September 2015
Canada Post has a plan to remain viable.
It began with eliminating door-to-door home delivery and greater use of community mailboxes. Next step may be to eliminate five-day-a-week residential delivery.
Community mailboxes have not had an impact on most condo owners who continue to receive daily mail delivery to mailboxes in their building. Three-day-a-week delivery is also unlikely to have a significant impact given reduced volumes of mail.
Postal volumes have declined and daily delivery is no longer as important as it once was. In the past five years electronic communications have resulted in about a 25% decline in postal volumes. The federal government, a major customer for
Canada Post, is now using direct deposit in place of mail for government cheques. Another 25% decline in postal volumes is anticipated by 2020.
A study on the future of Canada Post, Is the Cheque Still in the Mail, suggests increasing postal prices and franchising corporate-owned postal outlets to help maintain keep Canada Post viable.
From 2006 to 2013, the volume of mail per address declined by 30% while the number of addresses serviced increased by 1.2 million.
Only 32% of households throughout Canada currently receive door-to-door delivery. Community mailboxes represent 27% of household postal deliveries. Locked boxes, which include mailboxes in condo buildings, account for 25% of postal delivery destinations. The remaining 16% are those with a post office pickup and rural deliveries.
