Discussions

Another harebrained scheme from the folks running the Post Office.  
They are unable to deliver, within a reasonable time frame, all the mail that they are currently handling. So now they are going to give their workers millions of postcards to deliver to boxes and addresses.  
Then have to possibly deal with those millions being used yet again, adding to an already overloaded system, that takes 6 days to deliver mail from 15 miles away.  
Is it just me or has the world gone stark raving looney.  
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canada-post-postcard-campaign-1.5926728

It isn’t you vegimite. The world has gone stark raving looney .

who is going to pay the taxes on all those pre-paid postcards. If I buy a stamp I get charged tax on the stamps price, or is Canada Post exempt from those charges.  
Thanks Farmergeorge, glad it's not me that has lost his marbles. I wonder what the total costs will be , guess we will never know.

When you've lost over 600 million dollars before tax in the first 3 quarters of your 2020 fiscal year, and you're struggling with parcel volumes and business impacts from covid, naturally you run a huge free postcard promotion.  
 
And when asked what it will cost, you say you're not sure, but who cares because the infrastructure to process and deliver all those postcards is already in place.

I would suggest using this as an opportunity to send a message. Instead of throwing out the cards fill them out with your thoughts about Canada Post but don't put an address on the card. Drop the cards into a postal box and maybe as their dead letter bins fill up someone will figure out we are not happy with their lame attempt to ensure job security at the tax payers expense.

Canada Post employees aren’t paid by our tax dollars. They are paid from supplying shipping, letters, flyers, etc. They are a self funded company that pays taxes just like every other business. Also just like every business they likely have advertising budgets they set aside to spend on stuff like this postcard idea. To me I see this postcard as a old school way of communicating. Some people enjoy seeing a handwritten note from someone they care about. If people don’t like it they could always give them to people that want them.

Thank you for pointing out that Canada Post is a self-sustaining arm's length corporation that doesn't get tax payer money.  
 
As for how much it costs, let's break it down.  
 
For the cost of the postcards, according to the internet they are sending out 13.5 million of them. Looking at how much bulk order custom postcards cost, I would estimate they are getting the postcards for less than 5 cents each. At 5 cents each (although it's probably more in the 3-4 cent range), that's $675k for postcards (that goes down to $405k if they get them at 3 cents).  
 
The "postage" part is free for them, as they don't have to pay postage and their mail carriers/sorters etc are all working anyway i.e. it won't require extra staff. Not everyone will use their postcard, probably only 1/4-1/3.  
 
So ultimately it's going to cost them a small fraction of their advertising budget.  
 
As for people complaining about timelines, I get 95% of my Canadian-posted mail (letters and packages) within 2 days from anywhere in Canada (before Christmas was a different matter). Very few outliers. What are you having shipped that's exceptional? Or are your shippers not actually shipping things in a reasonable timeframe? Sometimes I'm seeing delays of weeks before things are actually mailed, but once it's in the system it's pretty quick.

Instead of all the damn negativity how about you use the cards and send them to someone residing in a care home. Or to one of our Armed Forces members serving overseas? Use them to brighten someone's day!

actually received their cards yet? I have not, nor have I received mail from Florida from 25th November 2020 or tracked mail from Israel that was sent to Canada 16th December and still not arrived, not that the tracking tells me where it is currently. Maybe it's sitting in the same room as that headdress that has just been found.

I'm sending mine to Mr Trudeau, politely asking him to step down! I here by invite others to do the same

People in our bldg were tossing them. I collected them all. Who doesn't want to get some real old fashioned snail mail from time to time.  
My family members across the country will be thrilled!  
 
Good idea Canada Post.

I have a younger niece & nephew. They were over the moon. So glad it made someone’s day happy.

My grandmother was very happy to receive mine.  
 
And speaking of politicians (^ 3ed post up ^) . . . I still have to mail my feedback to Larry Maguire!  
 
He and his predecessor have never responded with even a form letter ("damn lefties!"), but I still make my voice heard!  
 
Edited by Simonwalcal, 2021-03-25 09:45:42