Canada Post to stop home delivery

[wildone]

So it was announced that Canada Post will stop delivering door to door mail delivery completely in 5 years.

 

Full story

 

I'm kind of indifferent to this happening . The Canada Post Corporation is subsidized by the federal government to the tune of 1 Billion dollars a year. Considering the evolution of email, and online shopping and courier business, I don't really see an old idea surviving anywhere in the near future.

 

Also the fact that Canada Post mainly delivers direct mail (JUNK MAIL) to me, I'd rather have them set up their community boxes with a huge recycling bin beside it so at least their business is not going into household trash. Through email, I only receive one bill and my tax summary in the mail now. Other than that, straight to the recycling bin (Oops, what about the Christmas cards I'm getting )

 

So if your country has door to door delivery (Royal Mail, USPS, etc. ) would you be upset if you lost your home delivery of mail daily or is it time to say goodbye to a 20th century staple that is dying a slow death?

[Daddydavek]

Not just a 20th Century staple.  Mail has been around for centuries and I for one would hate to see the USPS follow suit into oblivion and not just for Christmas cards.   I foresee that eventually Saturday delivery will finally be abolished.  I also see that cluster mailboxes rather than one on every driveway or front of the house will happen as is already being implemented in newer developments.   Other economies will be imagined and implemented I am sure.  One thing I can see is that bulk mail rates for ads or flyers need to go up.  

[JamesSavik]

you know how many mail carriers they lose to moose and bear attack every year?

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2013 by jamessavik

[Ron]

Canada could also recoup some money by charging a rental on the Central Mailboxes just as for post office boxes. You don't pay rent, you don't get any mail.

 

I know that Singapore does not deliver on Saturday already and it doesn't seem to bother anyone.

 

I wouldn't be upset if the US did something like this but if I remember correctly, there was a big outcry when it was bandied about that the Saturday delivery might be done away with. A lot of elderly folks were up in arms over it, particularly because of mailed medications, and I can certainly understand the fear of missed medications for those that get them that way. It would put many out of work nonetheless and I suspect that the pensions of mail workers are underfunded so I'm not sure how much that would be affected without new revenue. Perhaps savings from losses could go into to pensions until fully funded.

 

I get and pay no bills through the mail, everything I do is electronic. And for crying out loud, Christmas cards, birthday cards and their ilk; if you don't send or get them, you won't have to send or get them. But we all know what the greeting card lobbyists will do. <-- satire as far as I know. Are there card lobbyist?

[Graeme]

Mail delivery in Australia has been Monday-Friday for a long time now. The Australian post office (AusPost) has been expanding into also be store for selling things other than postage, as well as being an agent for bill payments and for some forms of ID verification (eg. passport applications).

 

Personally, I wouldn't be affected if they stopped mail delivery because I live at a rural property that doesn't get mail delivery, anyway. We have to go into town to collect our mail if we want it We usually do that a few times a week, but certainly not every day.

[Mann Ramblings]

Smaller communities in the US are accustomed to collecting mail from the Post Office and they survive just fine. If Saturday delivery were phased out, people would learn to adapt just like everyone else. It's not that big a deal. It would be inconvenient at first as people adjusted, but for god sakes it's not a life or death situation. The USPS is contractually obligated to delivery to every address which is why other delivery services (UPS, DHL; etc) subcontract them to complete their own shipments. You can't run an industry in the red indefinitely. Something has to be done. 

 

Other countries have made the changes, the US can too.

[Suvitar]

In Finland we have no mail delivery in Saturday or Sunday  and now there has been some talk that perhaps in few years they´ll only deliver in four days. I get a lot of mail (letters,bills, magazines and sometimes parcels) so I´d be very sorry if they´d stop delivering completely and I had to collect my mail somewhere else. 

[Former Member]

Doesn't really affect me at all as my post office is already closed Saturdays & Sundays (shit everything in my town is closed on Sundays). All our bills and flyers and garbage go into the Mail box at the post office, The only time stuff comes to the door is if it's the Puralator guy with my Online Orders . And if not it goes to the post office where i have to pick it up. 

