Canada Post 2015 Rates coming soon

[pocomocomputing]

Around this time of year, the new rates for Canada Post Parcel services are announced. I did a Google search and some announcements exist as of Dec 12, 2014. The actual new parcel rates will most likely show up this weekend or Monday. The announcement below has the overall percentage increase of parcel services.

Parcel Services Price and Service Changes effective January 12, 2015

Average price increase Domestic Prices for Domestic Parcel Services will increase by an overall average of 4.2 % for most customers.

USA/International Prices for USA/International Parcel Services will increase by an overall average of 1.8% for most customers.

One interesting announcement is the change to volumetric calculation for Express services. Instead of calculating with 6000 cu cm, they are using 5000 cu cm which is an indirect way of making a rate increase.

Here is a link to the announcement page at Canada Post.

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/business/productsservices/rates.jsf

On the above page to the right are new 2015 Lettermail and Letter-post rate sheets.

[momcqueen]

Changing to calculated postage from flat-rate helped me with the fatal cart error.

For the first time in at least a year, I had a uk buyer who was able to purchase two items within the same transaction and submit payment without a hitch. (This was tonight.) The new hitch? Postage was calculated for the two items combined to be WAY TOO LOW and now I'm eating the difference. Still, it might have lost me $10 CAD but it saved me about an hour of extra hair-pulling paypal refunds and associated paperwork. In the end, I'm happy. There's hope! Unless my next multi-item order is so grossly miscalculated that I start losing more than that and each and every time. Like I say, I have to tweak the weights. No matter how I set up the "rules" it's always not quite correct. Plus, it's impossible to get it right for all possible service choices regardless of whether isolated to domestic OR international because the discount through paypal shipping for domestic Expedited is not equal to Xpresspost just as the discount for international Tracked Packet is not the same as Expedited or Xpresspost.

I want better postage discounts!

On another note, I've started using domestic letter mail for 'oversize lettermail' of less than 100 g that costs me $1.90 CAD at the counter each time. Is there a cheaper way to buy a boatload of stamps? The lady who works there says 'no'. I'm betting someone else can say 'yes'. 

[westernstargifts]

There are some nice stamp sellers who post on this board that sell stamps below face value.

[pjcdn2005]

I'm glad it worked out for you but I really don't understand how calculated shipping made a difference. Unless you are referring to something different, the problem with the cart is that buyers in other countries can not see a cart for items that were listed on . ca so of course they can't add anything to one. They won't be able to use a cart regardless of the type of shipping used.

I'm curious how you think that it makes a difference. Perhaps you are referring to a different problem with the cart?

[007steveb16]

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@007steveb16 wrote:

2015 may determine whether I keep hanging out, "Down by the Bay", OR head on, "Down the River"...

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What the heck was I thinking???

This was CP raising it's prices not ebay.....

Wouldn't matter where I was selling it would still be more *facepalm*

I really gotta stop coming on the boards after working for 14hrs...

[treasure.hunter.d]

The Candian Government Minister responsible for Canada Post is The Honorable Lisa Raitt.

Her contact details are as follows:

Ottawa

307 Confederation Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Telephone: (613) 996-7046
Fax: (613) 992-0851
Email: lisa.raitt@parl.gc.ca

Halton

86 Main Street East
Milton, Ontario
L9T 1N3

Telephone: (905) 693-0166
Fax: (905) 693-0704
Email: lisa.raitt@parl.gc.ca

All of the above info is publically available on the internet and posting it does not violate any privacy issues that I am aware of so I see no reason that it should be censored from this forum. In fact, I truly believe that posting it here is, in some small way, part of my civic duty to help my fellow sellers with this serious problem.

I suggest that everyone call, write, email, whatever until we get some action on these ridiculous Canada Post price increases. Basically we are financing out of control wages, benefits and pensions for the Canada Post employees. Some of us, many in fact, have absolutely no pension plan other than our own savings and yet we are being gouged by Canada Post to finance comfy retirements for employess that, for the most part, have never actually put in a days work that was deserving of such ourageously high compensation.

Cheers,

thD

[merritt-motorcycle-salvage]

It`s time and long overdue for the Government to hand over control to an independent agency like USPS did. The last strike almost put me out of business. They running our postal service into the ground. We have some of the highest postal rates in the world. I find it disturbing how certain packages cost more to ship within canada, but cheaper to ship to the US and overseas. 

[pierrelebel]

"Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office Department of the Canadian government founded in 1867), rebranding was done to the “Canada Post” name in the late 1960s, even though it had not yet been separated from the government.

On October 16, 1981, the Canada Post Corporation Act came into effect. That abolished the Post Office Department and created the present day Crown corporation which provides postal service

The act purported to set a new direction for the postal service, aiming to create a more reliable service and to ensure the postal service's financial security and independence."

[pierrelebel]

"hand over control to an independent agency like USPS did."

????

Really?

