Canada Post shooting itself

Mags · December 27, 2013, 06:28:24 PM

Both packages showed up today. They charged me $0.00 for the second shipment. So there might be some groveling if they want one back.

Mr. Analog · May 15, 2015, 02:28:56 PM

The backlash continues!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-post-s-super-mailboxes-spur-growing-backlash-1.3074743

Mr. Analog · July 09, 2015, 11:35:07 AM

Canada Post "missing packages" going viral: https://twitter.com/CBCNews/status/619192881790742530

Mr. Analog · October 27, 2015, 02:23:16 PM

With the change in Government the move to community mailboxes has been halted:
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/canada-post-halts-transition-to-community-mailboxes

Tom · October 27, 2015, 02:58:17 PM

I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.

Mr. Analog · October 27, 2015, 03:27:12 PM

Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 02:58:17 PM
I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.

Canada Post sabotaged itself with decades of questionable decision making, including waiting until 2011-ish to start a "modernization" effort in the midst of the largest drop-off of mail yet seen

It's kinda like the CBC, a large self-important organization facing extinction with ignorance.

Tom · October 27, 2015, 03:31:27 PM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on October 27, 2015, 03:27:12 PM
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 02:58:17 PM
I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.

Canada Post sabotaged itself with decades of questionable decision making, including waiting until 2011-ish to start a "modernization" effort in the midst of the largest drop-off of mail yet seen

It's kinda like the CBC, a large self-important organization facing extinction with ignorance.

Sure, there's been a bit of mis-management, but the ultimate managers is the government. A lot of what they've been doing is de-funding them, and ordering insane changes, that just seem like a way to sabotage them to make people think the service is worthless, to ready it for a sale.

Tom · October 27, 2015, 03:34:08 PM

It's been the SOP for governments looking to sell a public service.

Mr. Analog · October 27, 2015, 03:41:22 PM

Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 03:31:27 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on October 27, 2015, 03:27:12 PM
Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 02:58:17 PM
I'd like to see it start rolling back. hire more carriers. The government has been trying to sabotage canada post for at least a decade.

Canada Post sabotaged itself with decades of questionable decision making, including waiting until 2011-ish to start a "modernization" effort in the midst of the largest drop-off of mail yet seen

It's kinda like the CBC, a large self-important organization facing extinction with ignorance.
Sure, there's been a bit of mis-management, but the ultimate managers is the government. A lot of what they've been doing is de-funding them, and ordering insane changes, that just seem like a way to sabotage them to make people think the service is worthless, to ready it for a sale.

A BIT??? no, Canada Post has been off the hook for a very long time and passing the questionable expenses on to us, the consumer

I mean it costs $3.30 to send <100g letter from New York to Toronto (USPS First Class) but to send THE SAME letter from Toronto to Toronto costs $7.47 (Canada Post expedited)

Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 03:34:08 PM
It's been the SOP for governments looking to sell a public service.

Good. Let it die. If my taxes pay for its infrastructure and it STILL costs more to send @%&# from point A to point B than a FOR PROFIT carrier service there's something seriously @%&#ing wrong with their organization

Tom · October 27, 2015, 03:46:53 PM

And guess who let it happen? Sell it and further mis-manage it and prices only go further up.

Canada Post has a contract with USPS for a specific price for Cross border mail. So they can't just increase it. But they can sure increase the price on local mail!

I just hate the way these things are dealt with by some politicians. They let a useful service degrade into uselessness then go "Look! It's not working! Lets get rid of it!"

Mr. Analog · October 27, 2015, 03:52:08 PM

It's not a useful service!!

Tom · October 27, 2015, 03:54:21 PM

It definitely was, before people actively caused it to fail. And it can still be fixed.

In some cases it is still useful. There are places that are not going to be covered by commercial services for less than an absolute fortune. Canada post has to deliver to everyone.

If you want to play into certain types of politician's hands, don't let me stop you. Just expect it to keep happening. Next stop, health care.

Mr. Analog · October 27, 2015, 04:01:51 PM

They ARE federally mandated to deliver to everyone but they don't already and they never actually have

The amount of mail that is processed by the system has dropped dramatically since 2006, they tried to offset this by offering a service called ePost (which you may remember) which was in development for 10 years and has less than 1 million users out of a possible 15+ but it doesn't really solve the actual problem of the need just not being there

I'm willing to bet that most mail that comes to you is admail or bills that could be sent electronically. The remainder is likely already being sent via courier service

So if you went 100% electronic billing and didn't receive admail (because who wants that @%&# anyway?) what would the point of having a daily route to your house be, or even a weekly?

The future has been dictated by the users of the system and not the system itself, for it to change and survive it would have to radically alter what service it provides (hookers? pizza delivery?) because there is no future in mail delivery as it was 25+ years ago

The world changed, but Canada Post didn't, and we pay for it

Tom · October 27, 2015, 04:05:13 PM

*sigh*

I still use Canada Post, its often still cheaper than couriers for some things. And service actually improved for me in the past few years on Canada Post, and UPS got worse. So yeah.

I just don't think we should allow certain elements to continually undermine our services and way of life to benefit themselves.

Mr. Analog · October 27, 2015, 04:18:41 PM

Quote from: Tom on October 27, 2015, 04:05:13 PM
*sigh*

I still use Canada Post, its often still cheaper than couriers for some things. And service actually improved for me in the past few years on Canada Post, and UPS got worse. So yeah.

I just don't think we should allow certain elements to continually undermine our services and way of life to benefit themselves.

To be honest I was like you before I took a critical look at what I was really getting out of Canada Post. 3 things caught my attention:

1. How much meaningful content the service actually delivers (virtually zero)
2. How much I actually pay between competing services (you'd be surprised if you took a critical look at it, Canada Post is NOT the cheapest option)
3. The rise of accessible pick-up centres for competing services

And that's just me, a small time customer that deals with maybe two dozen pieces of actual mail a year (and I assure you I am a higher frequency user than the average). The cost to business is actually worse and is fundamentally why most businesses go out of their way to use courier services (especially for intracity mail)

An apple could have been an orange if only it's chromosomes were different

Canada Post could have been functional if several thousand changes were made over the last several decades

Cut it off, privatize it between service providers and be done with it, the only thing that will change is the colour of the drop boxes and the sign over the counter at the drug store