My job is actually a lot of fun. I get to travel a bit and see the country. I work with a great group of people who are dedicated and provide me with a lot of support. For the past 5 years I have been one of the project managers working on upgrading Canada Post's infrastructure. A $2 B investment. Last year I had the privilege of joining the team that is bringing Community Mailboxes to nearly 5 millions customers across Canada. Up until now most of my work has been behind the scenes and much of our work would go undetected by our customers. The Community Mailbox (CMB) Project is the complete opposite. It effects how customers get their mail and is very visible to most Canadians.
This fall our CMB project comes to Selkirk. We "Go Live" on October 26. Selkirk is a mere ten minutes from my home. These are my neighbours.
Recent Installation of A Community Mailbox in Selkirk, MB |
I think many people who are against the changes we are proposing do not realize the phenomenal cost of delivering mail door to door. Is it a service we (as Canada Post) would like to continue and maintain a very proud tradition. Is it possible to continue? Absolutely. Is it feasible? Definitely not. I do not want to get into the financial models or data that shows how costly door to door delivery is. If you are interested, there are some good papers on the topic published by the Conference Board of Canada and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. No one argues that ending door to door delivery and implementing CMBs will save Canada Post millions of dollars. Taxpayer dollars that can be spent on roads, health care, and many other worth while programs. For those who think taxpayers should subsidize Canada Post I would propose that we agree to disagree.
For my neighbours in Selkirk; I hope the transition goes very smoothly. There is a great team of folks in our call centre who are willing to answer your questions and a great deployment team who will ensure everything transitions smoothly. One comment we hear over and over again is that this may be a great opportunity to go to your CMB, pick up your mail, and say "hi" to your neighbours.
Donald Lepp
Project Manager, Canada Post
CPC 2.0 - CMB Project
Ours was one of the first "old" neighbourhoods in Canada to move to CMBs. I have to say it really has been a non-event. It's less than half the distance it is to our former nearest Canada Post drop box, and the perfect distance to work on leash training for our puppy (at least for now). I was quite annoyed with my husband when he kvetched and moaned about having to walk "all that way" to get the mail, completely forgetting that for the first several years we were married, I walked a lot farther than that - hauling children along - to pick it up from our P.O. Box 5 days a week. He seems to have a lot of those type of memory lapses.
ReplyDeleteWe implemented St Albert and Sherwood Park in August; then Edmonton 4 & 8 in September. We had lots of challenges in Alberta. Glad yours went reasonably smooth.
ReplyDeleteHi Donald, well we never did have home delivery even in the 2 cities we lived in. The best delivery is what we have now. On the main floor of our 3 strorey condo we have our mail box. LOL
ReplyDeleteYou may have worked with my brother-in-law Murray H.????