How Canada Post Losses Will Affect Small Businesses
Various Canadian news stations as of April 2013 have announced that the country’s giant mail mogul Canada Post is going to be facing some serious financial challenges this year. A disruption in Canada Post service as a result of financial factors is not something that anyone has control over, especially not directly impacted small businesses that rely on receiving mail everyday.
Digital alternatives such as e-mail, electronic money transfers, and even online post cards have been the direct reason for a major decline in the amount of mail being delivered within Canada. According to CBC news, Canadians mailed almost one billion fewer pieces of domestic mail in 2012 than in 2006, with most of that decline happening within the last year.[1] Nobody is going to ignore the facts; it is hard to avoid technology in this ever-changing world of e-commerce. Communicating electronically has certainly become a standard procedure nowadays, having been adopted by a majority of Canadians, thus making an impact on the way Canada Post foresees its future.
Nevertheless, the financial losses expected for Canada Post in 2013 will impact businesses significantly in various ways. I do not want to ignore the fact that this affects individuals, as it certainly does, but not to the same degree; individuals rarely have set restrictions when it comes to expecting their mail. A small business on the other hand, does need to receive its mail in a timely manner as it affects their accounting department, productivity, and level of organization.
With a decrease in mail volume, Canada Post mail pick up and drop off times will inevitably change. For example, Canada Post may want to set mail delivery to every other day in order to cut costs. This would affect the frequency that a businesses’ mail is received. Canada Post drivers may also be given bigger routes, overloaded with a large volume of mail to deliver, with added pressure put on them that can create a bigger margin for error. Receipt of mail on a scheduled time means the accounts payable department can process company payments and cheques faster, keeping its vendors happy too. If mail is not getting to a company until the end of the day, from a management perspective this is quite negative, as the accounts payable people end up sitting around all day with nothing to do.
Solutions your Business can adopt
However, there are solutions that can be adopted by small businesses in order to combat the inevitable changes to come from Canada Post. One way is to send an employee from the office who will obviously go during their hours of work; unless of course they agree to work overtime and incentive (pay) is given, which would thus be an unnecessary financial spend for the company. For outgoing mail, the employee will have to find the nearest mailbox early on, regardless of work commitments, if the intention is to have the mail dispatched that very same day. For banking, the employee will have to leave their desk and stand in line to wait for a teller, also potentially being affected by uncontrollable factors such as weather, traffic, construction, etc. For inter-office, the employee will have to drive to their company’s other location, waste time parking, dropping off mail, making exchanges, picking up parcels, and recording inventory swap if any. All of these important activities need to be done for every small business, they are time sensitive, and require a set routine.
Another alternative that small business can take to avoid being affected by Canada Post’s financial woes and losses in mail volume, is to use a local courier company, as many in the greater Toronto area actively operate with costs as low as $5 a day for simple mail and banking services. Courier services are faster than postal services. Courier companies provide services for delivery of packages, money, bank deposits, cheques, or any other documents from one place to another. Many of these companies offer business-to-business services, so a company can transport their goods between locations without wasting valuable time of their own employees. These courier companies also come with liability insurance, helping give your company piece of mind that the parcels or documents entrusted with the courier driver will remain safe, protected, and delivered to their location in a timely manner. Courier services also play an important role in trading. Any small business involved in import and export often works fast, as they need to receive and process payments for products fairly quickly and often, before shipments go out. If a payment isn’t received on time, than the customer or vendor may wish to cancel the order, while potentially developing a negative reputation about the company. In essence, every business prides itself of being reliable, and in order to excel in this reputation, using a small yet reliable courier company can turn out to be very profitable.
Finally, the last option is to do nothing and hopefully find a way for your small business to rework its internal structure to deal with the delays that will come as a result of Canada Post’s projected financial losses. The risks of course, are subjective to the current condition of the small business at hand, and whether or not they rely heavily on mail anyway. Some businesses really never do have a high volume of mail, and when they do get any, it is rarely time sensitive nor of significant priority. Of course, doing nothing about the potential changes that will come about from Canada post is not the answer for every business, but it certainly is a risky option if your business does have a large mail component. .
There are challenges to not receiving your mail on time. There are also ways to prepare you for these challenges. Using your own employee, you must consider their time, loss of productivity, and potential risk factors associated with the economy. Outsourcing mail services to a courier company for your business can be good, if you can afford 5 bucks a day. The faster a business can get its cheques delivered to the bank, the faster they can be processed. My advice, find it in your budget to afford a local courier company, use your own employees, or do nothing about it and hope that the internal structure of how your company operates will remain in tact.