Are you outraged by the shipping increase of Canada Post ?

[lany666]

I live in Québec, postage went sky high today, I am so mad !!! here is an example: as of today to ship a oversized letter between 200 to 499 grams cost $ 20.60 !!! last week the cost was 15.20 talk about an increase !!!

I have over 400 items listed, I need to change all my shipping fees, local, Usa & International.  Canada Post did not advise us untill last friday what the increase would be.  I am so  so discouraged, what do you THINK ????

[maggiebvintage2010]

If you take a piece of mail or a parcel to the Post Office and buy the postage, the weight class is determined by weighing before affixing postage.  You weight your parcel before you print the PayPal label and affix it.  You should do the same for your shipments when using stamps.

[rose-dee]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

With the new increases in both Canada and the UK, it is worth noting that it will cost 62 pence (Cdn$ 1.13) to mail a letter domestically first class in the UK - substantially more than $0.85 in Canada, a country much larger.

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Yes, but are they doing away with (or have they done away with) door-to-door delivery as here, or do people still get their post dropped off at their door?  I'd be interested to know if the service levels differ.

"It is worth remembering that the CEO of Royal Mail was previously the CEO of Canada Post."   Yes, and the head of the Bank of Canada went off to England too -- is there a pattern here?  I hope not...

[productaxi]

Im trying to figure out how to mail an oversize letter with 1.34 stamps and regular stamps.  I guess I'll start paying about $2.00 per letter until these stamps are used up?  Would they take my old oversize in for exchange you think? It's only like 40 Grams

[zee-chan]

Use light packet. International up to 500g is $19.12 so it's a bit cheaper than letterpost.

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/aboutus/news/announcements/light_packet.jsf

[kawartha-ephemera]

Good point. I'll have to ask my postmaster about this. On the day of the increase my postmaster actually helped me open envelopes to remove packing slips to slip under 100 grams.

[toff3]

Rose-dee,

Postal service levels between the UK and Canada differ greatly. In the UK doorstep delivery of lettermail is 6 days a week. The UK also enjoys two classes of domestic lettermail service, first (base rate of 62 pence, next-day delivery) and second (53 p, delivery within 3 days). Mail is collected from street letterboxes on Saturdays (until a few years ago it used to be on Sundays as well). Royal Mail also offers things like domestic Small Packet service.

It's true that the cost of mailing a domestic letter  in the UK is higher than in Canada - so it is in Europe generally. Domestic rates in Europe have been high for decades and were set to climb relentlessly and service sacrificed, for all the usual reasons: lack of competition, high labour costs, and shortage of capital in the postal industry. Something had to be done and that something was opening up the industry to the private sector. With privatization, costs came down. In Germany, after privatization in 2000, 12 years passed without a domestic price rise. A German can send a letter to Canada for the equivalent of $1.13. It costs a Canadian more than double that to send a reply back.

Now, with the successful privatization of Royal Mail late last year - engineered by our very own Moya Greene - there's a good chance that prices will rise only modestly and an excellent chance they will go down, even as high levels of service are maintained.

By contrast, in Canada the future looks bleak. With the universal service obligation (same price for a letter to anywhere in Canada) being maintained  - unsustainable in a country as large and thinly-populated as Canada with letter volume declining - high labour costs and a huge and growing pension deficit with no means to cover it, Canada Post is rapidly hitting the wall. It's the first postal service in the world to eliminate doorstep delivery. After a 35% rise in rates this year, CP promises future increases will be minor and assures us its future is secure.

Where have we heard all this before?

Tom 

P.S. Speaking of Moya Greene, some say that she was keen on having Canada Post privatized  (she did it with CNR). You have to wonder if she would have been able to convince the Canadian government to go for it. Things might be very different today. 

[toff3]

Kawartha,

You have my sympathy. Things have come to a pretty pass when you have to resort to such lengths to mitigate exorbitant postage prices.

Tom