition. Canada post suffers from the same ability to get with the times as most other unionized environments. They're handcuffed into being slow to adapt which drives them to looking to other solutions, which is what you're seeing here. IMO if it wasn't unionized they would have these superboxes installed already and you'd be seeing 8,000 layoffs right after Christmas.

I believe 2011 is the year of the last strike by Canada Post employees.

It is not a coincidence that Canada Post started to lose money that same year. People were so fed up that they converted as much of their standard mail delivery to digital mail delivery as possible, and that involved hundreds of thousands of Canadians if not millions. ING in Alberta reported that they had something like 75,000 customers sign up for digital delivery of their bank statements.

And wasn't a large part of that last strike about streamlining which the employees were resisting? Yes, I know, some was about the new structure of their past postal routes but I think Canada Post wanted to buy a lot of newer and more modern sorting equipment too.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Shawnski

Plastic bags and Beep?

Heck, I remember the milkman bringing GLASS bottles. Man they stayed SO cold in our icebox.

He always seemed oddly familiar to me, on those days I would be up early and meet him at the door. "How you doing son?"

I lol'd

Originally Posted by redforever

I believe 2011 is the year of the last strike by Canada Post employees.

It is not a coincidence that Canada Post started to lose money that same year. People were so fed up that they converted as much of their standard mail delivery to digital mail delivery as possible, and that involved hundreds of thousands of Canadians if not millions. ING in Alberta reported that they had something like 75,000 customers sign up for digital delivery of their bank statements.

That was a massive error on their part. My company switched to online billing instantly, we used to send 100+ letters a month, small potatoes but multiply that by thousands of businesses. I also set most of my personal bills to digital.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

They were interviewing some people on the radio about this. The whining was almost unbearable. Oh noes! I have to pull my car up to the mailbox that I drive by after work every day anyway to check my mail! Heresy!

[Slava]

I check my mail at the super box on the same day as the recycling bins are out on the road (unless I'm waiting for something). I sort the flyers right into recycling and pull the bins back to the house.

Its basically a vicious circle for Canada Post though. There's nothing useful or urgent in the mail, so people send less useful and urgent stuff in the mail. Basically I get a couple bills there and the odd package, along with stacks of junk.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by NuclearPizzaMan

Does Canada Post still contract out mail delivery for super boxes, or is it done by actual employees?

It's contracted out.

[edslunch]

I'm disappointed about losing home delivery but I'll get over it. What I don't get is the decision to massively hike postal rates - yeah, that will help create business! Already were hearing a steady stream of stories of organizations being forced to look at different ways to interact with their customers. I predict in a year or two mail usage will drop precipitously resulting in an existential crisis. Almost like someone's planning it....

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I am 99% certain that my postie only delivers my mail when I have more than one piece. You can tell me all you want that it's not allowed, but I pretty sure he does it anyway.

I'm not sure what they would do with it? Canada Post staggered shifts now, so where every postie used to have their own case for sorting mail they now have to share. They don't have relay boxes anymore so they can't leave it there. They also don't have their own delivery truck so they can't leave it in there.

I think the only option would be for them to take the mail home with them, but that seems like more work than just delivering the mail to you since they have to walk by your place anyway.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Minnie

If I tell them I don't want flyers, they put a little sticker on the inside of my postbox (which are in the superboxes), which indicates we don't get flyers. We don't even want 'current resident' stuff which is why we stipulated that we only want stuff with our actual names and addresses on it. I wasn't aware of the political mailings exception - wonder if I can stick 'return to sender' on it? (kidding ) It never came up in the conversation with our mail guy - who is frigging awesome. He's away for 2 weeks on holidays so we're getting temp coverage - and hoo boy, can we ever tell. People are getting their neighbors mail and we all end up traipsing up and down the street to exchange. I miss him, LOL - so going down to the PO and leaving him a Tim's card or something.

If you get home delivery you can always leave a card on the mailbox, wedged between the box and the house so he can see it. Just write "mail man" on it and he should be able to see it.

Source: My dad the mail man.

[Dion]

Super mailboxes are great for when you head out on a vacation. No tell tale signs that tell criminals and such that you are away.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Dion

Super mailboxes are great for when you head out on a vacation. No tell tale signs that tell criminals and such that you are away.

Did you know it's $20 to get your mail held for 10 days? Pretty high fee, considering no one here really gets mail delivered anyway.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Did you know it's $20 to get your mail held for 10 days? Pretty high fee, considering no one here really gets mail delivered anyway.

I prefer to get my neighbour to check my box and watch my house when i'm gone.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by missdpuck

@Minnie---11PM??? I thought that was just an American thing lol. Someone told me they were out till 1AM down in Miami. Wow.

What Minnie, and most people, don't understand is that the carrier that got to their mail at 11 PM wasn't likely 8 hours slower on the route than the regular carrier. It is very likely that they were carrying their own route and then a chunk, if not all, of your regular carrier's route.

I used to get so annoyed when people would say "You're late." when I'd show up at 5:30 with mail on my overtime portion. I'd say, "No, I'm not, but your mail is." Then I'd think to myself....if I was your carrier you'd be getting your mail an hour before that bum that carries this route gets it to you now.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Did you know it's $20 to get your mail held for 10 days? Pretty high fee, considering no one here really gets mail delivered anyway.

That's a free service in the US. Max of 30 days though.