Tuesday, February 25, 2014

No Mail Tomorrow?

Canada Post plans to phase out door-to-door delivery and increase the price of a stamp.

A single letter stamp, currently 63 cents, would rise to $1 per stamp on March 31 (85 cents if you buy in bulk, 75 cents if you use a meter machine, and under 70 for large-volume mailers). And within five years, everyone would have to walk to a “community mailbox” to pick up their mail.

To listen to the CEO of Canada Post, you’d think the postal service was on the verge of collapse. Canada Post has turned a steady profit for the last two decades, reporting net profits of $94 million in 2012, $439 million in 2010, and $281 million in 2009. There was only one year in the past eighteen years in which Canada Post didn’t make money: 2011, the year it locked out its employees and had to settle a giant pay equity claim.

Canada Post President Deepak Chopra stated that senior citizens would welcome the opportunity to get more exercise although organisations representing the elderly and the disabled have opposed such a cut in service.  Rural residents too are worried about the effects of these changes. Canada Post estimates 6,000-8,000 letter carriers and associated jobs will be lost.

A review of Canada Post’s charter is scheduled for this year. Wouldn’t such a review give the government the ideal forum to hear all the facts and properly consult the public on the future of public postal service? Instead, Chopra held 46 invitation-only meetings and some online consultation, the results of which he refuses to produce.

From here

1 comment:

ajohnstone said...

The US to follow suit
http://news.yahoo.com/committee-oks-end-door-slot-mail-millions-221201345--politics.html

Coming to the UK soon?