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cumos55 · ‎03-29-2015

Canada Post had a profitable 2014.....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-post-flips-to-194m-profit-in-2014-1.3012205

That is a 194 million..profit...

Something good to hear....

Canadian sellers and buyers have contributed to this profit...

treasure.hunter.d · ‎04-04-2015

@art-in-the-making wrote:

haha - anyway, they take heat if they make money and take it worse if they lose money!

Basically a lose-lose.

***

Canada Post still obliged to deliver other country's bargain rate mail to Canadian addresses for peanuts.

Europe/Asia can still ship into Canada for far cheaper than we can ship there. There must be an opportunity for someone in this problem.

The mail is an essential service as far as I am concerned and as such they should not be geared to earn a profit. Breaking even should be the end of it. Deliver a quality product at a reasonable price to cover your costs and that's it. Because they are basically a monopoly they are running like bullies over the people of this country and no one that has the power to is stopping them.

thD

kashka · ‎04-04-2015

Well...I guess they will be handing out bonuses now that they finally turned a profit...Oh wait..sorry..they only hand out bonuses when they lose money.My bad.

http://www.thestar.com/business/2012/10/06/canada_post_pays_bonuses_to_7402_employees_despite_financ...

femmefan1946 · ‎04-04-2015

a reasonable price to cover your costs and that's it. Because they are basically a monopoly

I'm going to disagree on both points.

Any business (or crown corporation) should be doing more than cover costs. There must always be a contingency fund available for unexpected problems and also funds for future projects (like the costs for adding Delivery Confirmation to any bar coded service).

In urban Canada, the PO is completing with not only UPS, FedEx, CanPar and other large couriers, but also with small guys like the bicycle couriers who are such a terror on the streets.

In rural and isolated areas, those couriers sub-contract to Canada Post, which is required to deliver everywhere, even when it is not profitable.

And, if those couriers are profitable, it is because they charge more for their services than Canada Post, without the drag of deliveries to Tuktoyaktuk or Tatty Hill Road.

toff3 · ‎04-05-2015

Come off it, Femme. You peddle the same tired old line as Canada Post. How poor old CP has to compete in parcel delivery with UPS, Fedex and all the other couriers. CP is doing just fine in that competitive market, thank you very much. It's where they have a monopoly (first-class mail delivery) that they're failing. Little wonder. To (be forced to) charge the same postage for a letter to the next block as to Grise Fiord, Nunavut, is business lunacy.

Tom

pierrelebel · ‎04-05-2015

"To (be forced to) charge the same postage for a letter to the next block as to Grise Fiord, Nunavut, is business lunacy."

????

Look around: the USA. the United Kingdom, France, Japan, etc... Industrialized countries all around the world work on the same system: first class mail available at one price for delivery anywhere within the domestic market. What is wrong with that?

Is the whole wide world suffering from "lunacy" but you?

pierrelebel · ‎04-05-2015

Now, way back in the days of King George VI (1949-1950) Canada had two different rates for first class mail (and post cards):

$0.03 within the city

$0.04 within the country

That concept continued for a while in the early days of Queen Elizabeth II (four cents within the city; $0.05 within the country)

Eventually, the "city" rate went away leaving a single rate for all domestic first class mail.

pierrelebel · ‎04-05-2015

For readers interested in the long term picture, you will find first class domestic rates on this chart:

https://www.adminware.ca/checklist/chk_rate.htm#1943

You will notice that November 1st, 1968 is the day when Canada dropped the lower rate (a cent cheaper) for mail within the city to establish one rate for first class rate across Canada.

tellephoto · ‎04-05-2015

The easiest way to make up for sales targets and increase profits is too cut expenses........jobs, benefits, pensions, cut services, buildings, rent etc.

mr.elmwood · ‎04-05-2015

@tellephoto wrote:
The easiest way to make up for sales targets and increase profits is too cut expenses........jobs, benefits, pensions, cut services, buildings, rent etc.

That is exactly what CP has done. Government washed their hands of the whole thing years ago: "Do what ya gotta do".

They have closed the majority of POs. They have gone to a franchise retail PO model that is substantially cheaper. They are selling off the old-model downtown centres. Building through-put centres next to airports. Cutting money losing services.

They are making life so miserable for all of their employees that their is no incentive to stay.

.
.
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toff3 · ‎04-06-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:
"To (be forced to) charge the same postage for a letter to the next block as to Grise Fiord, Nunavut, is business lunacy."

????

Look around: the USA. the United Kingdom, France, Japan, etc... Industrialized countries all around the world work on the same system: first class mail available at one price for delivery anywhere within the domestic market. What is wrong with that?

Is the whole wide world suffering from "lunacy" but you?

Yeah, Pierre, I look around and what do I see?

In USA (BIG country), the postal system loses BIG money. The postal administrations in UK, France, Japan (all small countries by comparison) make money. In Canada (BIG country), the post office bleeds red ink.

Well, of course no one is suggesting that all this is related to charging one price for all first-class mail but it should make you stop and think before asking what's wrong with "one size fits all". Apples and oranges...

At the end of the day, if you really think charging the same postage for a letter to the next block as to Grise Fiord, Nunavut, makes good business sense, I give up.

Tom

toff3 · ‎04-06-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:

That is exactly what CP has done. Government washed their hands of the whole thing years ago: "Do what ya gotta do".

Exactly so. Problem is, CP can't operate a viable business under the strictures the government imposes on them, namely the universal service obligation - universal service at the same price to consumers across this vast country. The volume of letter mail, on which CP has a monopoly, keeps declining, revenue from it keeps falling, so CP has to keep jacking up prices (as well as find economies to reduce costs) in order to keep their head above water. How long and how far can prices be raised and service reduced before the whole house of cards collapses?

Tom

femmefan1946 · ‎04-07-2015

At the end of the day, if you really think charging the same postage for a letter to the next block as to Grise Fiord, Nunavut, makes good business sense, I give up.

It made sense to Sir Rowland Hill. When he introduced prepaid penny postage it was a boon to commerce and simplified the mail system.

But it was good for the nation, and not necessarily a money maker for the government. Although as business prospered, governments would have a larger tax base.

At this point lettermail for documents is a dying part of the postal business. Canada Post has said it is looking to parcel post as its future. If CP can make domestic lettermail pay its own costs, that's all the government should be able to expect from it. And this is one part of the business that CP must provide.