Not yet ready for prime time.

[reallynicestamps]

Ran across some discussion of this auctionbytes article on the dotCOM boards.

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/abblog/blog.pl?/pl/2020/11/1604540462.html

Maybe eBay Canada would be a good place to beta test this. Think Canada Post would go along?

Would a tracked envelope  that carries 85gr for a loonie be useful to you?

I could use it for postcards and maybe some lower value stamp orders.

But .... Canada Post.... sigh....

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@reallynicestamps 

It's like trying to explain to Canadian eBay shoppers why a seller charges 15.00 to 22.00 to ship a small package that doesn't count as letter half way across Canada. Why? Because those are the rates Canadapost charges. Buyer: Say it ain't so? You have to be ripping me off. Even showing them the website does little to help the situation.

-Lotz

[teenytrinkets]

I've shipped 50g items in a flat rate box several times this year - $19 a pop. (It was cheaper than expedited with my biz discount because they were going to rural and the maratimes). Sad that the best tracking deal I could get for a lightweight item, thicker than 2cm, was $19, eh?

Small packet rates were a bust when they tried it several years ago - but I think e-commerce has picked up since then. Anything would be better than what we have now. It's so bad...

[teenytrinkets]

I could see this being a good idea for gift cards in the US. I wonder if the 3rd Party shippers like ChitChats could piggyback on this, too?

Canada Post would never have the money to do this. They can't even do a small parcel rate (as I discussed with Lotz in my other reply). We can only dream

[reallynicestamps]

Canada Post is mandated to make money and to turn their profits over to the National Treasury.  Which they do most years.

USPS doesn't make money, mostly because they are saddled with a crazy pension scheme that forces them to bank enough to cover some 50 years of pensions, for employees who are still actively working.

USPS has been raising rates over the past decade. Canada Post and USPS charge about the same, give or take a toonie, for International Tracked Air Mail.

What I really envy is the 25c tracking our US competitors can opt for.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@teenytrinkets wrote:
... Sad that the best tracking deal I could get for a lightweight item, thicker than 2cm, was $19, eh?

---

The leaked ebay USPS tracking add-on is only for items up to .25" (0.6cm) thick. So no help for thick items.

It would have been nice if Canada Post's experiment a few years ago with light weight packages under 500g (equivalent to small packet) had gone live.

-..-

[marnotom!]

I think Canada Post and CUPW will only be able to make this happen when the letter mail streams and the parcel post streams are fully integrated nationally.

Right now, in my neck of the woods at least, separate carriers handle letters and parcels (and I presume larger international oversized letters).  I suspect that letter carriers are not equipped with scanning devices.  I appreciate that there are many parts of Canada where parcel post and lettermail are handled by the same carrier now, but this doesn't seem to be the case where I live.

[pjcdn2005]

Small packet rates were a bust when they tried it several years ago - but I think e-commerce has picked up since then. Anything would be better than what we have now. It's so bad...

I don’t remember that, what was that all about?

[pjcdn2005]

What I really envy is the 25c tracking our US competitors can opt for.

I don’t remember the cost but an add on for tracking hasn’t been around for years....maybe 10 years?  
 First class package within the US always includes tracking.  First class flat (lettermail) does not have tracking available.   First class package international has tracking to certain countries only if postage is purchased online.

[ricarmic]

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@marnotom! wrote:

I think Canada Post and CUPW will only be able to make this happen when the letter mail streams and the parcel post streams are fully integrated nationally.

Right now, in my neck of the woods at least, separate carriers handle letters and parcels (and I presume larger international oversized letters).  I suspect that letter carriers are not equipped with scanning devices.  I appreciate that there are many parts of Canada where parcel post and lettermail are handled by the same carrier now, but this doesn't seem to be the case where I live.

---

Hmm this is interesting, in my neck of the woods the same person handles/delivers both, ie they all have the scanning devices.

Now I live in a wee village so the carriers are servicing the rural areas, so presumably in the cities they are doing it differently.

My point though is they have the technology/processes to do it because that's how they're doing it in the boonies.....

[pjcdn2005]

I'm in a city of 100,000+ and in our part of the city, we have community mail boxes and the same person delivers both parcels and envelopes. The odd time, usually around Christmas, someone will deliver a package right to the door and I think that is probably someone different.

[reallynicestamps]

I suspect that letter carriers are not equipped with scanning devices.

The devices weigh practically nothing.

The parcels can weigh up to 50 lbs.

Which is I believe the maximum the carriers are allowed to lift.

Our city is 750,00 as the Capital District (Victoria has 11 municipalities) and the carriers seem to work from trucks, delivering smalled packages and lettermail along with the ad bumpf.

But trucks cost more than mail bags.

USPS carriers have shopping cart thingies according to movies and TV.  I wonder why Canada Post has never picked up on that for urban areas.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Same situation exists here, small village with community mailboxes surrounded by rural routes. Both are served by a carrier driving the little CP van, those vans are a strange sight screaming up and down the concession roads.

Prior to the major reorganization that occured a few years back rural delivery in this area was historically tendered out to private contractors.

I'd guess 90% of the time our parcels are delivered to our door, our post office and carrier do an excellent job.

[marnotom!]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

But trucks cost more than mail bags.

---

Handheld scanners cost more than mailbags, too.

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

USPS carriers have shopping cart thingies according to movies and TV.  I wonder why Canada Post has never picked up on that for urban areas.

---

Just a wild guess, but Canadian mail carriers get around from sorting station to mailing route by public transit.  I just took a lot at some pictures of cart-equipped US mail carriers and those carts would take up an awful lot of real estate on a typical transit bus or train car.  That is, if those things could even be taken inside those in the first place.

[reallynicestamps]

I remember the mail carriers on the downtown buses back in Ottawa. But I think they were travelling to and from their walks, not carrying mail from the terminal.

In more suburban districts, the truck comes around to fill the boxes (and pick up mail from the red boxes). The carrier then fills her bag from there, sometimes two or three times in a shift.

There are a lot of PO vans around here. Lots of mailboxes too. We just found another one, a whole block away from the one I usually use.

Actually used the bus today. Normally 10 minute service (another bus every 10 minutes) but today it was half an hour, and nothing to say so. I would have walked but I had a heavy backpack to carry.

[teenytrinkets]

I wasn't selling at the time, but my postal counter person has discussed with me several times. I'm not sure if it was a trial, but i think it was something similar to the prepaid boxes and was shortlived because it wasn't profitable. She seems to think the flat rate boxes aren't profitable either. It would be a shame if they kill those. They come in handy to people out west.

[marnotom!]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Actually used the bus today. Normally 10 minute service (another bus every 10 minutes) but today it was half an hour, and nothing to say so. I would have walked but I had a heavy backpack to carry.

---

Before I moved from the CRD in the mid 00's, the on-time record for its transit system was excellent.  However, I don't think the frequency of buses on the most-used routes was greater than every seventeen or so minutes.

Today on the BC Transit website I see quite a few "service advisories" on buses running between downtown and UVic.  I'd chalk your unfortunate delay up to something unforeseen like infrastructure work affecting traffic or, barring that, mechanical issues.