Canada Post announces service changes and price increases for next January

Canada Post has announced that next January it will introduce service and pricing changes, including a simplified preparation and pricing for Unaddressed Admail, new specs for machineable mail. For instance, letter carrier presort (LCP) national rates up to 200g are increasing by 4.3% to 49 cents. Prices will be going up for Addressed Admail, Unaddressed Admail, Publications Mail and Business Reply Mail / International Business Reply Mail.The corporation has already introduced customized indicia for publications mail. Here are the 2014 price sheets effective January 13, 2014:

• Publications Mail
• Addressed Admail 
• Business Reply Mail 
• Unaddressed Admail

Concurrently, the Conference Board of Canada has issued a report on the future of the postal service in Canada and projects financial losses of close to $1 billion a year by 2020 unless major changes are made. These include wage restraints, alternate-day delivery, elimination of door-to-door delivery and reduction in service standards. 

Magazines Canada has responded to the Conference Board report by saying that it has tried over many years to work with Canada Post to establish acceptable margins for Publications Mail, but that there is an increasing gap between the volume (Canadian magazines represent 70% of CPC's publications mail volume) and average rate increases. 

The average rate increases of  publications mail over the last decade have dramatically eclipsed all cost increases magazines have had to absorb from other suppliers, and have far outstripped any recognized inflationary measurements. In the same context, the challenges to Canada’s economy in the last few years have had less-than-positive revenue challenges for most businesses, including magazines. 

The magazine association says in a memo to members that changes to delivery schedules could have a serious impact on time-sensitive magazine delivery, particularly for some weekly and bi-weekly titles. If centralized points of delivery are the way CPC is to go (e.g. "super boxes") then MC says they would like to be consulted so that these better accommodate magazines.