OTTAWA – With little else to do, many Canadians are spending their time shopping online. Between eBay, Amazon, and even great local companies in Thunder Bay like Music Academy World, people are doing their browsing on their smartphones and laptops.
That is hitting hard for parcel delivery companies. Canada Post says that “With many Canadians isolating at home and shopping more online, the post office now processing and delivering parcels at levels only experienced during the busiest weeks of the Christmas season.
There are also some packages that are international in either origin or destination which will take far longer.
“We are working hard to respond in a responsible manner, putting the safety of our people, and the communities we serve, first.”
Canada Post in a statement issued to media says that they are advising customers across the country to expect delays with their parcel deliveries. The heavy incoming parcel volumes, combined with the important safety measures we’ve implemented in our processing facilities, mean it is taking longer to process. Those measures include physical distancing in facilities that were never designed for keeping people two metres apart.
We continue to operate across the country and have been delivering in record numbers. For example, on Monday, April 20, we delivered more than 1.8 million parcels to Canadians. That’s similar to the biggest delivery days we see during the Christmas season. Customers should continue to track their parcels online through canadapost.ca or the Canada Post app.
Canada Post is proud to continue providing an essential service to Canadians as everyone does their part to stop the spread of the virus. Our top priority from the start has been to put safety first. That has meant implementing significant changes right across our operations, following the guidance of national and local public health authorities.
Other important changes regarding parcels:
Parcel Delivery: To eliminate customer interactions at the door, reduce post office customer traffic and support social and physical distancing, we have implemented a Knock, Drop and Go approach. Delivery employees knock or ring, choose the safest location available to leave the item and then depart for the next address. This change eliminates the need for signatures at the door, speeds up delivery and has greatly reduced the number of parcels sent to our post offices for pickup.
Parcel pickup at the post office: For the remaining parcels left at the post office for pickup (items requiring ID), they will not be returned-to-sender until further notice. We’ve suspended our normal 15-day hold period. We ask that customers who are feeling ill or self-isolating, to please delay their visit to the post office and to pick up their parcel when it’s safe to do so. We’ve put physical-distancing measures in our post offices and installed clear plastic guards at the counter.
We thank Canadians for their continued patience and support for the measures we’ve put in place for everyone’s safety. Please continue to provide our people with at least two metres of space when you see them out in the community or at a post office.
