Letter Writing Club and Letter Writing Returns

We’re running another Letter Writing Club: Wednesday, October 29th at 6:30 pm.  

Canada Post went on strike and they’ve come back in rotating strikes. A delight! This is a delight, but also I am hoping for the best for a sustainable future for Canada Post. We Canadians are indeed attached to it; also, we hope for it to be around for a long time, standing proud and fiscally solvent. It’s a tricky situation.

For us as a small business it was enormously disruptive the last time Canada Post went on strike: all of our hardware and software systems were set up for Canada Post, which we’d been investing in for the last 12 years. All of a sudden, we had to start shipping with new carriers, figuring out our accounts and scheduling pick-ups and setting up notifications and tracking information. There were times we had to pay over $80-90 for shipping for some rural orders, trying fruitlessly to figure out compromises that didn’t seem to exist. Some customers had high expectations about how quickly we were going to be able to pivot and figure out a new shipping system (what a compliment! That alas we were not always able to meet). Many private courier companies were overwhelmed by the sudden increase volume and were not able to accommodate new accounts. Our shipping team had developed relationships with our Canada Post drivers and account managers; to switch, at this time, meant that sometimes these very busy and overloaded drivers of other couriers didn’t even have room for all of our packages on their trucks. Some customers weren’t aware that Canada Post was on strike, or were used to picking up their orders from their local post offices. For destinations farther away, often with the 0 in their postal code, sometimes packages were delivered most of the way by private couriers, and then handed off to “Canada Post” for the last mile, despite Canada Post being on strike, resulting in packages floating around in limbo, i.e. sitting in some warehouse. Lots of unexpected scenarios for everyone, I think.

But actually this time around, this most recent Canada Post strike, we were in much better shape. To pivot. To have picked up where we left off with some of the other private couriers, with whom we still actually ship with on occasion, since we’d set up the accounts and discovered some of the things that they do make sense for our small business. And that this strike is noticeably different in stress level is wonderful and a relief—and also for me as someone who personally feels a lot of attachment to Canada Post and what it means for our country to have a national postal system, a bit concerning. What does it mean that it’s now getting in fact easier for us to switch to other companies that are sometimes cheaper, sometimes seemingly more reliable, sometimes less bureaucratic and less opaque? These strikes are still a big impact on us, because our total yearly volume with Canada Post, just like with any other shipping company dictates our shipping price bracket, and spreading our parcels around between companies increases our prices overall. In the long-term as well, a reduced number of CP packages means next year, in addition to the natural jump in rates with inflation and gas costs, we might see an even bigger increase.

That’s neither here nor there. Because Canada Post is back! In rotational form, a somewhat weakened state, so we are slowly working our way back to them for our parcels. We’re still shipping a few with other carriers, since rotating strikes mean their overall service is slower, and we don’t want our customers waiting for their stationery treats for too long. I guess we’re hoping for the best.

I found these photos from my letter writing in Taiwan this past summer, when I was sending mail home. Having come back home, getting back into the swing of our fall routines, I took a hiatus from my letter writing along with Canada Post, but now am back again. And to be back at my desk, with my papers and my leather pen case full of pens and seeing the lines fill up on the page, has been satisfying and meaningful and a moment away from the hectic and frantic pace of the earth’s spinning. I had done a few workarounds during the strike, sending out parcels with letters, the occasional hand off, but I have both limited stamina and attention span, so those were short-lived bursts of action.

In any case, it’s Thanksgiving weekend, a time for friends and family and treats and good food. For breakfast, Junia suggested ice cream, and after being turned down, suggested butter. I’m ordering Christmas cards for the shop and feeling a bit weird about that. At some point, some child, and all roads lead to Junia, ate all the M&Ms out of the trail mix. Naomi joined her first book club and is so tremendously excited and called herself “future Mama” and life is just barrelling at me, with no slowing down in sight.

I’m sending my letters off into the world with some washi tape and a bit of hope, and breathing in the deep air of autumn.