Door-to-door delivery threatened? (Volume 37 - Number 3 - September 2009)

Many people mistakenly believe that door-to-delivery is at risk because that’s what many media outlets suggested when the report of the Canada Post Corporation Strategic Review was released in May. The Globe and Mail featured an article called Canada Post urged to review home delivery. The website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation carried an article entitled Outside review suggests Canada Post drop door-to-door delivery.

There are, in fact, no recommendations for massive cuts to door-todoor delivery in the CPCSR report.

The real recommendations on door-to-door delivery follow:

• The Advisory Panel recommends Canada Post specifically include in its annual report an overview on the delivery methods it uses, indicating the number of addresses served with each delivery method and the financial costs and environmental impact of each on a per-unit basis.

The Advisory Panel of the CPCSR also recommended that Canada Post’s universal service obligation be defined in a ‘contract’ or ‘service charter’ between the Government of Canada and Canada Post in order to clarify expectations and responsibilities relating to service, including the following delivery-related expectations and responsibilities:

• Canada Post will deliver mail using a variety of delivery modes: mailbox service at the door, community mailbox, post box in postal outlets, end-of-lane delivery, and so on. The delivery mode used in any community should be appropriate to the circumstance.

• Canada Post may consider changes to the delivery network and submit proposals to the government for consideration as part of the annual corporate planning process.

• As part of its annual report, Canada Post should present an assessment of the cost-effectiveness and financial sustainability of the delivery modes and alternatives, so that policy-makers and Canadians can evaluate the ‘value-for-money’ character of each of the delivery instruments.

Why did so many media outlets focus on door-to-door issue? They have been evasive when asked this question. No one will ever know for sure, but the union suspects that Canada Post steered reporters towards this issue to distract them from the more politically volatile threats to service in the report, which are the rural recommendations.

During the CPCSR, CUPW recommended that door-to-door letter carrier delivery service be included in the universal service obligation. We also proposed that elderly and disabled residents should be offered door-to-door letter carrier delivery immediately and further expansion should occur.