Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Several changes happening with postal service

Canada Post is losing millions of dollars, so it will discontinue all home delivery
As many as 8,000 jobs eliminated through attrition


By Mark Schadenberg
With the ease and instant reach and access of email (on your phone and where you are), along with online banking, it was inevitable that Canada Post would soon have to reduce its services offered.
If you live in a subdivision that is 20 years old or newer, you don’t receive home mail delivery.
I am surprised that Canada Post didn’t already have a system in place where homes that still (grand-fathered) had the luxury of door-to-door delivery would be receiving mail only three days per week.
The millions of dollars Canada Post is losing annually is obvious.


In the U.S., the postal service is billions and billions in the hole.
Check out a portion of this Reuters news story from Nov 15 about the U.S.:

"The U.S. Postal Service reported on Friday that it managed to slow the hemorrhaging of cash in its latest fiscal year, but said a legislative fix is still needed to put it on a sound financial footing.
The mail agency, which does not rely on taxpayer funds, said its loss for the 2013 fiscal year narrowed to $5 billion from nearly $16 billion in the prior year.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said it benefited from growth in its shipping and packages business as well as aggressive cost-cutting that included a drastic reduction in employee hours. But the agency is still struggling under the weight of heavy mandatory payments into its future retirees' health fund, which was mandated by Congress in 2006, as well as the continued slide in first-class mail, its most profitable product."

In Canada, the post office is a spoke of the wheel we call federal government – it’s a Crown Corporation. As we always say, there is just one tax payer, and the mail system is losing its shirt and socks currently.
Our door-to-door mail delivery will cease to exist by 1919 as Canada Post shifts everyone to super boxes on street corners (Or neighbourhood stores).
As many as 8,000 jobs will disappear through attrition over the next five years. Don’t think for a moment that won’t affect our unemployment numbers or employment opportunities as obviously Canada Post will no longer hire new people, but rather encourage current staff to retire.
Also, by March 31, you will have to purchase stamps in bulk at 85 cents each, or if you want to buy just one for Aunt Martha’s birthday card it will be $1.
This is important to me because with my current bout with arthritis, I have mailed about half my Christmas greetings (calendars) to past clients and friends.
Just as corner stores are hoping for the ability to sell beer (a story for another day), more variety stores will now have small post offices within to weigh parcels and sell stamps.
“Due to the lack of demand, mail volumes have dropped almost 25 per cent per address since 2008 and continue to fall. This is leading to a steep decline in revenues for Canada Post,” transport minister Lisa Raitt’s office wrote in a press release.
Less business, less volume of mail delivery and the result is Canada Post is using only red ink in its ledger in recent times.
The post office reported a loss before tax of $109-million for the third quarter of 2013, down from a loss of $145-million in the third quarter of 2012.
A key contributor to the loss was the fall in so-called transactional mail, which is down 184 million pieces or 5.1 per cent in the first nine months of the year, noted one news story.
Several links follow, including one from the bosses of Canada Post, and the Woodstock-area angle with comments.



LINKS:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canada-post-delivery/article15868531/
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2013/12/12/woodstock-postal-union-representative-says-he-was-blindsided-by-canada-posts-announcements



Mark Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Royal LePage Triland Realty
757 Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519) 537-1553, cell or text
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter: markroyallepage

Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination

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