Canada Post mulls letter box surplus as ‘snail mail’ plummets

Canada's mailboxes may soon be harder to spot despite their bright red hue.

As CTV News reports, Canada Post has scrapped more than a thousand of its Street Letter Boxes over the past two years, and they will likely remove even more of the remaining 30,000 boxes as texting and email continue to overtake traditional "snail mail."

"As the amount of lettermail in the system declines, we have to make changes in our business," Canada Post director of communications Jon Hamilton told CTV.

Household mail volume has dropped 17 per cent over the past five years, and according to Canada Post, some mailboxes these days don't even contain a scrap of paper when the carrier comes to collect the day's load.

In light of this plummeting volume, Hamilton said the company has started to look at how to work with the digital communications shift instead of competing against it. That means putting more emphasis on shipping parcels for online purchases instead of focusing on the simple pleasures of receiving a handwritten note at home.

"We have a company built on delivering a lot of mail and a few parcels and the future for us means a lot more parcels and fewer pieces of mail," he added.

That may be too little too late, according to Benjamin Dachis, an analyst at Canadian public policy think tank, C.D. Howe Institute.

Dachis told CTV that Canada Post needs to think (forgive me) outside the box if they want to survive.

"Canada Post is in significant financial trouble if they don't consider serious changes such as outsourcing their operations," he said.

But a Canada Post spokesperson said the company was "very well positioned" for the future, and noted the company's "affordability and reach across the country" as strengths that will carry it into the future.

And in case you were wondering what happens to unwanted mailboxes when they're pushed into early retirement, the unlucky ones get sent to a "mailbox graveyard" where they forlornly await the moment when they'll be crushed and recycled.

(CBC photo)