ME production problems, delivery problems or Canada post?

[John PurdyParticipant @johnpurdy78347]

Another update. Just received MEW # 264 in this AMs mail. Inner paper insert post marked Budapest Hungary and a paper label on the plastic wrapper from Prague Cz. Still missing 265.

John

Edited By John Purdy on 13/04/2018 18:39:51

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Jeff Dayman on 13/04/2018 18:25:48:

I'll get my coat and toque now…..

I'm ashamed to admit I had to look that up

Neil

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Chopra seems to have left the CEO office now. But he still seems to have a powerful command of corporate BS speak. He held forth on LinkedIn recently, lest anyone miss out on his wisdom:

"As I reflect on my 7-year transformative journey of leading Canada Post (One of the oldest and largest institutions) during one of its most disruptive periods in history, a few lessons stand-out:

1. Building a new sense of purpose by drawing from an organization’s deep history creates the strongest emotional employee engagement. This was at the core of Canada Post becoming one of the top Brands and Canada’s #1 parcel delivery company.

2. The idea that "only a small group of smart people can develop the next big thing" is largely a myth. Create the right conditions (we did that through a Leadership development program called LEAD), and watch ordinary people do extraordinary things.

3. Big things will always get more attention, so pay attention to the little things because detail is an orphan that no one with big titles likes to own.

4. Much of the business decisions end up arguing EITHER-OR, I learned the power of AND! The smartest business decisions turned out to be ones that included ideas from the opposing side.

5. Let every success and every failure be a lesson, neither should be celebrated at the expense of the other.

6. Always remember: Institutions are bigger than individuals! (Thanks Noeline for sharing this picture of my good-bye at HO)"

He has taken to describing himself as "e-Commerce Evangelist, Former Canada Post CEO, Independent Director".

Murray

[David Taylor 4Participant @davidtaylor4]

Bandersnatch is fortunate indeed having home delivery of mail. A lot of us have to harness up the dog team and sleigh a few kilometers to a lonely tin box by the trail side to collect our mail.

However the problem does not lie with the local post office who give excellent service but with the main receiving centers. The problem started, for me, in January this year and is indicative of a new protocol for prioritizing mail. Bulk magazines obviously being given the lowest rating. Do them when ever you get to them.

I see no hope of improvement. My efforts over many years to get the Economist on time have never succeeded.

A solution is to have a digital sub, which I have, but it is not as nice as the paper version.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by David Taylor 4 on 13/04/2018 22:54:01:

Bandersnatch is fortunate indeed having home delivery of mail.

Just to be clear, David (and I probably wasn't) when I said:

"Particularly for home-delivery …. it seems apparent that his aim is to get rid of it altogether."

What I meant was delivery of private mail altogether – not simply pushing people into street-corner (or elsewhere) mailboxes. My "fortune" arises from living in a large city and that CP hadn't got around to our remote mailboxes yet when the Conservative government went out and the incoming government put the brakes on that stuff.

[David Taylor 4Participant @davidtaylor4]

Looky here!

Just received issue 4579 by way of Hungary. It may have travel the eastern route to Canada via Asia and across the Pacific, across Canada to Montreal and back to me in BC.

A frustrating situation to which ME have offered no solution. Not good.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by David Taylor 4 on 19/04/2018 03:31:37:

Looky here!

Just received issue 4579 by way of Hungary. It may have travel the eastern route to Canada via Asia and across the Pacific, across Canada to Montreal and back to me in BC.

A frustrating situation to which ME have offered no solution. Not good.

David,

It may seem bewildering in Canada, but the movement of goods across Europe for grouping before intercontinental transport is the way European systems work. It's not unknown for UK-UK parcels to travel via the European mainland sometimes. Places like Hungary and Poland are not uncivilised backwaters…

We have looked into this an the delays are squarely with Canada Post, not with getting the magazines to Canada.

[clivelParticipant @clivel]

Yesterday was a bit of a red letter day for the postal service. I arrived home from work to find both ME issue 4579 and MEW 264 waiting in my letterbox (no sign yet of ME's 4576 to 4578 but there is always hope).
I guess that the folks at Canada Post must be slow readers, because that seems to be the only rational explanation for the 2 month delay in delivery.

