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[Merged] Ask Me About Working For Canada Post

Sr. Member
Jun 8, 2019
741 posts
396 upvotes
biggerthanfun wrote: Another BS factor CUPW completely ignored. For those of us without vehicles, we don't have this luxury. The route I'm doing has 3 boxes carrying over 90 calls and one carrying over 100. Has a CUPW negotiator ever tried to put 90 CT flyers in a satchel along with 11 other sets (last week), letter mail, flats, and parcels? CUPW completely forgot or ignored foot routes and the loads we carry. There should be two standards of delivery methods for mobiles and foot routes; they are completely different jobs.

And getting additional relay boxes to alleviate these loads is like asking for the world. God forbid they'd have to give us 90 seconds of time value in place of sore backs.

Go use your massages, people! You've got 3 weeks to get ~4 (another joke) of them before they disappear.
How did it work before?

I haven't noticed my flyers changing size that much or increasing in number that much since those changes took place. Didn't you have to load up on flyers before as well?
Sr. Member
Jan 13, 2013
938 posts
691 upvotes
Vancouver
gotwgoty wrote: How did it work before?

I haven't noticed my flyers changing size that much or increasing in number that much since those changes took place. Didn't you have to load up on flyers before as well?
Canadian Tire alone changes this job dramatically. I would have traded all ten other sets of flyers I had last week for the CT one and I'd be fine. Put 100 of them in your empty satchel without anything else and see how that looks. I'm constantly dropping mail and/or carrying multiple bundles outside of my satchel because it doesn't fit.

I'm fairly strong/fit. I have a 400lb squat and more on my deadlift. I swing kettlebells, do Turkish get-ups daily,and can run a 10km in under 50 minutes. After 15 years at this gig, nothing has ever bothered me like CT flyers. I can push through it while walking but I get a hot spot on the top of my spine plus additional pains that are tough to stretch out. I guess I'm getting older too, but I don't get these pains in the gym.

With no flyer limits, what's next? London Drugs decides to skip the newspaper and deliver to houses through us too? How about Shoppers Drug Mart? Bring em on until you can fit one call at a time in your hand and even then, what the hell, let's add phone books!

Are there far more PT/vehicle walks across Canada than not? Otherwise, it's insane to me that this isn't priority number one with LCs. I rarely hear people calling out CUPW on this.
Sr. Member
Jun 8, 2019
741 posts
396 upvotes
biggerthanfun wrote: Canadian Tire alone changes this job dramatically. I would have traded all ten other sets of flyers I had last week for the CT one and I'd be fine. Put 100 of them in your empty satchel without anything else and see how that looks. I'm constantly dropping mail and/or carrying multiple bundles outside of my satchel because it doesn't fit.

I'm fairly strong/fit. I have a 400lb squat and more on my deadlift. I swing kettlebells, do Turkish get-ups daily,and can run a 10km in under 50 minutes. After 15 years at this gig, nothing has ever bothered me like CT flyers. I can push through it while walking but I get a hot spot on the top of my spine plus additional pains that are tough to stretch out. I guess I'm getting older too, but I don't get these pains in the gym.

With no flyer limits, what's next? London Drugs decides to skip the newspaper and deliver to houses through us too? How about Shoppers Drug Mart? Bring em on until you can fit one call at a time in your hand and even then, what the hell, let's add phone books!

Are there far more PT/vehicle walks across Canada than not? Otherwise, it's insane to me that this isn't priority number one with LCs. I rarely hear people calling out CUPW on this.
It’s my impression that there are far more vehicle walks but couldn’t tell you for sure.

I think it’s only downtown Vancouver that isnt vehicle near me.

I totally get flyers being a major issue on a foot walk although I never really thought of that aspect before. I don’t get them being a major issue if you have a vehicle.
Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3296 posts
3830 upvotes
Unfortunately you just need to compress them yourself and do them a day early when you have a heavy flyer load. It's not ideal but it's only once every few months, the last few weeks being the exception. We have some stubborn (or just stupid) route owners who refuse to do this and they have the same complaints - CUPW/LJOSH can't hold their hand through every scenario, the fix is obvious, they just need to do some thinking on their own.

