CP to settle Lee Valley class action

[tobyshitzu]

Suprised to get a notice today saying CP has agreed to settle the Lee Valley tools class action over how they were charging dimensional weight from 2000-2007.  CP will be paying $5m plus  $1.3m in legal costs.  I  suppose I got this from when power sellers got a contract number.  With 54,000 class memebrs no one is getting much.

But the interesting part is "But as part of the proposed settlement, if approved, Canada Post will stop charging customers based on “volumetric weight” within two years of the judgement"

http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/Canada+Post+settles+with+commercial+clients+over+shipping+cos...

Andrew Coyne on the urgency of privatizing CP

http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/Coyne+Time+deliver+Canadians+from+Canada+Post/883645...

[tobyshitzu]

$104m loss in q2

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/08/27/canada-post-loss.html

[mycollectorscabin]

I wonder , when will a client receive their money, from canada post!

Ron

[toff3]

Ron,

As Toby says, it's unlikely anyone will receive a significant refund, so a timeframe is only academic.

Main thing, at least a couple of Canada Post's unfair pricing practices have been scotched.

Tom

[mycollectorscabin]

Tom,

Canada Post`s "volumetric  weight' unfair pricing  practice  was applied on Two

of my Expedited parcels during the week of August 25th. to August 31st.

I believe,  Canada Post would have to stop their pricing practice within Two years of  the judgment. date.

it`s still a long time to wait !

Ron.

[recped]

I only vaguely followed this saga so I may be way off......

I thought that the problem Lee Valley had was not with Volumetric pricing per se but rather the way in which volumetric dimensions were being calculated on odd-shaped packages such as triangular shipping "tubes" which were being treated the same as if they were square.

I find it hard to believe that volumetric pricing will go away entirely, it's now virtually the defacto standard for all carriers. If it does then the only solution for CP would be a rather brutal across the board rate increase or tiered increases based on package size.

Privitization might help stop the bleeding at Canada Post but it certainly won't lead to any rate reductions.

.

[toff3]

Ben,

I'm not convinced that volumetric pricing is standard among all carriers. I find no mention of it on the USPS website, nor on the Deutsche Post/DHL site.

Certainly it seems to be SOP for the couriers, including DHL Express, and those robber barons at Canada Post are always eager to take a page out of the couriers' book. Ten years have passed since they first slapped a fuel surcharge - so beloved of couriers - on parcels, something which AFAIK no other postal administration in the world does.

Interestingly, Parcelforce in the UK uses volumetric pricing and, I believe, adds a fuel surcharge to some of their services but I'm not 100% sure of this. Perhaps they consider themselves a courier company, separate and distinct from the post office.

As to your conclusion that privatization of CP won't lead to price reductions, that's without foundation. Privatization of the German, Dutch and Swedish post all resulted in rate reductions.

Tom

[recped]

USPS uses volumetric weight for all Priority or Express over one cubic foot, they call it dimensional weight or "shape based" weight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_weight

[bb_cool_stuff]

CP will be paying $5m plus $1.3 in legal costs.

The scary part of that statement is who is going to paythose costs.

We Are in the long run.

[pierrelebel]

"who is going to paythose costs."

That is a very difficult question to answer!

Canada Post is a Crown Corporation currently losing money.

Two possibilities: management raises postage fees to cover all expenses including this lost court case or the taxpayers (you and I) bail them out.

[bb_cool_stuff]

I guess we pay either way.

I am already concerned regarding the changes CP will be making in the shipping rates next January.