Canada Post has predicted that a billion pieces of mail will be delivered to homes across the country in the month of December. “Throughout the year, Canadians rely on us to deliver important documents and items and the holiday season is no different,” said Jacques Cote, Canada Post group president of the Physical Delivery Network. “As Canada’s home delivery company, we travel 1.5 million kilometres to deliver mail and parcels to 15 million addresses across the country every business day. During the holidays, we will add to our resources to continue meeting our customers’ expectations.” Those billion pieces of mail include cards, letters, and parcels. The holiday season is the busiest time of year for the Crown corporation. That business translates to 75,000 kilograms of mail per day, above the normal daily average.
The number of vehicles carrying mail daily will reach an expected annual high of 1,330. The December mail amounts of approximately 25 per cent of Canada Post’s annual retail transactions and nearly 20 per cent of the mail sent into Canada from around the world is during the holiday season. The five biggest mailers to Canada are the United States, Britain, China, Hong Kong and South Korea. According to Cote, the single busiest day for processing mail was expected to be Dec. 13, with the heaviest delivery day being Dec. 21. In addition to its 69,000 regular employees, Canada Post brings in an additional 1,000 seasonal workers. Ironically, the period before Christmas isn’t the only reason December is a busy month. Canada Post will also have additional staff Dec. 26-28 to process and deliver online purchases by Boxing Day shoppers.