Canada Post picking up once a day?

[needsmorerobots]

An employee at a Canada Post outlet on Vancouver Island informed me Canada Post is no longer picking up mail twice a day from their outlets. From this point forward it will be only once a day.

I've tried to Google this information but have come up with zilch.

I figure posting this here would be better than not posting it at all.

This info absolutely floored me.

If true, I may have to adjust my handling days from 2 to 3 or more.

I wonder what genius thought this would be a great idea so close to the Christmas season?

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

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@needsmorerobots wrote:

I wonder what genius thought this would be a great idea so close to the Christmas season?

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I'm gonna guess there is likely a staffing shortage and they might need to relocate staff to area with higher mail volume? 

[flipistics]

This is how it's been where I am for years. Just find out when they pick it up every day from the outlet you prefer and go drop stuff off sometime before that time. It shouldn't affect your handling time.

[ricarmic]

I live in a wee village, ours has only been picked up once a day for a long time, many years, I don't remember when it was picked up twice a day......

[msmaggie060]

Same here. I need to get my mail to the post office by 4:15 pm, pickup is around 4:30 each day. Except Saturday of course, no pickup at all and PO closes at noon.

[marnotom!]

I'm north-ish of Nanaimo and I'm pretty sure we've been getting one daily pick-up from our lone outlet and small post office for many years now.

I agree with @zee-chan-jpn-books; this development for you in the CRD is probably due to staff reallocation.  I also agree with the others who have said that the best way to work with this is to time your drop-offs so that they occur before the scheduled pick-up time.

[mrdutch1001]

If there has been mail pick up from the postal outlets twice per day you have been very fortunate, as many areas of Canada have not had that luxury for years...Once a day has been the norm for years for my area...not sure if there is still pick up on Saturdays anymore, definitely not on Sundays...some of the postal outlets are not even open for counter service on Sundays..much the way it was back in the days of my childhood 70 years ago...

BTW, postal workers are entitled to days off too!(including weekends!)

C'est la vie!

Que sera sera!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@needsmorerobots wrote:

An employee at a Canada Post outlet on Vancouver Island informed me Canada Post is no longer picking up mail twice a day from their outlets. From this point forward it will be only once a day.

I've tried to Google this information but have come up with zilch.

I figure posting this here would be better than not posting it at all.

This info absolutely floored me.

If true, I may have to adjust my handling days from 2 to 3 or more.

I wonder what genius thought this would be a great idea so close to the Christmas season?

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I would only be really concerned if the mail was picked up first thing in the AM. My outlet has a couple of pick ups per weekday. One between 10:30 and noon and another at 4:30. Any mail picked up in the morning probably does not get to a sort plant until later in the day. CP works on the principle load a truck until it is full then begin next one.  Then that truck moves on its merry way. Your best hope is arrive before the daily pickup and/or if necessary add 1 day to your handling time. Where there is 2 or more pick ups, the driver probably only returns to the plant when their truck is full. They have a route they must follow. In your situation its most likely staffing.

I have also been told there was no Saturday PU (mid city Shoppers) but recently had a parcel(expedited) dropped off on a Saturday and moving on its way on the Sunday. I'm not sure what to believe anymore when it comes to the gospel according to CP.

-Lotz

[femmefan1946]

Here in OakBay/Victoria, they never did as far as I can tell.
One pickup a day, supposedly at 9am or at 3pm,  but actually sometime in the morning and sometime in the evening.

More important would be, is the ferry ride once or twice a day?

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

If you drop your items off at the post office daily, regardless of whether they are processed that day by Canada Post, you have fulfilled your same-day or 1 day handling time. 

You have your listings set up properly with the longer economy shipping instead of the unrealistic 8 business day letter mail option. The way lettermail delays tend to work, 1 extra day of processing won't make a difference. Almost everything arrives in 1-2 weeks, which is before your delivery estimate. Delays beyond that are pretty rare. When items are delayed, it's usually a 30+ day situation, so 1 day won't make a big difference. 

Where I am, most post offices and boxes have one pickup a day. It is at 5PM. There might be a few boxes in the city that have both 12PM and 5PM pickups, but it is uncommon. 

[mcrlmn]

1, 2 ... 5 pickups wouldn't change the daily eta at the distribution center.

Canada Post povides a schedule for the Christmas season.

[dinomitesales · Accepted solution]

Post offices should only have one advertised weekday pick-up time. It is the one you should see on the street letterbox out in front of the store, on the mailbox inside the store, and also possibly listed on the hours of operation sign on the exterior of the building. All mail deposited before this time is considered to be mailed "before the cut-off" and will be picked up and processed the same day.

Post offices may have multiple other clearances throughout the day - this is just Canada Post helping out the outlets by removing parcels and making space for more parcels. These clearances can occur any time prior to the advertised pick-up time, but typically anything removed from a post office during a clearance is just going to sit on a truck for the rest of the day until it is eventually processed at the local depot along with the items that were picked up at the advertised pick-up time.

For example, the post office I work at in Winnipeg has an advertised pick-up of mail at 5:00 pm. But we also get our mail cleared in the morning (usually around 9-10 am), and someone will also stop by around 1-2 to clear more mail. During peak periods near the holidays there may be an additional clearance.