I'll take bi-monthly CTs over August Ikeas any day, hell I'd trade them for coupon books or magnets. Phone books weren't 2/3 day so it's hard to lump then in the same argument as they were treated as AOs. Yes they sucked but you'd only put 5-10 in each relay bag. If you chose to do more that's on you. I was doing 30 phonebooks per loop, I survived. I'm positive anyone could do 10 and live to tell the tale.
Member
Jul 2, 2018
240 posts
123 upvotes
mikebc wrote: Even if Gateway miraculously cleared the backlog overnight everything is still waiting on planes to get out here. Canada Post isn't hiring more planes as far as we know, so this pace will continue until Black Friday unclogs itself.
I'm assuming a great deal of regular and expedited parcels are getting bumped in favour of Priority shipments, since there isn't enough space on the planes for everything right now (especially since Purolator will obviously be making their own shipments top priority). I wonder if there will be a mass influx of packets, etc. once the BF/CM backlog thins out a bit.
Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3296 posts
3830 upvotes
I don't think it works like that. Regular parcels maybe, but monos (shipping cages) would/should probably be loaded by their date. Expedited still has a delivery guarantee, CP is more interested in holding onto major business contracts through expedited shippers than a few priority EMS parcels from the UK being delayed. EMS from Japan and Korea should be unaffected as they'd be clearing through Richmond not Mississauga. I noticed some Amazon parcels are now coming as first class (Xpress), I'm not sure if that's Prime only or CP has upgraded Amazon's priority status to get ahead of everything else.

I feel that if anything, shipping priorities should be ignored and smaller things should get pushed through while large parcels (TVs, insta-pots, awkward dimension or overweight items) should be parked since they take up so much space in a cage. Rightfully so, we make more money delivering 10 small parcels on time as opposed to one large item which takes up the same amount of space. CP would rather refund shipping on 1 $50 priority item over 10 $6 business class items. One pissed off customer versus potentially 10.
Member
Jul 2, 2018
240 posts
123 upvotes
Interesting. My Amazon Prime shipments seem to be sent by everyone but CP. They're usually Amazon's own delivery service, but often they can be Intelcom, and occasionally Purolator/UPS. I don't think it's been CP in over two years now.

I didn't realize the second class Expedited parcels still had what is considered a guaranteed date. Mine always just say 'expected delivery date'. If so, those dates are being missed left, right and center at the moment with the backlog.
Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3296 posts
3830 upvotes
Expedited is pretty broad, 3-5 days for regional IIRC. Probably 7-10 for national, plus whatever Canada Post has added for the holidays (I think they add an invisible +1 or +2). We'll do Prime in areas that they can't get regular couriers to do it cheaper. In Vancouver they only use their own drivers out to Abbotsford from their warehouse in Annacis / Tsawassen (about 100 km). Anything further goes through us, same for most rural areas or places not big enough to have multiple shipping companies. Canada Post does last-mile for almost every shipper where it's not profitable for them to have depots, Purolator and UPS especially.

Even still, we own the packet game. We handle something like 90%+ of everything that comes in a bubble mailer, even if Amazon has prime drivers making deliveries in the area. That stuff goes through a different mail stream and generally arrives on time, it even goes through a separate plant in western Canada. I'm not sure about back east but I feel like there's additional packet plants in North York and Winnipeg based on some tracking info I've seen from my own stuff.
Member
Jul 2, 2018
240 posts
123 upvotes
Always informative, Mike, thanks!

My own packets always seem to go through Gateway, or Montreal if I'm ordering from UK/Europe. I've never seen North York or Winnipeg show up in my tracking, but perhaps those places serve different parts of the country.
Deal Fanatic
May 5, 2008
6312 posts
3088 upvotes
Manitoba
Supervisors are delivering parcels for RSMC
Member
Feb 20, 2019
225 posts
121 upvotes
biggerthanfun wrote: Another BS factor CUPW completely ignored. For those of us without vehicles, we don't have this luxury. The route I'm doing has 3 boxes carrying over 90 calls and one carrying over 100. Has a CUPW negotiator ever tried to put 90 CT flyers in a satchel along with 11 other sets (last week), letter mail, flats, and parcels? CUPW completely forgot or ignored foot routes and the loads we carry. There should be two standards of delivery methods for mobiles and foot routes; they are completely different jobs.

And getting additional relay boxes to alleviate these loads is like asking for the world. God forbid they'd have to give us 90 seconds of time value in place of sore backs.

Go use your massages, people! You've got 3 weeks to get ~4 (another joke) of them before they disappear.
For my depot (95% old school foot walks), we were asked to used trusted customers along our route for "porch-drops" for phonebooks or anything oversized that would help us from looping back to the relay box, but instead, keep moving forward.

