It’s nice to see that we no longer trust privatization as a the magic wand that solves public institution problems.
That said I think the 52% support for non-union gig work in Canada Post is indicative of the mindset that needs shifting if Canada is to change course in a way that makes most people better off long term.
Source: https://angusreid.org/canada-post-privatization-strike-service-disruption-vote-union/
TBH, if it avoids privatization and saves money, I’d be happy getting mail even once a week. Nothing we get by mail is so urgent that a few extra days will destroy lives.
In cases where something is needed urgently, there’s courier, express mail, etc. as premium options. Regular “snail mail” isn’t meant to be fast.
When public services are kneecapped to be worse than their private equivalent then people stop using them and then they turn private.
UK enters the chat with mail delivery 2x a day
Adding to the above, keep in mind that courier and express mail are useless if you live in small towns with distance to the nearest large city.
I’ve had express mail take longer to get to me than regular mail does simply because that’s how the system is set up.
I’d have no problem if urban mail took a week, while resources were used to make sure that rural service was more timely. But I also don’t know how much is spent on rural delivery vs. urban mail. I have a friend who works for Canada Post, maybe I should ask. LOL
Well that’s the thing, in some places snail mail is fast. UK for instance has places with delivery twice a day, meaning you can “courier” items across a city same day. The post offices in Canada turned to crap as soon as they started hacking the service down.
Our neighbourhood changed to community mailbox, the CP truck would pass my house and drop a notice “sorry we missed you” into the community mailbox because the package wouldn’t fit in the mailbox. And then leave and pass my house again. Not really a mail delivery service more of a notification for pickup service.
Canada is 9,984,670sq km with a population density of 4.5/sq km. That’s ~2.2m routes to see all Canadians 5-times a week.
The UK is 244,376sq km with a population density of 286/sq km. If there was universal coverage that’d be about ~1000 delivery-person-routes per day. So delivering a route is orders of magnitude easier, faster, and simpler for the workers at the Royal Mail.
If the UK only had once a day delivery they’d be 0.045% as efficient as thier Canadian counterparts.
EVEN WITH twice daily delivery the Royal Mail has less than 1% the efficiency of CUPW workers.
With that said, both face external (couriers) and internal (government) pressure to profit.
Ask yourself this: as a service to citizens of both countries, what other public services have to make a profit? National Defence? National Healthcare? National Police?
None do because privateers have already raped and pillaged those services for maximum profit as suppliers. So they don’t get lobbied the same - or even compared.
No, just Postal services with their well developed contact with the communities they serve are singled out to be profit centers for cash hungry politicians.
WTF?? What mail do you guys get that you need it delivered twice a day???
I might get something “important” (i.e. from the government) maybe a few times a month. Bills are nearly all electronic. A few packages are delivered by Canada Post, but none are urgent enough to need even a daily delivery service.
Of course, I’m only speaking for myself. Maybe there are people who still get a ton of mail, but I can’t imagine it’s the majority.
My bad, the second delivery became a cleanup delivery to deliver what they forgot or didn’t get in in the morning.
True actual multi delivery stopped in the 50s.
The UK policy is six days a week and as expedient as possible. I’m sure that is changing slowly