If you were under the impression that there were two mail pick-ups at your post office on Vancouver Island, then one of those was likely just an early-day clearance, and any mail picked up at that time isn't going to be processed until after the final pick-up of the day anyway. It really makes no difference - you just need to make sure your mail is in before the advertised pick-up time. If the clerk you were speaking to said they "aren't picking up mail as often anymore" or something to that effect, it's probably just staffing issues that are reducing the number of clearances in that particular area.

[recped]

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@dinomitesales wrote:

Post offices should only have one advertised weekday pick-up time. It is the one you should see on

 Where I am (Toronto) at both my local postal outlets (not CP operated) the driver who picks up from the mail box out front DO NOT pick up from  the outlet itself. At both there are two pick-ups per day from inside and THREE pickups from the outside box (9:00, 2:30, 5:00), even with the three pick-ups from the box one of those outside boxes is usually packed full just before pick-up.

If you wonder how they could get so full, they serve a very dense area where the only other street boxes within many blocks now only have 9:00am pick-up.

[byto253]

I watched a box get emptied outside a Shopper's that also has a postal outlet.  It had tons of the red Nespresso bags to return coffee pods.  Found this from Nespresso:

It's in the bag!
From now on, customers can simply place their used Nespresso aluminum capsules in a fully recyclable Red Bag provided for free by Nespresso Canada when coffee capsules are purchased. Then they just drop off the sealed capsule-filled bag at a Canada Post outlet or in a red Canada Post mailbox, at no extra cost.

[needsmorerobots]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

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I would only be really concerned if the mail was picked up first thing in the AM. My outlet has a couple of pick ups per weekday. One between 10:30 and noon and another at 4:30. Any mail picked up in the morning probably does not get to a sort plant until later in the day. CP works on the principle load a truck until it is full then begin next one.  Then that truck moves on its merry way. Your best hope is arrive before the daily pickup and/or if necessary add 1 day to your handling time. Where there is 2 or more pick ups, the driver probably only returns to the plant when their truck is full. They have a route they must follow. In your situation its most likely staffing.

I have also been told there was no Saturday PU (mid city Shoppers) but recently had a parcel(expedited) dropped off on a Saturday and moving on its way on the Sunday. I'm not sure what to believe anymore when it comes to the gospel according to CP.

-Lotz

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I didn't realize CP only picked up once a day. Where I am (at my local), pickups were 3 & 5pm Monday to Friday. Depending on the driver they would sometimes do their pick-up earlier at 2:30 instead of 3. There were no pick-ups on Saturday to my knowledge.. 

I work a full time job, help out with elderly parents and in the time I have left do hobby selling here (but I would love to make it a full time deal). My work hours are known to change, sometimes on an almost weekly basis. If I can, I prep the package and ship it before I make it to work. If I can't then I use my lunch to make a dash to another post office and ship it there. It was this PO where I was informed of the now one a day (at 2pm). This means using my lunch will only get the package picked-up by the next day at best. 

In the end I'll just add an extra day to my handling time of 2 business days to 3 before shipping. 

Just another hurdle to clear is all this will be. 

[needsmorerobots]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Here in OakBay/Victoria, they never did as far as I can tell.
One pickup a day, supposedly at 9am or at 3pm,  but actually sometime in the morning and sometime in the evening.

More important would be, is the ferry ride once or twice a day?

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Pick-ups used to be 3 (sometimes 2:30) & 5pm at my local PO. I was told some time ago anything picked-up at 3pm would make the ferry ride over, anything at 5pm would be brought to the local depot for the ferry ride the next day.

[needsmorerobots]

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@recped wrote:

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@dinomitesales wrote:

Post offices should only have one advertised weekday pick-up time. It is the one you should see on

 Where I am (Toronto) at both my local postal outlets (not CP operated) the driver who picks up from the mail box out front DO NOT pick up from  the outlet itself. At both there are two pick-ups per day from inside and THREE pickups from the outside box (9:00, 2:30, 5:00), even with the three pick-ups from the box one of those outside boxes is usually packed full just before pick-up.

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Yeah, for my local PO at 3pm the woman from Canada Post driving the van emptied the mailbox outside first and then took what the outlet had. 5pm at least was taken from the outlet. Not sure of the outside box at 5.

[needsmorerobots]

Thank you all for the input. 😊

[sakic92710]

Canada Post is massively overcharging to ship mail & becoming more incompetent in doing their jobs!   I thought paper, documents & photos were fine to ship to the US as first class mail.  Not as small packets.  I, clearly, mark on each envelope 'photo - please do not bend' for anything I slip between cardbaord to protect from creasing.  Yet - 4 small envelopes were returned to me for insufficient postage simply because I did not send them as small packets.  They cannot read??   CP & USPS are really damaging small sellers on eBay!  Mail gets returned by CP or undelivered by USPS.  7 refund requests in 2 weeks because of this nonsense!

[byto253]

It all gets handled by automation, I do not put anything on the outside of an envelope other than the address.  If your packing does not protect it, marking it do not bend does not add protection and may just be a flag to take a closer look.