Canadians: Ask me about Canada Post and shipping - I work there!

[#1]

On top of my "real" job and my etsy shops, I also work part-time at a Canada Post outlet, for 4 years now. I'm very knowledgeable about all things related to shipping. I can be your resident expert! Ask away and I will do my best to answer clearly.

jackie ♥

Here's the original post from a forum thread I started before etsy did the shut-down to teams :( It describes CP's rate increases for 2011, which took effect on January 17th.

Like clockwork, Canada Post is raising their rates as of January 17th. I work at the post office part-time so I thought I would give my fellow Canadians a head's up. Here's a link to the complete list of new rates including all the price tables you could ever want (a very helpful sleep aid for insomniacs!).

http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/prices/ (click on the red "new prices" button)

I'm not sure how bad the increase is for domestic and US Expedited parcel rates, but here are the new Lettermail, Oversize Lettermail, Light Packet, and Small Packet rates.

Lettermail (max 24.5 X 15.6 X .5cm):
Canada >>
0.59 (0-30g)
1.03 (31-50g)
USA >>
1.03 (0-30g)
1.25 (31-50g)
International >>
1.75 (0-30g)
2.50 (31-50g)

Oversize Lettermail (max 38 X 27 X 2cm):
Canada >>
1.25 (0-100g)
2.06 (101-200g)
2.85 (201-300g)
3.25 (301-400g)
3.50 (401-500g)
USA >> (printed matter only)
2.06 (0-100g)
3.60 (101-200g)
7.20 (201-500g)
International >> (printed matter only)
4.10 (0-100g)
7.20 (101-200g)
14.40 (201-500g)

Light Packet (max 38 X 27 X 2cm):
USA >> 4% increase over 2010
2.36 (0-100g)
4.92 (101-250g)
7.91 (251-500g)
International >> 3.5% increase over 2010!
4.60 (0-100g)
9.25 (101-250g)
15.80 (251-500g)

Small Packet (max L + W + H = 90cm)
USA >> 7.5% increase over 2010!
Surface 5.85 (0-250g)
Airmail 7.46
Surface 8.35 (251-500g)
Airmail 9.90
Surface 12.41 (501g-1kg)
Airmail 15.36
International >> (rates vary according to the country.. please see zone and rate tables through the link above. Amounts below are for shipments to the United Kingdom, zone 02 - surface rates are 10% higher than 2010, airmail rates are 8% higher, except in the 1-2kg category)
Surface 6.54 (0-250g)
Airmail 8.53
Surface 8.95 (251-500g)
Airmail 17.06
Surface 15.02 (501g-1kg)
Airmail 33.45
Surface 21.07 (1-2kg)
Airmail 50.26

I don't know about you, but I am really bummed about this. Increases of 7 and 10% are really going to hurt!

Convo me if you have any questions.
(Posted at 2:55 am, January 3, 2011 EST)

[JacquieVintage]

Tigers,
Re domestic prepaid Xpresspost

There has been no official CP announcement restricting contents to printed matter.

However, my outlet manager said that there is a thickness issue: max 1.5cm. I'm still unclear whether this is a new rule, or simply one that existed all along but was never enforced. Stay tuned on that.

[KnitsByNat]

Wow! That's even thinner than the slot of doom!

[TigersandDragons]

If it's true, then enforcement is new, and perhaps the measurement of 1.5 is newish, because I have been receiving jewellery supplies and sending out my jewellery orders in the same sized boxes for the past 15 years by Xpresspost in the pre-paid envelopes. And the boxes are 3cm tall, and fit into the envelopes very well. Every year I have to mail sample out for a few shows, and include a return envelope to have these sent back - 1 standard and 1 letter.

Not once in that time has any Canada Post worker ( at official outlets) measured the envelope, or told me it was too thick and not acceptable.

One company even sent me a steel jewellery block in an Xpresspost envelope which was about the same thickness, and surely over the weight maximum, though this was probably 8-10 years ago.

