UPS gripe

[Doggggboy]

I’d worry what that would do for mail service. Would rural people have to drive to the closest city to get their mail?

Uhh,,,.. that's what we've always done in rural Saskatchewan. If you want the mail, you drive to the post office. If you're lucky it is in the nearest town.
When small town POs started closing the rural offices there would either be a row of letter boxes or you drove to the next nearest town if it had the Post Office.
Even when I lived in Regina we didn't have door to door delivery. Just letter boxes down the street. If you had a small parcel you would get the key for the parcel box. All bigger parcels were either held at the main depot or at the local Shoppers Drug mart.
I'm not sure if there is anywhere in Sask that has the post boxes at the end of the driveway like you always see in the movies.

 

[Chicken lights]

Uhh,,,.. that's what we've always done in rural Saskatchewan. If you want the mail, you drive to the post office. If you're lucky it is in the nearest town.
When small town POs started closing the rural offices there would either be a row of letter boxes or you drove to the next nearest town if it had the Post Office.
Even when I lived in Regina we didn't have door to door delivery. Just letter boxes down the street. If you had a small parcel you would get the key for the parcel box. All bigger parcels were either held at the main depot or at the local Shoppers Drug mart.
I'm not sure if there is anywhere in Sask that has the post boxes at the end of the driveway like you always see in the movies.

Because we have a post office in town, we don't get one at shoppers. So if you have a parcel to mail after hours you have to drive to the next town over. And if you want to access your PO Box after hours, they just give you a key to the front door.

 

[StevSmar]

If you want the mail, you drive to the post office. If you're lucky it is in the nearest town.

My concern is that people will be driving to the nearest city… 100’s of km’s…

Luckily for us, we still get delivery to our door. I suspect not much longer though.

I still suspect UPS etc are taking the profitable parts of delivery leaving Canada Post to be forced to focus on less profitable areas. The politicians need to decide if having a government owned delivery service is in Canadians best interest.

 

[Doggggboy]

My concern is that people will be driving to the nearest city… 100’s of km’s…

Luckily for us, we still get delivery to our door. I suspect not much longer though.

I still suspect UPS etc are taking the profitable parts of delivery leaving Canada Post to be forced to focus on less profitable areas. The politicians need to decide if having a government owned delivery service is in Canadians best interest.

Canada Post and its' subsidiary, Purolator, have around 31% of the package delivery market in Canada.
UPS has 28%. Purolator may be the only thing that Canada post makes money on.

 

[StevSmar]

Purolator may be the only thing that Canada post make

I didn’t know Purolator was part of Canada post.

(When I first moved to Canada- I thought Purolator was a coffee delivery service- I knew Canadians really liked their coffee… I think it was a couple of years before I found out they delivered things other than coffee)

 

[Mike R]

Purolator, percolator, whatever!

 

[jcdammeyer]

How about a totally different off the wall idea. Take what the Canada Post workers Union has achieved and then legislate that all delivery people that deliver packages of any sort be given the same benefits and wages.

The Amazon delivery groups rely on low wages and initial losses to drive competitors out of the market.

And how about changing the agreement Canada Post has with other countries. If I tried to send a package I received from AliExpress with $2.80 shipping to Vancouver, just across the water I'd pay almost 10x that.

The question then is about rates. Is Canada Post too expensive or are they required to ship many items for almost zero dollars because of some postal agreement with China.

A package that is 2x4x2cm and weighs 0.1 kg costs almost $17 to ship from my address to Coquitlam, BC.

That little spirit level for my lathe tool center project cost $2.84 for shipping in roughly the same size package. Now it took longer than 3 days but it went surface on a boat to Canada. Once it arrived, likely Vancouver, it had to be sorted and transferred to a shipping company (not Canada Post) and then moved to the Island and delivered. All for $2.84.

I know that rate is way too low. Perhaps Canada Post is too high? Likely the delivery person for my spirit level is not being paid Union wages, health benefits and retirement pension accumulation.

If Canada Post vanishes it's likely the $2.84 prices will go with it.

IMHO.