Canada Post to charge new communities for mail boxes

[G-ZUS]

What do you think about this?

Canada Post has signed, sealed and delivered a new fee to housing developers intended to help pay for mail boxes in new communities.

Beginning in January, developers will be charged $200 per address to help cover the cost of community mail and parcel boxes (CMPBs) which have been installed instead of mailboxes at each individual home since the late 1980s.

Despite an increase in parcel delivery attributed to online shopping, the move comes as a cost cutting measure in the wake of a $327-million loss last year for Canada Post, greatly due to the decline in paper mail.

“For decades we’ve covered the cost of the installation (of CMPBs) as well as maintenance, snow clearing and actual delivery of mail and parcels,” said spokesman Jon Hamilton.

“We just can’t do it anymore.

“We need to recover some of the cost of installing these boxes.”

Approximately 3.8 million households across Canada use CMPBs.

While Hamilton could not offer a dollar figure for how much a box costs to install and maintain, he said “they have to be built to last a long time, they have to be secure, they have to survive many Canadian winters.”

Canada Post says residential and commercial developments add up to 200,000 mailing addresses annually, increasing the postal operator’s costs by “millions of dollars a year.”

The new fee, which won’t apply to apartments and condos, is not sitting well with the local developer community.

“We’re not pleased at all — it’s an extra cost that’s going to get passed onto the home buyer,” said Michael Flynn, executive director of the Urban Development Institute.

“It erodes affordability of houses and the competitive advantage of having an affordable product for people.”

Flynn said he’s seen these kind of charges thrown in on a local level before, for infrastructure like rec centres and fire halls, but never nationally.

Both he and Carol Oxtoby, president and CEO of Heritage Pointe Properties Inc. and past president of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Calgary region, say they saw no “stakeholder engagement” from Canada Post.

“We were blind-sided by this announcement,” said Oxtoby.

“It’s fundamentally unfair that new home owners are going to incur this cost.”

Oxtoby said it’s particularly unfair that homeowners in established communities don’t have to pay the fee, yet many of them have mail delivered directly to their homes.

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http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/11/06...th-mailbox-fee

[FraserB]

“It erodes affordability of houses and the competitive advantage of having an affordable product for people.”

Well this is just utter bullshit.

As for the fees, I'm 100% fine with them.

[Hallowed_point]

I can't wait for the day that Canada Post is shut down for good.

I've met some good hard working posties..but a lot of them have soured it for me. Stuffing junk mail in a box marked "no junk mail", filling up the garbage cans with extra flyers, not even attempting to deliver parcels just pick up slips....

Screw em'

[btimbit]

Makes absolute sense to me, it sucks but I'd rather see the costs covered here than have them cut costs elsewhere

[lilmira]

200 bucks isn't that much but one box serves like what 20 addresses? One mail box costs that much? As long as the money doesn't go to waste or some lazy ass' pocket, that's fine with me. People waste more money paying for stupid things everyday.

[Go4Long]

oh noooo...now the builders are going to say houses from the low $300'200's

come on people...$200 on a new home purchase, even for a cheap home is like .06% of the purchase price(based on $300k). This is making a mountain out of a molehill.

All the various utilities charge a hook up fee, why not Canada Post?

[GoChris]

Originally posted by lilmira
200 bucks isn't that much but one box serves like what 20 addresses? One mail box costs that much? As long as the money doesn't go to waste or some lazy ass' pocket, that's fine with me. People waste more money paying for stupid things everyday.

No it likely doesn't cost that much, but as they stated, maintenance and upkeep over time adds up.

$200 per house for the developers is next to nothing for what they get for lots these days.

[eblend]

Originally posted by Hallowed_point
I can't wait for the day that Canada Post is shut down for good.

I've met some good hard working posties..but a lot of them have soured it for me. Stuffing junk mail in a box marked "no junk mail", filling up the garbage cans with extra flyers, not even attempting to deliver parcels just pick up slips....

Screw em'

Then you will have to pay $18 bucks to ship a small letter to Edmonton....instead of your standard $0.55 or whatever it is now...

Had to ship a document when Canada Post was on strike....

They have the right to be profitable...its $200 bucks..on a new home, like seriously, if you can't swallow $200 bucks...you shouldn't be buying a house

[BerserkerCatSplat]

A $200 one-time fee for a mailbox that'll be in service for the life of the home? Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by G-ZUS
the move comes as a cost cutting measure in the wake of a $327-million loss last year for Canada Post, greatly due to the decline in paper mail.

