Canada Post Lettermail & Expedited - Shipped by Land or Air? BC Road Closure Impact?

[teenytrinkets]

I live in the Lower Mainland of BC which has been impacted by landslides and flooding because of the recent weather event (Atmospheric River). Almost every highway connecting us to the rest of Canada has been closed!

I use Canada Post lettermail & expedited for my Canadian sales. Does anyone know if these shipping methods normally go by air or land? They are reporting anywhere from days to weeks to months for crews to assess road damage and make repairs, so not sure what will happen to mail delivery. Has anyone heard anything about it?

[dinomitesales]

Lettermail goes by air as it's transported in large quantities.

Expedited is, unfortunately, a ground service. Canada post has issued a "Yellow Alert" for parts of B.C. meaning that delivery delays may occur. They haven't said anything more than that, so I'd imagine they have contingencies in place. They may just air mail everything to BC if it looks like it's going to be a while before ground transport can get to Richmond.

[femmefan1946]

We used to have a dear friend whose PO job was seeing that the mail got through. He was a senior executive and worked on the national scale.

He had contacts (and contracts) with every little bush plane, local airline, trucking company, and guy with a truck in Canada.

Okay, an exaggeration.

But while the general practice may be that a service goes by truck or rail, in an emergency, he would find a plane. Or if all the planes were grounded, he found a trucking company.

Will things slow down? Probably.

But if Peter were still on the job, not by much. BTW our newsfeeds here in BC are filled with pictures of helicopters responding to the needs of stranded motorists and homeowners. When the Malahat here on Vancouver Island was closed, the local ferry that normally runs only nine times a day (Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay upisland past the Malahat) was running every 30 minutes to get people who work in Victoria home to Duncan et al. Today they are running every 70 minutes until midnight.

[femmefan1946]

Basically Vancouver is only reachable by air or by sea at the moment. All the highways are closed.

[marnotom!]

For what it’s worth, I just received a “shipment delayed” notice for a widget I purchased online that’s being shipped by FedEx.

[reallynicestamps]

From Consumer Protection  BC.

[wecango88]

^^^ The perfect notice that eBay.ca should have plastered front and center on its webpage. But here they are with nothing that I can see anywhere.

[fishing2carp.zaksauctions]

@teenytrinkets @femmefan1946, I too live in BC and on the island.  I am scared poopless to ship out my orders.  I came on here to search for another post, that is somewhat, midly related to this one.  

I have had 6 buyers report items not received, in the past 30 days, yet previously- in my ebay selling time (2004+) I have only had (maybe 6 in total) say item not received.  My standard go-to for shipping is lettermail if valued under $50, registered mail if over.

Out of the 6 buyers, 2 of them are in BC, 2 in Ontario and 2 in QC.  However!  All of my other orders were received (in those same provinces).

With  BC's state of emergency and the opening posts question about how expediated and lettermail is sent, is super valid for us in BC.  What it DOESNT express, is that those receiving mail FROM BC will also be delayed.  

What and how is ebay supporting this crisis?  Is Canada Post expanding their knowledge of delayed mail with the general public, with the rest of the country? What are our alternatives?  I am, literally, afraid to send out any of my orders right now and I have 9 of them I have to send out.

Can anybody chime in and lend some advice please?  Femme?  I know you are down island from me, have you ever experienced issues like this in the past?  

Thanks fellow sellers.  I appreciate any and all the input!

PS.  The following are examples of the lettermail boxes here in my area.  One in my city (Courtney) and the other in my neighbouring town (Comox).  The letter carriers here are DISGUSTING for service.  I am not sure if it is individualistic or isloated to the shortage of workers everywhere? This is 1 of 2 mailboxes, I was able to (if I wanted to) reach in and grab a letter or attempt to grab a parcel that was in there)

Lara

[marnotom!]

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@fishing2carp.zaksauctions wrote:

What and how is ebay supporting this crisis?  Is Canada Post expanding their knowledge of delayed mail with the general public, with the rest of the country? 

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I'm not sure what you mean by Canada Post "expanding their knowledge" but I can tell you that a service alert was posted yesterday.

