Canada Post urging Canadians to consider completing their holiday shopping early this year

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Published October 8, 2020 at 10:08 pm

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With many Canadians favouring online shopping over shopping in person due to the risk of contracting COVID-19, Canada Post is anticipating a much busier-than-normal holiday season.

This year, as more Canadians intend to do their holiday shopping online, the demand for package delivery will be at an all-time high.

A survey conducted by Canada Post in June found that nearly half of Canadians—48 per cent—intend to do most or all of their holiday shopping online this year.

Additionally, 54 per cent said they were open to starting their holiday shopping as early as October or early November in order to avoid a surge in online shopping that typically happens around the holidays.

However, considering the expected volumes this year, the addition of a traditional holiday parcel surge has the potential to overwhelm capacity and cause significant delays.

In order to mitigate delays as much as possible, Canada Post intends to:

  • Add more than 4,000 temporary seasonal employees, increasing our fleet by more than 1,000 vehicles and adding key equipment.
  • Deliver on weekends in many communities, add more parcel pickup locations and hours at many post offices will be extended. Processing equipment has been added at key locations in our network and will be fully utilized.
  • Enhance tracking technology to provide customers with improved information as they follow the progress of their parcels.
  • Work with major customers to manage demand, improve the flow of parcels within our network and encourage Canadians to shop early.

Moreover, even with additional measures, Canada Post is urging those who can do so to do their holiday shopping earlier this year, in order to spread out the expected demand and avoid a holiday capacity crunch.

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