Canada Post prices as of January 11, 2016

[cumos55]

A price increase for parcels appears to be coming as of January 11, 2016.

However,  nothing can be found  with respect to what the cost of shipping will be as of this date.

Usually we get a lot of information by now.

The recent exchange rate increase will most likely cover any increase in postage, something similar to what happened in 2015.

Is there any published information about January 11, 2016?

[femmefan1946]

And, I forgot, the Government should keep their nose out of the lousy 5 ¢ increases in letter mail and the door to door deivery, and start regulating the ridiculous parcel and tracking costs.

This is part of the Canada Post charter as a Crown Corporation. Parliament has to agree to increases in First Class rates and in Registered rates.

Which is another reason why CPO moved to Priority Post and ExpressPost, those services can be charged to the consumer without Parliamentary oversight on their rates.

Parliament does not have the right of oversight on parcel rates.

And remember, when Canada Post makes a profit, which it does most years, the money is turned over to the Treasury Board, because Crown Corporations belong to Canada, unlike UPS or FedEx.

I agree on home delivery to some extent. I believe it would work well if Canada Post moved to three days a week home delivery (Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday depending on which side of the street?) with six day delivery for businesses.

On a somewhat self-serving note, if you are able to use stamps on your shipments, you can buy them on eBay at a sometimes substantial discount.

When you use stamps the fuel surcharge is not applicable and the only taxes paid will be through your seller.

[i.am.vivian]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

I agree on home delivery to some extent. I believe it would work well if Canada Post moved to three days a week home delivery (Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday depending on which side of the street?) with six day delivery for businesses.

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That would have made such a difference to old people who are terrified of breaking a hip in winter, it is not a ridiculous fear because every year a lot of old people do break a hip from falling on the ice. Even 2 days a week would be better than none for some people, or have them apply for permit exemptions for door to door delivery the way they get a handicapped vehicle sticker and park close to the door at malls. There is no way a room full of elderly people using canes and walkers came up with the idea to eliminate home delivery.

[dutchman48]

What do you think rural people do that have no door to door delivery? Everyone adapts.

[dutchman48]

I appreciate that, but all CP does if the Gov't declines letter mail increases, is jack up parcel rates even more.

The whole CP needs to be investigated and drastically changed before small business gets killed in this country. At least get us cheap tracking.

[femmefan1946]

Everyone adapts.

Which is why DD's  MIL gets her mail only twice a month, when one of her sons comes to visit and brings it up from the road.

I agree on the cheap Confirmation of Delivery.

How about a 50 cent barcode that can be added to any domestic mail? That compares to the 25c USPS DC label,which is even cheaper online.

However, Canada Post's domestic parcel services are all Confirmed Delivery and some include insurance.

The DC option would really only affect LetterMail. (up to 500 grs and less than 2cm thick).

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/parcelscon/default.page

The US and Overseas parcel services that do not include DC are Small Packet and International Packet (Air or Surface).

Since most of my items ship Letter or Light Packet, there would be some personal benefit.

[hlmacdon]

What is needed is a trackable system for small packages under a reasonable weight limit, priced at a realistic price, that has a cap for annual increases. USPS for instance is restricted in the rate they can increase first class on an annual basis, which covers shipments up to 1lb. This provides affordable rates for small business in a variety of spaces, while giving USPS the freedom to increase rates as required on larger parcels via priority mail services. This wouldn't help small businesses that deal in larger items, but those tend to be less sensitive to shipping prices with higher ASPs.

From being involved as a high volume contract partner I know Canada Post are desperate for volume after the large expenditures in revamping parcel processing, but they still have no solution that caters to small business. As someone who has been heavily involved in mass retail I can tell you that trying to make up that volume with big box alone isn't the solution. With most national retailers online shipping is still a fraction of their overall business. For one very popular national retailer in the consumer goods space I can tell you their online sales were only the equivalent of a few of their retail store sales.

Canada Post may claim they offer a small business discount program, but I can tell you the volume contract rates are a fraction of those prices. There is simply too much of a disparity in contract versus public versus "small business" rates, and there needs to be greater transparency, as the public pays a disproportionate amount to subsidize a select group of retailers. I can go stand in line at the post office any day and see jaws drop as clerks mention the shipping prices to customers, and go through a well rehearsed apology routine. When clerks are embarrassed to mention your prices, you have a problem.

[femmefan1946]

Absolutely.

I can remember when it was normal, and affordable, for families to exchange gifts by mail.

That continued well into the 1970s.

If Canada Post wants to help small businesses with an online presence, looking at making parcel post rates equivalent* to those days would be an excellent start.

I harp on about paying $12 to ship  paperbacks to Fort MacMurray, but that is just the situation that makes increasing the number of parcels being mailed difficult for sellers and for shoppers.

It is telling that Sears now charges $3.50 for online purchases and still requires pickup at a store or outlet.

*allowing for inflation.

[ricarmic]

Hi Femme!

As a note, I'm not sure the bolded is correct:

On a somewhat self-serving note, if you are able to use stamps on your shipments, you can buy them on eBay at a sometimes substantial discount.

When you use stamps the fuel surcharge is not applicable and the only taxes paid will be through your seller.

I always use stamps and I've always* had to pay the fuel surcharge, but one can use those stamps to pay the fuel surcharge as well. This has been true for the last 3 postmasters. I also think it is included because on the postage receipt it shows the total of the package, the fuel surcharge and the "pre-affixed postage" zeroing it out. 

*for a while a few years ago I had a postmaster that didn't believe in the Fuel Surcharge which was awesome!

[sylviebee]

A friend of mine work(ed) for the CPO and her job was exclusively to plan out the community boxes.

Today she messaged that she abruptly lost her job yesterday.

It seems they've stopped the project (in Ontario), at least for now.

[femmefan1946]

You pay the 'fuel surcharge" when you buy stamps or labels at the PO counter.

If you buy discount stamps (and there always seems to be postage in every philatelic estate) then the surcharge was paid by the original purchaser. 

On the other hand, I almost never go inside the PO. I have corner mailboxes close to my house, with 9am and 5pm pickups, so I rarely talk to the PO counter staff. I also rarely need a tracked service.

[pierrelebel]

"If you buy discount stamps (and there always seems to be postage in every philatelic estate) then the surcharge was paid by the original purchaser. "

Please allow me to correct you since I am a bit older than you are!

When you purchase postage stamps at the post office or from someone else the buyer only pays the appropriate amount of tax (GST or HST) based on the province where the purchase is made.  Postage stamps do NOT include fuel surcharge.

If a parcel shipped domestically costs $12.00 (for example) plus $0.50 fuel surcharge, the sender must affix $12.50 worth of postage stamps on the parcel.

If the stamps are purchased at that time, the post office will also charge GST or HST on the full amount  of $12.50.

If the sender already had the postage stamps, then no tax will apply.