I just found my copy of the 2013 fanfold, it does have the thickness at 1.5cm as you mentioned.
If I won't be able to use the envelopes, this is going to be awful, I have several packages of these. Also it will be super difficult to send out samples and have an easy option for pre-paid returning of samples.

[TigersandDragons]

I'm not clear WHY there needs to be a 1.5cm thickness limit, since Xpresspost are time sensitive, so wouldn't go through the regular sorting machines used for Letter mail.
Also, why thinner than the slot of doom? weird.
The weight limit, sure that makes sense, and I have been aware of that for some time.

[WallCakes]

I find Canada Post so confusing sometimes.

I wanted to send a light packet to someone who won some of my magnets in giveaway. I couldn't go through etsy shipping, so thought I'd give EST on CPost a try.

Apparently they don't have 'light packet' available online. Why?

Can you explain Oversize/non standard lettermail to me. I've tried reading CPost's explanation and I don't get it.

I've been sending my magnets by non-standard lettermail for years, which I was told was fine. Is it ok to send non documents via non-standard lettermail?

Also, I tried the EST for within Canada and it doesn't work for lettermail, yet they have a click box for documents. WTF. Why do they make it all so non-intuitive and complicated.

I was hoping to avoid having to use stamps when I send my packages within Canada. I only go to the PO when I have packages that need scanning, or are large.

[TigersandDragons]

Gina - WITHIN Canada, you can send objects in Oversized Letter Mail/LetterPost, as long as it fits the weight and size parameters and isn't on the list of restricted items (for example, matchbooks that contain matches!)

But otherwise for shipping outside Canada, Letter & Oversized Letter is supposed to only be for documents, printed matter, paper. Letter and Oversized Letter do not have a Customs form and get through Customs quicker. For paper items such as prints, stickers, sewing patterns, magazines, etc. it's a grey area, and you can often get away with using Oversized Letter.
I buy stamps ahead of time for Oversized Letter, so I can have them on hand to easily ship out any Canadian orders for jewellery that might come up. It's the simplest way to mail out small flat items.

Light Packet has the same Dimensions as Oversized Letter, but is what you should be using for Shipping objects and merchandise outside Canada, along with the Customs form.

I don't know why Canada Post has deals with Paypal and Etsy that allows them to print postage for Light Packet but does not have this available on their own website. It doesn't make sense, if you want this to change, then write, tweet, email, complain, etc.... to the powers at be at Canada Post.

[Decadence2Jewelry]

Can we use the CN22 peel & stick label from the post office and then add stamps for Light Packet? Running into this issue with Amazon Handmade....

[WallCakes]

Thanks tigersanddragons.

I use 'Light Packet' for my smaller orders to the U.S. It does seem odd that they don't have that as an option. It's not a big deal, really because I use etsy shipping. I was hoping to use EST for one-offs for giveaways and such, where there was no purchase on etsy. I will tweet etc as you suggested.

When you use lettermail within Canada, how do they know which stream it should go through. Do I have to put O/S or non standard on the envelope. I imagine documents would go through a different stream, no?

[TigersandDragons]

Gina, you just have to put the correct postage, it will be obvious by the weight, thickness and size of the envelope, that is Oversized/Non standard and not regular letter....which by the way you are not supposed to put any objects in. Thought I have shipped a chain that way a few times.

Brenda, there are other people who do it. I doubt very much that Canada Post will reject the Light Packet since the postage paid is correct, but am unsure if it affects how it is handled in the postal stream, without a CP label.
Is the work around we talked about for Paypal shipping not working?

[JacquieVintage]

Brenda,
Absolutely, you can use the CN22 with enough postage stamps for Light Packet. There are also separate stickers marked "O/S" that you can put on your package to make it 100% obvious that it should be sorted through the Oversize mail stream. You can ask your postal outlet to give you some.

