Federal Government Rejects Canada Post Five Cent Increase!

[pierrelebel]

According to a news story today in the Toronto Star (Business section) the federal government has rejected Canada Post request to increase domestic postal rate from $0.85 to $0.90

http://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20151217/282449937975748/TextView

[ricarmic]

[triber]

I think I would prefer the 5 cent increase on domestic lettermail, rather than an increase on packages, they are way too high already, it's hard to compete with the high shipping costs.

[pierrelebel]

I find it amazing that the news is available from the Toronto Star on December 16th (yesterday) yet nothing yet on Canada Post website!

http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/12/16/canada-post-cancels-5-cent-price-increase.html

The federal government must approve changes in first class domestic lettermail rate.  It has no jurisdiction on postal fees on parcel delivery which are based on costs and competitive factors in the marketplace.

[rose-dee]

While Canada Post claims there has been a dramatic decrease in mail volumes (which is understandable), do I recall correctly that there was a recent report stating that Canada Post's parcel services had actually experienced a profit this past fiscal year?  

[femmefan1946]

There was an article in the G&M last year in which Chopra (I think) talked about how parcel delivery looked to be the future for Canada Post, since there has been such a dropoff in lettermail, especially business-related lettermail.

It's my impression that Canada Post is profitable in terms of the money received for delivery stuff, compared to the cost of delivering stuff (and that cost includes labour costs).

The corporation loses money when they have high infrastructure costs, like the new Winnipeg plant and chucks all those costs into a single year's financial report.

[femmefan1946]

I was sent this chart by a St Elsewhere site. 

[pjcdn2005]

The federal government must approve changes in first class domestic lettermail rate.  It has no jurisdiction on postal fees on parcel delivery which are based on costs and competitive factors in the marketplace

Does the government only regulate domestic lettermail or do they also regulate letterpost to the U.S. and overseas?

[pierrelebel]

The regulations only dictate First class mail (domestic, lettermail)

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-88-430/FullText.html

[tobyshitzu]

wow, 14%-17% increase in light packet

[pjcdn2005]

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@toby**bleep**zu wrote:

wow, 14%-17% increase in light packet

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Both the U.S and International light packet increases are ridiculous but especially the international.

Those rates really affect me and I'm sure they affect a lot of sellers. I am thinking of a lot of descriptive words right now but

I doubt that the mods would like them. lol

[triber]

femmefan: How can I copy this chart so that I can print it please?

[triber]

Now it is $5 for 200 grams  light Packet to the US, according to this chart it will be 100 grams for $5.70.

[femmefan1946]

I pulled it onto my desktop and linked it from there.

It seems to work for me.

BTW, in case anyone else is slow -- The Toronto/Montreal would reflect Regional rates and the Toronto/Vancouver National rates. It only took me an hour to figure that out. You're welcome.

[dutchman48]

Hit options button on top right on that post and select print.

Once the screen opens, use file and print and you should be good to print it

[pocomocomputing]

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@triber wrote:

Now it is $5 for 200 grams  light Packet to the US, according to this chart it will be 100 grams for $5.70.

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That chart is just sample rates and weight to some cities. It is not a CP rate chart.

The 100 g is just a sample weight for that sample package.

It does not mean that Light Packet first weight break is 100 grams!

We have to wait for the actual CP document for Light Packet rates. It looks like the person who made the sample rate table above has the actual rates from CP. I have been unable to find it yet.

[triber]

Thank you, got it.

[pocomocomputing]

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@toby**bleep**zu wrote:

wow, 14%-17% increase in light packet

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I am going to speculate that not only is there a price increase but they also changed the 0-200 g class to 0-250 to be in line with Small Packet. What happens to the 201-300 g class I do not know.

The pattern for the past 2-3 years in Light Packet is to get the price up for the lowest weight class. Most likely because the cost to process any piece of mail has a fixed cost and Light Packet 100 grams at $2.45 years ago was just not making it. Canada Post announced back then that they planned to gradually increase the price of Light Packet over a few years to ease the transition for customers who use this service. They did the increase with a mix of price increase and changed weight breaks.

If the weight break changed, it is still a large increase for sellers who used it to ship 100 gram items or less before.

Here is an old document from late 2013 when they started the change in weight breaks for light packet.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/aboutus/news/announcements/light_packet.jsf

Canada Post is making changes to its Light Packet service, beginning in January 2014. Light Packet is an economical service that allows customers to ship small goods up to 500 grams to the U.S. or to an international destination.

To address increased processing costs related to the service, Canada Post will raise Light Packet rates. To mitigate customer impact, the rate increase will be phased in over several years, and will vary depending on weight and destination. To further help customers with the transition, the allowable weight in the first and most economical tier of Light Packet pricing will increase from 100 grams to 150 grams. The new rates, effective January 13, 2014, are shown below.

Canada Post continually evaluates its services to ensure it remains financially self-sufficient while meeting the needs of all Canadians. The Light Packet service has strict weight and size restrictions which enable Canada Post to offer the service at rates far below those of its competitors. Despite the rate increase, Light Packet will remain more affordable than comparable options offered by competitors.

Canada Post appreciates customers’ understanding and will continue to offer reliable, secure and economical shipping options.

This is an old document but it does show the direction Canada Post was planning to take back then for 2014 Jan rates and they followed the above for 2015 and changed to 0-200 g. So I could see a new weight break of 0-250 for the lowest weight break.

But it is all speculation until we get the official document.

[ypdc_dennis]

Finding light packet info on the Canada Post website requires knowing where the door to the vault is hidden and the secret password to get past the guard ...  at the moment the best I can find is out of date 2014 info.

-.-

Not sure where I got the 2015 rate chart information, but here it is as a reminder for folks:

USA - Light Packet 2015 (2016)

000-200g ..  5.00  (increasing to $5.70 based on femmefan1946's post)

201-300g ..  7.00  (2016 cost not known)

301-500g .. 11.75  (unchanged based on femmefan1946's post)

In 2015, the small packet (air) to the USA was less expensive than light packet in the 301-500g range, so unchanged is not a surprise.

-.-

International - Light Packet 2015 (2016)

000-200g ..  7.50  (increasing to $8.78 based on femmefan1946's post)

201-300g .. 11.50  (2016 cost not known)

301-500g .. 21.00  (increasing to $24.57 based on femmefan1946's post)

Price sweet spot in 2015 for International Light Packet was between 101 to 300g. Other services were less expensive above 300g.

-.-

[treasure.hunter.d]

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@rose-dee wrote:

While Canada Post claims there has been a dramatic decrease in mail volumes (which is understandable), do I recall correctly that there was a recent report stating that Canada Post's parcel services had actually experienced a profit this past fiscal year?  

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The CBC did an interview with Deepak Chopra a couple of years ago as well and he swore up and down that they would not finance their climb out of the fiscal hole they had put themselves into on the backs of small businesses by increasing parcel rates.

So we know what a load of hooey that was. Like most other public service entities you can't believe a word they say where money and lining their own pockets is concerned.