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Canada Post is losing money and looking for ways to cut costs?? Well I have a solution...cut out Rural Routes. We drive 10 miles to get our mail!! People with rural route pick theirs up at the end of the lane then drive into town to meet for coffee etc! These routes are miles and miles as a lot of farms are far apart! So why should some farmers like us drive 20 miles when some can walk the lane for their mail? Imagine how much Canada Post is paying their employees to do this delivery? Seems an easy fix but that is just my opinion!!

agree

I have always wondered why some farms get the RR delivery and others do not? I lived on a farm for many years and always had to drive 6 miles to "town" to pick up the mail. But I was there for groceries etc anyhow...that would be an easy cut in my mind.

1 location with post boxes. Not sure why cities think they need delivery to their houses. Rural areas use a central area that cuts down on costs.

Last government started this but were voted out. New government campaigned to keep Canada Post as is.

"Canada post is losing money" they are making hundreds of millions for the government in fact they have made money 16 of last 17 years they provide a service that employs decent paying jobs why would u want to eliminate middle class jobs?

Not all sources would agree that they have made money 16 of last 17 years.  
 
It's not a subject I'm overly familiar with but a quick search shows otherwise.  
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canada-post-loss-balloons-to-193-million-as-historic-shift-takes-hold/article18461383/  
 
There are people I care about that work for Canada Post and I'd not like to see their jobs lost or in peril. I really thought that the cuts the Conservatives were going to make were founded on solid fiscal thinking. Was I wrong?

new here said "Canada Post is losing money and looking for ways to cut costs?? Well I have a solution...cut out Rural Routes. We drive 10 miles to get our mail!! People with rural route pick theirs up at the end of the lane then drive into town to meet for coffee etc! These routes are miles and miles as a lot of farms are far apart! So why should some farmers like us drive 20 miles when some can walk the lane for their mail? Imagine how much Canada Post is paying their employees to do this delivery? Seems an easy fix but that is just my opinion!! "

disagree. We are not all farmers in the country and we do not meet for coffee in town.

I am originally from SK and I had never seen mailboxes at the end of farmers' lanes except when we drove to Brandon. I thought they were from bygone days and were just left there for nostalgic reasons until one day I actually saw mail delivered to them.

i do find rural routes not that necessary and going to the post office or communal box location to be part of living out of town i also dont understand why it would be ok for CP to cut rural rotes but a huge enough deal the PM had to get involved when CP wanted to make the city people closer to the same as the rest of the country!  
 
smaller communities have to get their mail from post offices and many many cities already have the proposed central boxes, which is still more service then smaller towns get, i would say everyone should have to go to the post office but its likely cheaper to put up the boxes then to maintain a large enough building for all to get their mail at so mho is that the cities should go to central boxes and rural should have to go to the post office and our mail and packages should go down in price to compete with other parcel services, if one group can go get their mail so can ALL groups

1 chance said "    new here said "Canada Post is losing money and looking for ways to cut costs?? Well I have a solution...cut out Rural Routes. We drive 10 miles to get our mail!! People with rural route pick theirs up at the end of the lane then drive into town to meet for coffee etc! These routes are miles and miles as a lot of farms are far apart! So why should some farmers like us drive 20 miles when some can walk the lane for their mail? Imagine how much Canada Post is paying their employees to do this delivery? Seems an easy fix but that is just my opinion!! " disagree. We are not all farmers in the country and we do not meet for coffee in town. "

I am farmer. I drive ten Miles one way to get my mail! I do not understand how some farmers get their mail dropped off at the end of their lanes into their own mailboxes. We have community mail box and no I do not have time to run for coffee. In fact where our mail is there is no store no hotel NOTHING. I am just commenting on what a waste of money it is to pay a Canada Post employee to drive probably 30 miles a day delivering to some farms via rural route!! Make everyone equal...whether they go to town "for coffee or not". And sorry I don't feel sorry for those who have to walk a short distance to get their mail from community mailboxes...I wish I would be able to do the same but not enough hrs in the day if I had to walk 20 miles to get my mail and make living also!!

just so happens there is a rural route job in the Brandon are posted now.  
 
https://cpc.njoyn.com/cgi/xweb/XWeb.asp?tbtoken=bV1eSh8XCGp6YHN5R1NcCFo%2FcmJEcFgudUhYVit9E2UuXTcfKjBqdBF9BQkbVhZST3AqWA%3D%3D&chk=dFlbQBJe&clid=23060&Page=jobdetails&Jobid=J1115-1992&BRID=430731  
 

If you were one of the ones getting your mail delivered to the end of your driveway would you have started this discussion?