And yes, I am absolutely sure that Canada Post are partially if not completely to blame for the current situation. I am still waiting for the Jan and Feb issues of EIM from an unrelated publisher and even more tellingly, three registered items posted from various places in Europe took over 2 months to reach me, and in each case i could track the items to Canada so I know with 100% certainty that the delay was due to Canada post.

Clive

[David Taylor 4Participant @davidtaylor4]

Neil,

You may sense increasing frustration with the late delivery of your magazines. Your attitude that it's Canada Post "end of story" does not help solve the problem.

Has your organization or your contractors talked to Canada Post about the problem?

When I complain to the Economist about late delivery they take it up with Canada Post and the service does improve for a short time.

I think that your contractors are always attempting to minimize their costs. There is no penalty for slow delivery so they ship by what ever means is available as long as it is lowest cost.

We poor colonials suffer from Canada Post shipping our local mail 600 km to Vancouver for sorting and then back for delivery. The truck travels any way, the fact that it takes three or four days to receive a letter from the next town to us is irrelevant to Canada Post. Your contractors are playing the same game with the same effect of slowing down delivery and may not be wholly responsible for the delays but are certainly partially responsible.

I look forward to more robust efforts on the magazines part to solve the delivery problem.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If the problem is with Canada post and it does seem to be the main one then the only way MTM could solve it would be to send the individual mags by another courier which I'm sure would put a substantial premium on the cost which I doubt many will want to pay.

I'm sure the shipping company can track their consignments and if they are getting to Canada withing the required time which from what Neil says seems to be true then there is not much MTM can do about the fact that they are left sitting in a Canadian warehouse for weeks.

[John PurdyParticipant @johnpurdy78347]

It's now 19 Apr. and I just got ME #4577 (5 Jan.) in the post this AM via Hungary then Czech.   Got #4582 and 83 a week ago so maybe there's hope for the rest of the missing issues as well.  Too bad Canada Post doesn't stamp mail with the date they receive it.   We would then all know where the problem lies.    But I guess that will never happen as it would show just how inefficient they might really be!!!

John

Edited By John Purdy on 19/04/2018 19:01:54

Edited By John Purdy on 19/04/2018 19:06:47

[David Taylor 4Participant @davidtaylor4]

Today I received ME issues 4577 and 4584 . So, for me, ends the saga of long delayed delivery. It would seem the the delivery constipation problem is over for now. The Canadian mail goes through Montreal which is not good.

So relief all round I hope.

One point is that 4577 seems to have been to Hungary and the Czech Republic in search of the most cost effective way to Canada, Could this have contributed to the four months it took to get to me?

If MTM provide me with the date of hand over and any code numbers their mail contractors have for this issue I will check with Canada :Post as to when they claim to have received the consignment.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by David Taylor 4 on 21/04/2018 03:07:20:

One point is that 4577 seems to have been to Hungary and the Czech Republic in search of the most cost effective way to Canada, Could this have contributed to the four months it took to get to me?

Probably not. That's typical of the way millions of items a day of international freight are consolidated in this globalized age.

[clivelParticipant @clivel]

Posted by David Taylor 4 on 21/04/2018 03:07:20:

Today I received ME issues 4577 and 4584 . So, for me, ends the saga of long delayed delivery. It would seem the the delivery constipation problem is over for now. The Canadian mail goes through Montreal which is not good.

My 4584 also arrived yesterday, so fresh the ink is still wet, but issues 4576, 4577, 4578 and 4581 (as well as various MEWs, EIMs and other postal items) are still missing in action.

Hearing that your 4577 arrived 4 months after posting gives me hope that my missing mail will also eventually make the arduous journey over the Rockies from a warehouse in Montreal.

Clive

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

How about digital delivery problems the latest MEW had 3 pages refuse to download had to archive it 3 times before it finally downloaded the lot.

I have heard mail delivery during winter in Canada can come to a halt Posties don't wan't to get out of bed and go trudging in snow @ -20C and 3 ft deep snow Seeing as winter is almost 6 months of the year there no wonder mags take ages to reach the front door.

[MeunierParticipant @meunier]

Canada post problems are not restricted to magazines. I use a vaping supplies company in HongKong and their customer forum has a separate sub-forum for Canadian vapers to save filling out the main forum with delivery queries/complaints. Seems to have one common factor there. (even allowing for any extra delays with Canadian Customs)
DaveD

[clivelParticipant @clivel]

A large brown envelope arrived today. Sent via Royal Mail directly to Canada without stopping in Budapest, Brussels, or even Bolivia it took a mere six weeks to get here.

