I'd love to see some cooperation between courier services when it comes to last-mile delivery services. Any package sent to me via international air-mail, which is cheap compared to most couriers, goes through canada post's last mile. This is actually pretty brilliant. If the package is small and no duties are required to be paid, it goes right in the superbox on my street. If it's larger or requires duties, it goes to the nearest canada post station, which is about a five minute walk from my house. Canada post stations are everywhere and have great coverage.
Compare this to UPS or Purolator (which Canada post owns the majority of). They always try to deliver packages in between noon and 5pm, when I (and probably most other people) am never home. They each have one bloody depot in the city, open roughly 12-5 naturally, and it's a freakin' half-hour drive out of the way. Invariably, I have to go out of my way to drive over to their office to pick up my packages because they are incapable of delivery during the hours I am home (and they won't just drop off packages over a certain value). Though purolator may be owned by Canada post, they do not use Canada Post's last-mile infrastructure. Horrendous! Isn't the point of paying extra for a courier convenience?
If Canada Post were to take over last-mile delivery from UPS and Purolator, or at least take over the failed deliveries so customers only have to go to the local post-office, they could bring in extra cash while vastly improving service to customers. Why on Earth isn't this being done, if not for UPS (which can burn in HELL for all I care), at the very least for Purolator?
P.S. UPS is utter bloody crap for cross-border shipments. Any U.S. vendor who only ships via UPS does not get my business. The common joke up here is that "UPS stands for Use Purolator Stupid!".
The last mile handover is usually where things go horribly wrong.
That's why vendors that operate internationally choose UPS, the only courier that can deliver from a factory in China to a doorstep almost anywhere on the planet without having to hand it over to local services, which will vary wildly in quality.
Also, nobody wants to pay the extortionate prices an old school state monopoly like Canada Post apparently is. It always surprises me that North-America holds on to their state systems where in Europe all of this is being privatized and post offices are disappearing. The monopolistic postal service is exactly why competitors can't invest in a better service.
You must be in the U.S., because you have no clue what kind of shenanigans UPS plays. For example, if a package crosses international borders, certain brokerage forms need to be filled out. You can do this yourself, but most carriers include this in the price of postage. UPS only includes it in their most expensive level of shipping. If you use UPS ground, for example, they'll tack on brokerage fees unless you do the brokerage yourself, and the fees are disproportionate! $50 on a $200 package is typical. You either have to resign yourself to wasting time on forms or buy the expensive UPS shipping, because the cheap shipping will actually be more expensive after brokerage! UPS is also very sneaky when it comes to letting you know you can do the forms yourself. Several times, UPS reps have told me I couldn't do it unless I went in person to the port the package entered the country through! This is not true, but they keep telling customers that.
In short, UPS can suck it. Horrible, horrible company. They're fine if you're shipping from the U.S. to the U.S., or perhaps even from China to the U.S, but from the U.S. to Canada they are horrendous. Avoid at all costs!
Compare this to UPS or Purolator (which Canada post owns the majority of). They always try to deliver packages in between noon and 5pm, when I (and probably most other people) am never home. They each have one bloody depot in the city, open roughly 12-5 naturally, and it's a freakin' half-hour drive out of the way. Invariably, I have to go out of my way to drive over to their office to pick up my packages because they are incapable of delivery during the hours I am home (and they won't just drop off packages over a certain value). Though purolator may be owned by Canada post, they do not use Canada Post's last-mile infrastructure. Horrendous! Isn't the point of paying extra for a courier convenience?
If Canada Post were to take over last-mile delivery from UPS and Purolator, or at least take over the failed deliveries so customers only have to go to the local post-office, they could bring in extra cash while vastly improving service to customers. Why on Earth isn't this being done, if not for UPS (which can burn in HELL for all I care), at the very least for Purolator?
P.S. UPS is utter bloody crap for cross-border shipments. Any U.S. vendor who only ships via UPS does not get my business. The common joke up here is that "UPS stands for Use Purolator Stupid!".