Oh, you mean the year they went on strike/ were locked out for almost a month. Soooo, lets do the marth.

Revenue for 2011 = $7.48 billion. Divided by 12 months... $623 Million revenue loss because of the labour action. But yeah, it's totally the superboxes that are killing them

[ZenOps]

Just to chime in with my obligatory nickel comment: To make a mailbox immune to winter means it has to be saltwater proof - That means 8% nickel content. At $8 to $23 per pound nickel and $13 to $100 per ton iron, it significantly adds to cost compared to a pure iron that would have to be replaced every generation or so. Many lampposts in Canada have minimal nickel content, but nearly no power lines (wooden power poles are actually preferred in some areas)

The US tends to use just regular Iron for most of its infrastructure (like the rust belt city of Detroit) and look what happened there.

Without doubt, spend the extra cash now and build it to last.

[Xtrema]

I support Canada Post, especially the union is slowly fading out as these community boxes are now delivered by contractors.

If it were for Canada Post and USPS, we would get stuck paying UPS/Fedex huge handling fees on US orders.

[My_name_is_Rob]

Originally posted by Xtrema
I support Canada Post, especially the union is slowly fading out as these community boxes are now delivered by contractors.

If it weren't for Canada Post and USPS, we would get stuck paying UPS/Fedex huge handling fees on US orders.

I've had many more good experiences dealing with Canada post than I have with UPS, or fedex. Even if they do just leave the parcel cards, I find its easier to go pick up something at the post office than it is to battle with them at the UPS depot, while getting bent over backwards for brokerage fees.

[OU812]

Originally posted by ZenOps
Just to chime in with my obligatory nickel comment: To make a mailbox immune to winter means it has to be saltwater proof - That means 8% nickel content. At $8 to $23 per pound nickel and $13 to $100 per ton iron, it significantly adds to cost compared to a pure iron that would have to be replaced every generation or so. Many lampposts in Canada have minimal nickel content, but nearly no power lines (wooden power poles are actually preferred in some areas)

The US tends to use just regular Iron for most of its infrastructure (like the rust belt city of Detroit) and look what happened there.

Without doubt, spend the extra cash now and build it to last.

Sorry, but this is starting to get really old.

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by OU812


Sorry, but this is starting to get really old.

Its just a sign of the times. Truth be known, once the coating wears off the iron loonies, its going to rust just like Detroit. Have you ever driven down a road in Detroit? Its called the rust belt for a reason, the graffiti is the only thing accentuating the rust that is everywhere.

Rusty lampposts, mailboxes and traffic signs are a plague upon beauty and value. It can and will destroy property values more than graffiti will, in my opinion. $200,000 to $8,000 homes once you start cheapening up the coins and the lampposts...

Visible rust decay in a city is like a CEO with rotten teeth.

Nickel being a main component or armor, its also much stronger than regular steel (anti-theft) Those British red telephone booths weigh about a ton apiece (which is light) but can be weighed down with extra weight to deter theft.

A ton of nickel has been as high as $52,000. A pure nickel telephone booth or mailbox would impress me! (But 5 to 8% is probably more reasonable) A Porsche with $13 worth of iron, blah!

[Hallowed_point]

Originally posted by OU812


Sorry, but this is starting to get really old.

No way, don't listen to the non-believer's ZO!! I for one look forward to learning about how nickel affects my everyday life

*100% serious btw

[Masked Bandit]

I don't really have an issue with this at all. Must have been a slow news day.

[Feruk]

The only thing I learned from this story is that Carol Oxtoby is an idiot. If the cost of two nights of drinking is what separates you from whether you can afford a home or not, there are bigger issues.

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
Oh, you mean the year they went on strike/ were locked out for almost a month. Soooo, lets do the marth.

Revenue for 2011 = $7.48 billion. Divided by 12 months... $623 Million revenue loss because of the labour action. But yeah, it's totally the superboxes that are killing them

Ready for a mindfuck? Revenue does not equal net earnings. Mindfucked!

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Feruk

Ready for a mindfuck? Revenue does not equal net earnings. Mindfucked!

No shit sherlock. My point was, they still lost pretty much a month of potential profit because of the labour action, and they're blaming it on other factors.

[Hallowed_point]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok




Oh, you mean the year they went on strike/ were locked out for almost a month. Soooo, lets do the marth.

Revenue for 2011 = $7.48 billion. Divided by 12 months... $623 Million revenue loss because of the labour action. But yeah, it's totally the superboxes that are killing them

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