With Canada Post on strike residents are asking themselves if they really need a postman
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
When Canadian letter carriers went on strike they hoped to force the national postal service, Canada Post, to back down from a cost-cutting proposal to dramatically reduce wages.
Three weeks later, lawmakers are preparing to legislate them back to work, but Canadians are asking just how much a modern cyber-connected society needs the post office anyway.
“If I get my mail, I get my mail, but if I really have to do something I go on the Internet,” is the attitude of a great many of people, especially those that have taken to the Internet well and that are connected.
True, some businesses say they have had to scramble to try to fill orders and receive payments that would usually be sent by mail, and some charities say that they are missing out on donations. Observers, however, say that by going on strike, Canadian postal workers have likely sealed their own fate by proving it's possible to function without daily mail delivery.
“Many find mail in paper form to be quaint; it no longer plays a central role in society,” an editorial in The Globe and Mail daily newspaper concluded. “The strike will only accelerate that trend by making online converts of those who have hitherto been reluctant.”
A worldwide trend toward e-mail, online banking, electronic bill payments, and communication through social media is causing a dramatic drop in revenue for the postal services around the world.
Canada Post has seen a rapid decline in first-class mail. It says the organization delivered 17 percent fewer letters last year than five years ago – the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says it has dropped by just 6 percent – and anticipates a further 30 percent drop over the next five years. At the same time, it has to deliver to more homes as Canada’s population grows.
The volume of first-class mail has also dropped dramatically in the United States. The US Postal Service is set up to deliver 300 billion pieces of mail a year, but currently handles just 170 billion pieces and predicts that will fall to 150 billion by 2020. The USPS is looking to make reforms such as cutting back to five-day-a-week delivery and closing some of its post offices.
In Britain the cutbacks were made already years ago from a twice daily delivery, one guaranteed before 8am, and the second by 11am, to one delivery a day with not guarantee as to when the mail gets to you, if ever. The latter is especially true if you happen to live in a strange locations, as do I, and a new postman (they seem to change far too often) has no idea where the house is. Quite frequently mail goes missing and no one can explain why it either does not get here at all or seems to take a week or two when it should be here next day.
Personally, I must say, I have not sent a letter by mail for ages now, though I have sent the occasional package and card, as in greetings card. My written communications are, predominately, emails.
Affordability of the postal service is another thing also, with the postage in Britain rising far too often and now an ordinary first class letter costing the best part of 70cents US and for that they won't even guarantee – as they used to – that the letter will be at its destination the next day. Sending a letter to the US, for instance, is more than US$2 for an ordinary very light airmail letter. Is it a wonder that people switch to email?
Struggling to adapt in a new online environment
Canada Post has been struggling for several years to adapt to the new online environment, and Canada Post, I am sure, is not alone in this. While the letter carrying may be, slowly, becoming a thing of the past for postal services all over, they should improve their parcel delivery services, especially to rural areas, have post office counters open outside business hours and have decent post office banking services that could appeal to people who still do not trust the Internet enough to do their banking online.
Instead they keep putting up rates and their workers go on strike and thus give the customer no other choice but to look for alternatives. And then the postal service stands wondering why the amount of letters and parcels they handle have gone down and have gone to the competition, the private carriers.
When faced with the challenge of the Internet and email instead of finding ways of enticing people to send real letters – I still love to receive a real letter and so do many people, I am sure – they increase the postage with the comments that due to the fact that the usage has gone done they need to recoup losses.
© 2011
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