[reallynicestamps]

Any letter carriers at the moment are full-time with Canada Post. They may hire on more workers soon for the holiday rush.

Even those temps are often returning workers. I know more than one person who worked several holiday temp routes as part of trying to get a full time gig, with decent pay, excellent benefits and a livable pension. And a chance to be promoted to indoor work.

 That post box is overfull which is why you could reach in. Canada Post needs to add another box beside it. The only time I've ever seen that was last Christmas outside my local post office at 2pm (the pickup there is at 3pm).  The workers were trying to get people to bring letters inside but were deluged (with only 2 customers allowed in at a time, there was a line up to the end of the (short) block) . It did not go well.

I hope you will speak with your postmaster and show her the picture.

I'm in Victoria,btw. And marnotom! is also on the Island, somewhere.

Tomorrow I'm going grocery shopping. Fortunately, I don't need much. Not even toilet paper😎.

[fishing2carp.zaksauctions]

I have spoke with Canada Post about it.  They claimed to have someone on site to pick up the contents in 3 hours, saldy it was a day and a half later.  The other mailbox, was outside the Retail Outlet!  Nobody at that location is a Postmaster, I spoke with all the staff there (I work there as well, not the post office but the retail establishment itself).  

I live in fear, now, who will get their items and who will not?  I am tired of refunding them, I know I did my due diligence.  Oh well let's have some faith in this crazy world eh? 

[teenytrinkets]

I've had waaaaay more INR claims this year for me lettermail than any other year - like you. I'm also VERY nervous to send anything untracked right now. I am not happy about refunding, but I also fear it will start to affect my feedback.

I typically don't send anything over $30 untracked. I may lower that to $20, if I can do shipping for under $12. It kills my profit margin, but only for the time being. It will ease my mind, and hopefully not kill my feedback.

What I'd like to hear from Canada Post is a commitment to use airmail until the road closures are sorted out. Obviously, that will cause delays, but probably less delays than sitting on a truck somewhere waiting for the roads to open!

[musicyouneed]

I have up to now, touch wood, been relatively lucky in shipping within Canada oversize lettermail, however last week I sent out 7 items from Vancouver BC to parts of Canada.  Now I have it on my listings a 30 day delivery time which shows in ebay = delivery after Christmas.  Most buyers usually get their item within 2 weeks but I am not sure how delayed this will be with the roads flooded out leaving the lower mainland.  Would you advise the buyers to expect a delay in their expectations?  Do you think that most will arrive by mid December?

[recped]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

I have up to now, touch wood, been relatively lucky in shipping within Canada oversize lettermail, however last week I sent out 7 items from Vancouver BC to parts of Canada.  Now I have it on my listings a 30 day delivery time which shows in ebay = delivery after Christmas.  Most buyers usually get their item within 2 weeks but I am not sure how delayed this will be with the roads flooded out leaving the lower mainland.  Would you advise the buyers to expect a delay in their expectations?  Do you think that most will arrive by mid December?

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There shouldn't be ANY delays for Lettermail as long as it can get to Richmond and then to YVR.

Obviously within BC, especially in the Fraser Valley it's going to be bad.

[musicyouneed]

I checked with my PO and oversize lettermail they say is shipped by truck not air.  Maybe in this case by boat. 

[ypdc_dennis]

I got an oversize lettermail from the Vancouver area (to Ontario) in less than a week.

Was mailed November 23 and I removed it from my mailbox November 27.  I was impressed.

-;-

[recped]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

I checked with my PO and oversize lettermail they say is shipped by truck not air.  Maybe in this case by boat. 

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Your PO is clueless! Except of course for "local" service. If you send a Lettermail item (oversize or not) within BC and especially within the southern part of BC it's likely going by truck, if it going anywhere to the East of the BC/AB border it's going by air to the nearest main postal facility (ie: to AB it will fly to Calgary or Edmonton and surface locally.

My O/S Lettermail shipments are delivered in 2 - 5 days ANYWHERE in Canada, that isn't happening via surface transport except "locally".