[JacquieVintage]

Gina,
Standard Lettermail envelopes (Domestic/US/Int'l) have a separate mail stream from Oversize Lettermail (Domestic/US/Int'l) and Light Packet (US/Int'l). The difference is the max allowable size of the envelope, not what the contents are. As I said in my post above to Brenda, you can get O/S stickers to put on your Oversize Lettermail (domestic) and Light Packet (US/Int'l) envelopes if you're using postage stamps (vs. a metered label or online purchased label), but it's not mandatory.

As for why Light Packet isn't available on EST, I suspect it might be a bit of a ruse to get people to buy the more expensive Small Packet. That's just a guess on my part!

[JacquieVintage]

More on the 1.5cm thickness restriction for prepaid Xpresspost envelopes (domestic, non-bubble):

It seems that the 1.5cm rule has always been officially in place, but not really enforced all that much. There's recently been more enforcement of the rule, with my postal outlet manager reporting some Return-to-Senders because of it (with postage chargeback to the customer).

[TigersandDragons]

Canada Post has posted HOLIDAY SHIPPING DEADLINES
https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/kb/details.page?article=send_your_cards_and_&cattype=kb&cat=sending...|pdn|smc|563

[Former_Member]

Thanks again to Jacquie and Tigers for offering their continued help and advice -- you guys are heroes!

My question: Over the past week I am unable to buy Canada Post labels through PayPal for USA destinations (haven't tried for other destinations). When I called PayPal their rep tried suggested that there was a temporary bug in the website communcations between PP and CP but they never suggested the service was cancelled.

But a search of the PP forums suggests this might be otherwise.

I was forced to use the CP site and fortunately it was for Small Packet to the USA so price was the same, although, as e know, many times PP has been cheaper than CP.

What have you heard?

xxMM/FoTC

[TigersandDragons]

FOTC, I haven't heard anything about Paypal problems except that
the "ship now" on demand way to buy postage (when the purchase did not go through Paypal), has not worked for sometime.

Was this a purchase that went through Paypal?

Light and Small Packet are the same price at Etsy, Paypal and Canada Post counter prices. Canada Post can give a discount on small packet if the volumes you ship through their own shipping label system qualifies through their Small Business Program.

[Former_Member]

Thanks Tigers...

Yes, the purchase transaction was via PayPal -- in US$ to a US address.

I just tried it again and getting the same message "We are not able to generate your label at this time...PP shipping is not available..."

No one else having this problem? Canada Post Small Packet to the USA using PP labels/postage?

I have the same problem on both my desk top and my lap top so it's not a glitch due to my equipment.

(As an aside - I didn't realise the "ship now" mentioned in some customer forums I tracked down was a different non-PP-transaction service. Thanks for clearing that up for me ;)

MM

[KCowie]

Bracing myself for Canada Post increases in the New Year, especially for Light Packet :(

[KnitsByNat]

MM, I was also unable to create a label with PayPal a few weeks back. I haven't tried since.

[WallCakes]

This is very strange.
https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/17134538/page/1

[cindylouwho2]

Thanks Gina, I was just coming here to post that. It's not the first time they have not paid their bill.

I hope that there are not many people affected this time. The ones that were already processed through won't be returned for a month - ugh!

[WallCakes]

Does this just affect scanned mail like Expedited? I dropped a bunch of stuff off on Saturday that i did through Etsy mail.

[cindylouwho2]

As far as I know, it affects any label. It may have just kicked in today, though, & I believe that the last time, most outlets were not refusing Etsy labels - it was just a few

[WallCakes]

Thanks Cindy. I guess you wouldn't really know if the outlet was refusing them if you just drop them off though.

So did they just sit in the PO until etsy paid the bill. I wasn't selling at this time last year, so I missed the whole debacle. Another etsy WTF.

[KCowie]

That poor girl is "freaking" right now and rightfully so with what happened to her today with the ETSY labels, I feel so badly for her.

[cindylouwho2]

I think some get returned for insufficient postage if the post office tries to process them before Etsy gets this fixed.

I do not blame her for freaking out, at all. This is appalling.