PoliticallyIncorrect said "If you were one of the ones getting your mail delivered to the end of your driveway would you have started this discussion? "

Because I heard a blip on the news about how CP was losing money and they want to increase the costs of parcels etc from rural towns. I already pay more than big city people for my mail service in the cost of gas to get said mail. Seems to me they could look at taking away rural route to save more money rather than charging me more to mail things out!! I take it you are one of the ones with end of Kane rural route service??!!

deliver mail on rural routes don't make as much as you may think. They get paid mileage and a wage but they use their on vehicle, trust me the mileage money doesn't nearly cover the cost of fuel, maintenance, and insurance. You could put the rural folks in CMB'S but someone still has to deliver it no matter where it is. If Canada Post uses a corporate vehicle to deliver that mail it will cost alot more.

new here said "    PoliticallyIncorrect said "If you were one of the ones getting your mail delivered to the end of your driveway would you have started this discussion? " Because I heard a blip on the news about how CP was losing money and they want to increase the costs of parcels etc from rural towns. I already pay more than big city people for my mail service in the cost of gas to get said mail. Seems to me they could look at taking away rural route to save more money rather than charging me more to mail things out!! I take it you are one of the ones with end of Kane rural route service??!! "

I do not see an answer to my question in there.

The people who deliver to rural routes aren't Canada Post employees. Canada Post contracts that job out, so they aren't federal, union workers. They wouldn't get near the wage of a Canada Post employee.

aprilwinefan said "The people who deliver to rural routes aren't Canada Post employees. Canada Post contracts that job out, so they aren't federal, union workers. They wouldn't get near the wage of a Canada Post employee. "

I posted this earlier in the thread.  
 
https://cpc.njoyn.com/cgi/xweb/Xweb.asp?tbtoken=ZlhQRBMXCB0uJS5ALiRea3x4MCQhCCBKdWZEcCBfe0ggIVEME20uUEIYXkYZcRADcwkbVhZST3AqWA%3D%3D&chk=dFlbQBJe&CLID=23060&page=jobdetails&JobID=J1115-1992&brid=430731&LANG=1  
 
 
 
It says in the description "As an on-call relief employee with Canada Post"  
 
 
 
 
 
Edited by Brenda, 2016-02-15 07:11:52

People are Canada Post employees and have been since January of 2004.

Most likely the rural route delivery was setup years ago when farmers only went to town once a week or less. Today, many spouses work in town, kids attend school in these towns and stay after for extra circular activities. It maybe difficult to cut these services when people have been accustomed to them, but for most, probably is a service that would not be missed? I know when I farmed and walked to the end of the driveway 3x a week, often wondered how much longer would this service be provided. Next question is, how much would cutting this service provide CP with reduced expenses and would it benefit the corporation enough to make improvements and make CP better for all??

Are the Rural Routes only near urban centers where the people get home delivery? Because I've lived in rural areas all my life and everyone I know goes to the post office for their mail.  
 
I would much prefer seeing the same level of service for most people than price increasing to send mail certain places. People aren't horribly inconvenienced by having to walk to a post office or to a box. For me, shipping charges alone will deter me from sending anything bigger than an envelope through the mail! If shipping charges can be kept down by eliminating unnecessary home delivery, then that makes sense to me.  
 
I also think having reasonable flat-rate boxes would be a great idea. In the US you can just use the flat-rate boxes and fit whatever you can into them. When you mail it, you know what it costs every time. I think there are 6 sizes/shapes and three prices. I think that makes it so much easier to ship things, especially for internet buyers and sellers, who have become a big part chunk of business for the postal service.

I have no idea how they determine who gets rural route and who doesn't? At one time the mail truck would drive past our farm when going from one town to another via country roads. We never ever had it. Yet about 15 miles from us they have had it for at least 30 yrs. No rhyme or reason to it? Neither area is near urban centres. We all live in middle of nowhere so to speak!!  
I agree having pricing/box sizes like in US would be great idea. I know that if CP increases our costs because we live in rural area will stop me from using them. We are already paying more by being rural in gas use age. I am all for saving money I just think it can be done by putting us all on level playing field. Like was mentioned in an earlier post most families have to go into town for work/school/sports etc so why not pick up their mail at same time. Why pay someone to drive their mail out to them?

The job description link you posted, is a different category than the rural delivery persons being talked about here; who deliver parcels to homes and the people who stuff the community mailboxes outside of Brandon.  
 
I personally know that the rural delivery is contracted out, and that contractor in turn contracts a specific route to individuals who are also classed as independent contractors who use and pay for their own vehicles, fuel and insurance.

The rural route delivery people are NOT employees of Canada Post.  
However all, the main contractor and the sub contractors must be bonded and insured....

The people who deliver the mail to rural mailboxes are Canada Post employees and have been since 2004. Yes they use their own vehicles, but they are given a vehicle allowance from Canada Post. They are called RSMC'S, Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers. The only people that are contractors (in Brandon anyways) are the people that attempt delivery on packages that are too big for the letter carriers to take or take parcels to the outlets that have been attempted and no one was home. These people do use their own vehicles as well, but are contractors.

Robbie said "The rural route delivery people are NOT employees of Canada Post.   However all, the main contractor and the sub contractors must be bonded and insured.... "

I just heard from my friend who works for Canada Post in Human Resources. She confirms that the Rural Suburban Mail Couriers (RSMC) are indeed Canada Post employees.  
 
Learned something today as I was under the impression these were positions that were filled via a contract bid process.