The odd one out: Canada Post backlogs cleared across most of Canada, not Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Just a week to go before Christmas and Canada Post now says it’s caught up on most parcel delivery backlogs that had been created by rotating walkouts.

This comes three weeks after striking postal workers were forced back to work.

The Crown corporation says its normal holiday delivery service guarantees have been restored across most of the country.

“A big reason for that is the amount of parcels we’re seeing right now is down significantly from our expectations and even last year,” Jon Hamilton with Canada Post explains. “While we’re at full holiday capacity with our plans in place. So we delivered almost four million parcels over the last weekend, from Friday to Monday, so we’ve been able to catch up in most parts of the country.”

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case in Vancouver. Hamilton says it’s not staffing that’s the issue in this region — it’s mostly the type of mail and packages that come through the depot.

The hope is that backlog can be cleared within the next day or so.

“We haven’t returned our holiday service guarantees back for items coming into or leaving Vancouver,” he says. “That’s a big parcel hub, a lot of international comes through there. But we’re working through that, we hope to have that back in holiday shape in the next day or two.”

Related video: Canada Post packages piling up after strike

Hamilton adds Toronto and Vancouver were the “hot spots” late last week. While progress has been made in Toronto, he says the Canada Post hopes to be in better shape by mid week.

“Most of the holiday dates, unfortunately, were out the window as we were dealing with the backlogs, but if you’re using any of the premium products, they have a service guarantee of two days, three days, depending on that. So look for those options.”

When he says the Crown Corporation can’t restore its holiday service guarantees, Hamilton explains that means the window of delivery that comes with the product “may be a day or two late.”

“It doesn’t mean it’s not going to make it before Christmas,” he says.

So if you place an order today, and express post it, as opposed to it being delivered in one to two days, it may be delayed by another day or two.

“Once we’re in a position to restore the normal service guarantees for this time of year, we’ll absolutely do that… Vancouver there’s still a bit of work to do. There’s all hands on deck to do that, and we’re going to lift that as soon as we can.”

In the meantime, he suggests looking at what options retailers are providing when ordering, and seeing what kind of delivery information they’re providing.

There are three main parcel processing hubs across Canada, Hamilton explains: in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. They are also the three main entry points for any international products, which means they have to be processed by the CBSA before being processed into Canada Post’s facilities.

Work continues to clear the backlog in Montreal, as well.