Clearly someone at Canada Post must have been paying attention to the large "International Priority Mail" sticker on the front which probably explains why it didn't adhere to the new "Canada Post standard of excellence" of 4 months which is how long ME issue 4577 languished in a Montreal warehouse before also being delivered to me today.

Inside the envelope I was pleased to find replacements for issues 4576,4577,4578 and 4579. Thank you MTM. I am grateful to receive them but I do find it galling that MTM have had to take responsibility for the expense and inconvenience of making good on what is without a doubt a problem at Canada Post.

That being said, I am now the proud owner of duplicates of #4577 and #4579. I would be happy to send them to anyone still missing either of these issues on a first come basis. Please contact me via PM if interested.

Clive

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Posted by Raymond Sanderson 2 on 22/04/2018 05:19:17:

How about digital delivery problems the latest MEW had 3 pages refuse to download had to archive it 3 times before it finally downloaded the lot.

I have heard mail delivery during winter in Canada can come to a halt Posties don't wan't to get out of bed and go trudging in snow @ -20C and 3 ft deep snow Seeing as winter is almost 6 months of the year there no wonder mags take ages to reach the front door.

Where do you get your information about Canada?

Weather, temps and driving / walking conditions vary widely in different provinces. Winter is much colder and more severe as you go North approaching the arctic circle, but in southern regions of the provinces, closer to the US border, where millions of people live, winter is NOT 6 months of the year, and in winter in southern regions it's rare to have a snowfall more than ten or fifteen inches at a time, and people generally clear their snow where there is mail delivery. Yes, there can be harsh conditions periodically, and in the North, weather can be extreme. Generalizations about Canada are just as prone to error as generalizations about any country or continent.

Perhaps a look into Google or Wikipedia would be helpful to understand a bit more about weather related conditions in Canada. For example in Toronto Ontario Canada, most years, temperatures range from -25 deg C in winter to +30 deg C in summer. Snow and bad weather in winter generally start in mid November and finish in late February, but there are usually many mild days in November and February. 

 

Edited By Jeff Dayman on 24/04/2018 20:35:45

[Donald HillParticipant @donaldhill68830]

Hey Jeff, why did you let information out?

Now everyone will want to come here.

Maybe that's good, they can always help shovel the snow.

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Jeff I was just skitting

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Errr – Jeff Dayman has a HUGE sense of humour. Lets get the facts straight.

– Canada is cold, frigid, and one is prone to get mauled by bears, cougars, or even worse. By "cougars" I don't mean "slightly older single females", I mean the 4-pawed variety.

– Plumbing is not like in Britain; getting frozen to the toilet seat in the outhouse is a common occurrence, and is one that reduces both kitchen and workshop productivity greatly.

– The modern electric light only works when electricity works (and, your house has been wired for "the electric light&quot

– Everyone's related to everyone else. My brother-in-law Jeff (not my other brother -in-law Jeff, I mean the one who is a Model Engineer) has the typical "if you are on a sinking ship, make a joke" sense of humour. I Ignore him.

– Model Engineering is a lost cause. Everybody is taught metric measurements, but ALL material comes from the USA and metric is just not possible. Overheard a millennial telling another that "a letter Q drill is what Q says to James Bond in the movies when he touches all the neat gadgets".

– the post delivery system is by horseback. Makes walking on the roads (dirt, or corduroy log roads) difficult.

– there are incredibly few 5" gauge tracks around; (can think of 3 at the moment) a couple more 7-1/4 tracks, but these are mainly in the (frozen) east side of Canada.

So, nope, not worth even thinking about visiting or moving to Canada.

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Back to the digital matter again I also with the last 3 issues Me & MEW have had pages refuse to download archived one a few times till finally it all down loaded.

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Alexander you left out lack of beaches I've yet to see a Canadian in a Bikini at a beach.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Raymond Sanderson 2 on 24/04/2018 22:25:03:

Alexander you left out lack of beaches I've yet to see a Canadian in a Bikini at a beach.

You should come to Cairns.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Raymond Sanderson 2 on 24/04/2018 22:25:03:

Alexander you left out lack of beaches I've yet to see a Canadian in a Bikini at a beach.

They cover up with their bearskin coats to stay out of the cold sun.

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