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amberwoodottawa · ‎11-07-2003

If I ship a guitar to Montreal that actually weighs 6kg but has a cubic weight of 21kg, CP will charge me $8.86 for Express Service based on 21kg.

If I ship that same instrument to California, CP will charge me $91.30 for Express Post based on the cubic weight (actual weight charge would have been only $30.90).

HOWEVER, UPSP who takes the instrument from CP in Montreal at Customs doesnt charge by cubic weight, they charge by actual weight so CP is making at least an additional $60.40 from me for only deliverying the parcel to USPS in Montreal.The difference is given to USPS for their portion of transporting the uitar to California.

This appears to be nothing more than theft to me! If I am wrong in this assumption, please let me know.

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-07-2003

What I meant to say is the difference between the $30.90 and the $8.86 is what UPSP likely gets while CP keeps $60.40 for the 100 mile trip.

aabros · ‎11-07-2003

this is a killing

ospreylinks · ‎11-12-2003

I have never found a carrier that didn't charge based on cubic volume.....

Jeff

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-13-2003

I have heard rumours that Fedex is not charging on cubic weight any longer (a very recent change).

I wouldnt mind it if I paid the cubic weight surcharge to CP for the Ottawa to Montreal (US customs) part of the shipment but why should CP be charging me based on cubic weight to California or wherever outside of Canada when they are not being charged by UPSPS for cubic weight.

I spoke to a commercial litigation lawyer about this yesterday (I work with him in Toronto while I am doing my business consulting schtick) and based on what I told him he informed me that there are sections in the Federal Anti-competition Act that would likely address many of our concerns over CP's pricing and that a class action would be the way to proceed.

I recall when the same thing happened over hotel room rates given by Ottawa hotels to government employees and officials. At that thime it was the Anti-combines Act which found the hotels guilty of price fixing and unfair trade practice.

The result was, they all increased their room rates for government employees and officials and recovered the fines they paid and are still profiting from being found guilty some 20 years later.

www-labels4less-com · ‎11-13-2003

The cubing does not frustrate me as much as the inconsistancy and then the followup when one complains. I have had small (the size of 5 video tapes) shipments 1.4kg going by Xpresspost get "resized" to near skid size proportions (3' x 3') with a "correction" of 16Kg. The answer I receive is that the machines do not make mistakes. I can not imagine that I am alone.

You can bet this would not happen if it were privatized. I think Post would operate more efficiently. It could only work if the private sector who operated it would be subsidized for delivery to some locations.

retrorescue · ‎11-16-2003

Is it true that to cube the weight you take, in centimetres, the length x width x height of the package and divide it by 6000? I was told this by my mail counter at Shopper Drug Mart recently.

RAY(retrorescue)

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-16-2003

Ray
Thats their formula. If calculating cubic weight by inches you divide by 165.

In the spring when they started, they were calculating cubic weight for everything we shipped, no exceptions. We had no advance notice that they were changing from actual weight.

Now, less than 25% of our products are charged by cubic weight. We do not use the electronic shipping tools and we put the actual weight on the shipping labels by hand and right on the package.

I believe that the handling costs at CP for measuring everything and trying to calculate the cubic weight became a major problem and the workers are allowing alot to slip by.

Someone I know at Purolator told me that since going to cubic weights, they are making a fortune in shipping, at least 3 times the profit they made before.
Malcolm

retrorescue · ‎11-16-2003

Thanks, Malcolm. So you are saying you hand write the weights yourself, both actual and cubic.

For me, any expediteds to USA are hand addressed and signed on the pre-supplied label stickers, and then I take the packages to my Shopper Drug mart and they fill in the rest themselves and they put the labels on the packages. In all cases, they write in a cubic weight after I leave when they get around to it, and I assume they have charged me the lowest that they can get away with, using my Venture 1 card for a 5% discount.

If I am missing out on a cheaper way to do this, I'd like to hear it.

RAY

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-16-2003

Ray
What's cubic weight? I play totally dumb and refuse to fill in anything that says cubic weight.I wont spend a tenth of a second calculating cubic weights for their benefit.

I write the actual weight on at least 2 places on the package including the shipping bill of lading as well as on the manifest and I think the CP workers have been taking the easy way out and accepting my cubic weights and not measuring my packaged products.

My difference is that my goods are picked up by CP and not taken to a counter so they are weighed sometime later. When I was taking in my goods, I used the commercial CP stations and simply went around back to the shipping docks where the postal trucks drop off their packages. I would simply put my parcels into a 4' X 4' cage on wheels and hand over my manifest.

Same story, they would be weighed at a later time.

One has to be creative to save a buck or two. I negotiated a Level 3 last January however I have been receiving a Level 2 discount. I used to be billed every week giving me about 3 weeks to pay my shipping and now they are billing me once a month which gives me between 2 weeks and 6 weeks from the date of my first shipment on the bill.

Dont use me as an example if talking to CP but be a little creative and demanding and you will be surprised what you may get.

Malcolm