[merritt-motorcycle-salvage]

What other solution is there when it costs $15.00 to ship certain packages a couple provinces over, yet the same package costs $8.00 to the US and $10.00 overseas. It is cheaper for potential Canadian buyers to purchase from US. Canadian sellers are the ones taking the blame looking like thieves and having to explain why. I would love to offer free shipping to my Canadian buyers, its not an option. Its one thing to offer items that fall into Lettermail / LightPacket, but offering items of various weights and sizes is another story all together.

What do you think is a step in the right direction?

[pierrelebel]

"What other solution is there"

There is no solution to that question.

As soon as an item to be shipped is thicker than 20mm, it requires to be shipped as a parcel within Canada.  The same limitation does not apply to items being mailed to the USA or overseas where the weight controls the postage charge on Small Packet (up to 1kg to the USA, up to 2kg overseas).

There is no "Small Packet" service available domestically.

[pierrelebel]

"There is no solution to that question"

Many years ago, I was selling hundreds of stamp catalogues every year when they came out in the Fall.  It was good easy money.

However, as the catalogues became thicker and heavier (more new stamps are added every year) and the postal rates kept skyrocketing. I simply gave up that business. It was not an easy decision to make.

Buyers interested in acquiring those catalogues can either get them from a stamp dealer store (there are not too many of them left), go to a book store or get them online from one of the big online guys who get a very low rate from Canada Post due to their huge volume.

[dutchman48]

Stamp albums are going the same way. Canada 2013 Lighthouse supplement  hingeless is over $125.00

and to have it shipped is not cheap either due to weight

[femmefan1946]

Canada 2013 Lighthouse supplement  hingeless is over $125.00

Cheaper to wait a few years and buy the next volume of the album with binder and slipcase.

[dutchman48]

Not really as each year more stamps are released and they keep raising the price of the pages. Best way if can get them used, but have to be complete as very difficult to get pages from Lighthouse as they have been discontinuing selling pages so you have to by a whole year set.

Last I checked if you needed a page, they were $7.50 each plus shipping.

One of the reasons I have quit ordering Lighthouse supplements. I print my own pages from Bill Steiner. Print them at home, and no shipping costs involved at all.

[treasure.hunter.d]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

"What other solution is there"

There is no solution to that question.

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The solution although perhaps difficult to implement, is rather simple. The govt. needs to claw back the outrageous wages, benefits and pensions paid to Canada Post employees. These costs are almost 100% solely responsible for the exhorbitant postal rates we pay.

I would never begrudge anyone a fair days pay for a fair days work however there is absolutely nothing fair about the level of compensation paid to CP employees. I know that the unionistas will argue all day long about this but when you consider that most jobs at CP are unskilled labor requiring no advanced education, there is absolutely no way under the sun the justify the grossly inflated wages, benefits and pensions that CP employees receive.

The situation is absolutely hopeless until someone in govt seizes back control and brings the unions to their knees and stops the wholesale robbing of the taxpaying public.

thD

[zee-chan]

Made a little table thingie again this year for my desk. The international Small Packet Air rate uses United Kingdom ~ Australia as reference.

(Look at the letter post price for international <200g... man, CP is gonna make a lot of extra $2.80 from the general public that doesn't know about Light Packet...)

[cumos55]

An increase in postage rates, each year, or a major  adjustment in Options, such as that which occurred in 2013  occurs each January.... or something such as Expedited USA  in August a few years ago

This is a reality we all must deal with.....

Try walking in the shoes of a delivery person... and then deal  with the reality of dysfunctional knees....

Things will change with the community mailboxes....  life should be easier for the delivery person...

Sorting facilities  have changed dramatically.... The new facility in Winnipeg is a highly  functional flow-through system with mail coming in one end and out the other end

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Canada Post is what it is... self-sufficient ......and many will say that the USPS Is "better"... Better for what if it is losing money....

There will come a day when there will be a major adjustment with the USPS... and when that happens there will be a big uproar... in the US....Something has to happen... It is coming ... Everyone will adjust  and things will carry on as if everything were normal

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A mail order business needs a delivery option.... If a buyer wants it they will pay the postage,,,,  whether 10 years ago... today or 2, 3, 5 or 10 years from now.

and in the future  it may mean that some inventory should never be sold through mail order... or in turn the buyer will have to adjust  and accept the reality of a postal rate increase that occurs each year......

[imbuzzy]

Thanks zee-chan for the table.  I found your chart last year to be very helpful and have looked forward the last few days to seeing this year's version.

Your effort is greatly appreciated.

[dutchman48]

Canada Post will also not be issuing the rate pamphlets, that you could get from the post office, any more. You have to use their PDF files and remember, light packet is not in the index as they include it with small packet heading. Here is the link to the PDF files:

http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/prices/default-e.asp

[dutchman48]

Maybe they should close, get rid of the union, start over and the consumers would not be faced with ridiculous increases to support the union and their pensions