With all the hype of Canada Post moving to a different delivery system, it is only fair to offer a somewhat different point of view. Their intended system of neighborhood mailboxes will “increase their efficiency”, but above all it will be a tad more difficult to check them out. Are they also ridding themselves of their complaint department? That would certainly save some money.
I was deeply impressed, when on Feb 6, 2015, we received Christmas mail from Holland that was stamped at Dec 22, 2014. That is delivery in 45 days. It is amazing that Canada Post is able to differentiate and separate out one piece of mail out of all the stacks of mail that is coming to its plants and offices to deliver that just one letter to our mail box. Earlier I was even more impressed with another example of the efficient system of Canada Post. My bank, just a few hundred meters from the main post office, prepares statements around the middle of the month and mails those statements around the 20th of the month. I must mention that our house is located about 4 km from the main post office, so in theory it is quite possible to deliver a first class letter like that within a day. However life for Canada Post is not that simple and I can understand that. The efficiency in their system dictates a totally different approach, which mystery probably escapes all common sense. The result however is that my bank statement was delivered on Feb 5, 2014, which is at least 11 days after that first class letter was delivered to the post office. I find that quite an achievement. A distance of 4 km took 11 days or about 264 hours to cross, which is less than 15.2 meters per hour. That, I suspect is not much faster than the speed a snail can achieve. Much to their benefit I should add that the mail was delivered by a postie in a motorized vehicle, they must have realized that they were somewhat behind in their usual efficiency??
Why was I wondering that Canada Post achieve only losses? I find it funny that all the complaints that are surfacing about their neighborhood mailbox system are simply swept under the carpet. Supposedly and theoretically they should provide a service, but it is turning out to be more of a burden than a service. Such happens when a corporation is running under the shelter of a monopoly.
Now Canada Post is currently advertising (no doubt at a high cost) and touting their efficiency in mailing and delivering parcels, I wonder whether they will be streamlining that “service” to such an extent that they will be able to compete with private couriers, not only in cost but also in timely delivery. With all private businesses it is clear that when good service is disappearing, the writing is on the wall for a bankruptcy, so common sense would dictate that Canada Post should crank up there services instead of deleting them almost altogether?
Frans Dullemond,
Chilliwack