New Canada Post Lightweight Package Discounts - May 29, 2023 (Different than 'Expedited Lite')

[dinomitesales]

We got this memo at the post offices on Friday, May 26, 2023 but I didn't get a chance to share it. Goes into effect today (Monday, May 29th).

Discount on Expedited Parcel service with your Canada Post SFSB account: 15% off under 100g; 10% off 101-250 g.

Note that this is not the new 'Expedited Lite' service being offered directly through eBay - the term 'Expedited Lite' isn't mentioned anywhere. It says this is valid from May 29-Dec 31 of this year, but doesn't indicate it's a promotion anywhere, so if I had to guess they're just trialing this for the rest of the year, and will make it a permanent feature in 2024 (or abandon it completely if it ends up losing them money).

I think this will still end up being more expensive than eBay's "Expedited Lite", but it does go up to 250 g ('Expedited Lite' is only up to 200 g), AND it's available at the post office counter so can be utilitized by the folks who use 'stamps on a box'. For those of us that only have a SFSB Level 1 discount, it still may be cheaper to print postage through eBay for items between 200 and 250g because we're getting a Level 4 discount here, but I haven't run the numbers yet.

The memo indicates a marketing email will be sent out (presumably today, but I haven't received anything yet). The webpage is up and running though: canadapost.ca/lightweight

[flipistics]

Interesting. 250g volumetric is very, very small though. It's basically a 4x4x4 box. This would seem to be targeting more documents, cards, etc. Still nice to have additional options, particularly in the 200g to 250g area.

[dinomitesales]

---

@flipistics wrote:

Interesting. 250g volumetric is very, very small though. It's basically a 4x4x4 box. This would seem to be targeting more documents, cards, etc. Still nice to have additional options, particularly in the 200g to 250g area.

---

Yes, this is a good point. It is taking into consideration volumetric weight (while eBay's 'Expedited Lite' does not), so it is really only a viable option for flat items or small items shipped in bubble/poly mailers.

250g is exactly a 5x5x5 cm box when using the density factor for Expedited Parcel.

As a point of reference a single DVD in a #0 bubble envelope would exceed 250g when volumetric weight is taken into consideration, and would therefore be ineligible.

[flipistics]

---

@dinomitesales wrote:

---

@flipistics wrote:

Interesting. 250g volumetric is very, very small though. It's basically a 4x4x4 box. This would seem to be targeting more documents, cards, etc. Still nice to have additional options, particularly in the 200g to 250g area.

---

Yes, this is a good point. It is taking into consideration volumetric weight (while eBay's 'Expedited Lite' does not), so it is really only a viable option for flat items or small items shipped in bubble/poly mailers.

250g is exactly a 5x5x5 cm box when using the density factor for Expedited Parcel.

As a point of reference a single DVD in a #0 bubble envelope would exceed 250g when volumetric weight is taken into consideration, and would therefore be ineligible.

---

A #0 may or may not be okay. The eBay ones appear to be 24cm x 19cm when flat, so 2 cm thick would be 182g volumetric. However if they measured it slightly thicker even though it may fit through the slot with some coersion, then you'd be in trouble since I believe they round up to the centimeter for parcels (?)

BTW, a 5cm cube box would actually be 25g, not 250g. That's also assuming outside dimensions, but most boxes are measured as inside dimensions. That's also less than the min dimensions allowed for parcels, which I think is 10cm x 7cm.

A 4x4x4 box, outside dimensions, is 210g. In reality though, based on my experience it's probably 11cm x 11cm x 12 cm when closed which would be 290g volumetric.

This really does appear to be targeted only to things like documents / cards / photos etc.

[dinomitesales]

---

@flipistics wrote:

---

@dinomitesales wrote:

---

@flipistics wrote:

Interesting. 250g volumetric is very, very small though. It's basically a 4x4x4 box. This would seem to be targeting more documents, cards, etc. Still nice to have additional options, particularly in the 200g to 250g area.

