News releases

December 20, 2018

Posted in News Releases

Canada Post provides update on holiday delivery service

December 20, 2018

Posted in News Releases

We understand the important role Canada Post plays in delivering the holidays for Canadians, and in supporting Canadian online retailers to be successful, especially at this time of year. We are processing and delivering mail and parcels across the country and have taken every extra effort to get caught up as quickly as possible.

Status of operations

Lettermail

We are current on holiday Lettermail processing and delivery and expect that to continue through Christmas.

Parcels

Incoming holiday parcel volumes continue to be down over 2017, and significantly below projections for this year. As a result, our fully-enacted holiday delivery plans, which were built to deliver the projected double-digit parcel growth from online shopping this holiday season, continue to help our operations catch up.

Understanding the importance of online holiday shopping to Canadians and Canadian retailers, it remains our priority to deliver as much as possible before Christmas. Backlogs have been reduced and are now consistent with those experienced during a typical holiday delivery period. Holiday delivery service guarantees have now been restored across the country, which means Canadians can expect normal holiday delivery timelines for parcels.

We encourage Canadians to continue to shop online and read the shipping details posted by the retailer to understand their delivery time commitments and available options.

With our holiday delivery plans, we will continue to deliver this weekend and Monday, which is Christmas Eve. Employees continue to be offered voluntary overtime and are being supported by almost 4,000 additional seasonal employees across the country. We’ve also bolstered our fleet with almost 2,000 additional vehicles to help with deliveries and moving product through the network. We also continue to closely monitor the weather.

International incoming

International posts began to send items to Canada on November 27. The international volumes entering the country continue to be significantly less than expected. Processing lower incoming volumes, combined with the time lag for items to arrive in Canada, has helped us to make progress. With reduced international volumes and our continued work in partnership with the Canadian Border Services Agency, we expect to be current on International items in early January.

Service guarantee

On November 13, 2018 Canada Post suspended service delivery guarantees due to the backlogs caused by ongoing strike activity. With continued strong delivery and reduced incoming parcel volumes, we have restored normal holiday delivery service guarantees across the country.

We thank our customers for their patience and understanding.