It's slightly ridiculous that footwalks have been all but forgotten.
Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3296 posts
3830 upvotes
I'm thinking they're domestic packet plants so you'd likely see them for Amazon mostly.
Deal Guru
User avatar
Mar 8, 2002
13458 posts
4616 upvotes
GTA
PavementPounder wrote: For my depot (95% old school foot walks), we were asked to used trusted customers along our route for "porch-drops" for phonebooks or anything oversized that would help us from looping back to the relay box, but instead, keep moving forward.
Hilarious. So obviously you treat every customer as trusted ;)
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( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Sr. Member
Jan 13, 2013
938 posts
691 upvotes
Vancouver
mikebc wrote: Unfortunately you just need to compress them yourself and do them a day early when you have a heavy flyer load. It's not ideal but it's only once every few months, the last few weeks being the exception. We have some stubborn (or just stupid) route owners who refuse to do this and they have the same complaints - CUPW/LJOSH can't hold their hand through every scenario, the fix is obvious, they just need to do some thinking on their own.

I'll take bi-monthly CTs over August Ikeas any day, hell I'd trade them for coupon books or magnets. Phone books weren't 2/3 day so it's hard to lump then in the same argument as they were treated as AOs. Yes they sucked but you'd only put 5-10 in each relay bag. If you chose to do more that's on you. I was doing 30 phonebooks per loop, I survived. I'm positive anyone could do 10 and live to tell the tale.
I'm not sure I understand you. So you're saying the solution to lessening my flyer load is to carry two sections of flyers and have 6 overloaded satchels instead of 3? If you're referring to delivering an extra day before the flyers build up, that is pointless because, as I said, it's the CT flyers alone that are causing the problem. CT plus 4 regular size flyers is barely more of a load than CT by themselves. If a relay normally has 4-5 bundles of mail, CT turns that into 10-12.

I know the phone books were a one-off, but that wasn't my point. The point is, there is no limit to what they'll put on us. Sure, it's all manageable now, but what about Ikea putting out catalogs more often? Maybe Lowe's, Home Depot, Rona, Save on Foods, and Superstore all quit the newspaper and move their weekly flyers to us? Is CUPW or CP going to say no? Just make your loops smaller, right? Tell that to a foot route LC that has a full satchel plus bundles in their hands with another 80 calls before the next relay box.

I don't know where you're lucky enough to get CT bi-monthly, but we get them a lot more than that.
Sr. Member
User avatar
Sep 19, 2004
745 posts
402 upvotes
Toronto
I have been delivering ct flyer everyday since early November, now they overlap, I am gonna deliver 2 ct flyers tomorrow.

Looks like ct is very happy about what we have been doing.
Sr. Member
Jul 6, 2017
644 posts
686 upvotes
Trying to get outsid…
Progatron wrote:
I didn't realize the second class Expedited parcels still had what is considered a guaranteed date. Mine always just say 'expected delivery date'. If so, those dates are being missed left, right and center at the moment with the backlog.
Expedited Business (for Small Business Solutions customers) has guaranteed delivery times, as does XpressPost, but regular Expedited does not.
Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3296 posts
3830 upvotes
I just did it today. I did the CT and a coupon book for pink and my other 6 flyers for blue. No prep needed for pink as you can backhand 2 flyers out of your satchel and fire directly into CMBs. It wasn't bad at all, oh no maybe I went to 30 extra calls that I had no mail for. Plus, no collation for tomorrow now that I'm clearing flyers in advance.

Do what works for you, this works for me and almost all the carriers I know. Maybe we're just blessed with fewer flyers out west.

Perhaps if we bitch too loud we go to 100% daily coverage like RSMCs. Maybe the Corp and CUPW ask the arbitrator to pull door to door and half of us get laid off. That'd reduce bundle weight.
Sr. Member
User avatar
Sep 19, 2004
745 posts
402 upvotes
Toronto
mikebc wrote: I just did it today. I did the CT and a coupon book for pink and my other 6 flyers for blue. No prep needed for pink as you can backhand 2 flyers out of your satchel and fire directly into CMBs. It wasn't bad at all, oh no maybe I went to 30 extra calls that I had no mail for. Plus, no collation for tomorrow now that I'm clearing flyers in advance.

Do what works for you, this works for me and almost all the carriers I know. Maybe we're just blessed with fewer flyers out west.

Perhaps if we bitch too loud we go to 100% daily coverage like RSMCs. Maybe the Corp and CUPW ask the arbitrator to pull door to door and half of us get laid off. That'd reduce bundle weight.
We used to compress ad mail bags in one day, but recently in a meeting, supervisor specifically told us that we will no longer be allowed to do it this way, only colour of the day permitted.
Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3296 posts
3830 upvotes
You're allowed to deliver sections in advance, you just can't cherry pick and you have to complete the entire section. There was a page on it in the depot books from National a few months ago summarizing what you can and can't do.

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