 

What makes it bad is for the Seniors who get their mail like EVERYTHING delivered to the door, your bills etc especially if you live in an Old age Apartment complex. The ones who actually cannot get outside for fear of falling (which is a real fear here in Canada where it's winter all the time, hell i know busted my leg to shit last year and nearly did it again the otherday, at 70+ you break a hip you might not get back up and running at all) and that and do not have a vehicle to go to the post office. 

 

The biggest bullshit where i have a problem is the cost of stamps... there now going to 85cents if you buy a booklet... How much is this booklet going to cost? Otherwise it's $1 each they were 63cents. We already pay $1 something to mail to the states How much is the states one going to go up to? I know people as it is whenever they need to mail things to the states like tons of christmas cards will just drive over to Michigan and mail them from Michigan. Some places have the post office inside their pharmacy or the bank. Where i live we pretty much should converge the pharmacy and the post office together as they are both closed on weekends. Our Pharmacy shuts down at noon on Saturdays which really messes people up if they get extremely sick and stuff on Saturday and now have to wait till Monday for their prescriptions.

[colinian]

Where I live in Berkeley there are a lot of older people. Many of them can't leave the house without assistance. They would have a big problem if the USPS shut down home delivery.

 

Colin

[comicfan]

If they wanted to end Saturday delivery wouldn't mean the end of the world to me. However, I send a lot of cards - Easter, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Birthday, and postcards for no reason other than to cheer people up. If there were no regular mail deliveries I wouldn't be a happy camper. Besides which I send all over the world. Just part of who I am. I like to put pen to paper. Ask anyone on my postcard list.

[W_L]

A world without a mail system, isn't that far fetched.

 

Most businesses in the last few years have been switching over to UPS and Fedex more and more over time rather than USPS, because necessity and economy of scales are actually making them competitive.

 

If Amazon ever gets their flying drone delivery system up, we can say good bye to the mail carrier and the post office. Automation can take over the job of a federal employee, cut costs down to hours of battery charges, and drones have no need for any kind of benefits except some maintenance. We just have to make sure the AI's all have Asimovian laws encoded and a kill switch in case they rebel

[Zombie]

A world without a mail system, isn't that far fetched.

 

Can't see flying drones happening - apart from airspace control issues the terrorist threat is just too great. Never mind who pays up when the things crash into people and buildings...

 

In UK the Royal Mail was sold off in October and shares are up 80% because it's so profitable. Basically taxpayers were screwed So I don't see household deliveries stopping anytime soon.

 

Besides, how would that work anyway - not everyone is / wants / can be online and government needs to be able to contact citizens directly for tax, courts, voter registration, census forms and other stuff.

 

And I like getting letters and cards

Edited December 13, 2013 by Zombie

[DynoReads]

I live in a community that has community mail boxes. There are many neighbors that I only see at the mailbox. The only thing I don't like is that packages usually aren't delivered. I get a pick up slip even though I was home. 

[Thorn Wilde]

I don't think I would mind much if they did this here, but it seems to me it could very much negatively affect the elderly and disabled.

[wildone]

I guess I too thought about the disabled and elderly.

 

The thing is that there hasn't really been rural delivery to anything other than a post office in town, or possibly community mail boxes at the end of the road. Also, any new homes in Canada in possibly the last 20 years haven't been getting home delivery and have to use community mailboxes.

 

So, like the elderly and disabled in a town like where Mattie lives which only has a post office with mail boxes, how do they manage? Like anything, change will be difficult at first but eventually you adapt.

[joann414]

The elderly and disabled sometimes get a lot of their meds through the mail.  It will not be a good change for them.

[colinian]

The elderly and disabled sometimes get a lot of their meds through the mail.  It will not be a good change for them.

 

I didn't think about that. My next door neighbors get their meds through the mail other than an injectable which comes by FedEx. I can see how parcel post could disappear and be taken over by UPS and FedEx. I don't know if that's a money-maker for the USPS, but if it is their financial picture could become more bleak.

 

Colin

[mickey1952]

I get very little "valid" snail mail anymore. Most bills and such are received and paid electronically. And I'm sure Hallmark and others would upgrade online to provide more than adequate personalization. I could adapt quite easily to no postal service.