---

Yes, this is a good point. It is taking into consideration volumetric weight (while eBay's 'Expedited Lite' does not), so it is really only a viable option for flat items or small items shipped in bubble/poly mailers.

250g is exactly a 5x5x5 cm box when using the density factor for Expedited Parcel.

As a point of reference a single DVD in a #0 bubble envelope would exceed 250g when volumetric weight is taken into consideration, and would therefore be ineligible.

---

A #0 may or may not be okay. The eBay ones appear to be 24cm x 19cm when flat, so 2 cm thick would be 182g volumetric. However if they measured it slightly thicker even though it may fit through the slot with some coersion, then you'd be in trouble since I believe they round up to the centimeter for parcels (?)

BTW, a 5cm cube box would actually be 25g, not 250g. That's also assuming outside dimensions, but most boxes are measured as inside dimensions. That's also less than the min dimensions allowed for parcels, which I think is 10cm x 7cm.

A 4x4x4 box, outside dimensions, is 210g. In reality though, based on my experience it's probably 11cm x 11cm x 12 cm when closed which would be 290g volumetric.

This really does appear to be targeted only to things like documents / cards / photos etc.

---

You are correct, ignore my previous message, I was moving the decimal over too many times.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

---

@flipistics wrote:

---

@dinomitesales wrote:

---

@flipistics wrote:

Interesting. 250g volumetric is very, very small though. It's basically a 4x4x4 box. This would seem to be targeting more documents, cards, etc. Still nice to have additional options, particularly in the 200g to 250g area.

---

Yes, this is a good point. It is taking into consideration volumetric weight (while eBay's 'Expedited Lite' does not), so it is really only a viable option for flat items or small items shipped in bubble/poly mailers.

250g is exactly a 5x5x5 cm box when using the density factor for Expedited Parcel.

As a point of reference a single DVD in a #0 bubble envelope would exceed 250g when volumetric weight is taken into consideration, and would therefore be ineligible.

---

A #0 may or may not be okay. The eBay ones appear to be 24cm x 19cm when flat, so 2 cm thick would be 182g volumetric. However if they measured it slightly thicker even though it may fit through the slot with some coersion, then you'd be in trouble since I believe they round up to the centimeter for parcels (?)

BTW, a 5cm cube box would actually be 25g, not 250g. That's also assuming outside dimensions, but most boxes are measured as inside dimensions. That's also less than the min dimensions allowed for parcels, which I think is 10cm x 7cm.

A 4x4x4 box, outside dimensions, is 210g. In reality though, based on my experience it's probably 11cm x 11cm x 12 cm when closed which would be 290g volumetric.

This really does appear to be targeted only to things like documents / cards / photos etc.

---

@dinomitesales 

@flipistics 

Only problem with a 5 x 5 x 5 cm box would be making a label to fit it. You might need to include a magnifying glass to read and scan it.

-Lotz

[pjcdn2005]

I've never had a problem putting a regular size label on a small box.  I just fold over bottom part so that it is on another side.   I make sure that the service and the to and from address are all on one side.  I've done that for years without a problem.  It may say somewhere that is not supposed to be done but as I said, its never been a problem.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

The most important part of this is it is that the barcode can be scanned easily and it is NOT wrapped around the box. Many items are scanned while they are on the belt. This can cause miss-sorts or items require hand scanning which adds time to the process.

-Lotz

[dinomitesales]

---

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

The most important part of this is it is that the barcode can be scanned easily and it is NOT wrapped around the box. Many items are scanned while they are on the belt. This can cause miss-sorts or items require hand scanning which adds time to the process.

-Lotz

---

Yeah, that's the ticket. Canada Post does say that the label should fit flat on a single side of the box/envelope, but I've never encountered an issue with it wrapping around. As long as the full barcode is visible and it can be scanned then that's all that matters (and even if it can't for some reason, it will just get kicked off the conveyor belt during sorting and they'll print another smaller barcode label and slap it on somewhere where it WILL get scanned without issue).

Also, if you're printing your postage at home it's easy enough to resize it before printing. You can easily go down to 75% with everything still being readable/scannable.