Snail mail not so obsolete in Internet age; some people fume when it’s not there

OTTAWA – If Canada’s urban postal workers walk out country-wide, will anyone notice?

The postal service is referred to as snail mail and has become the butt of jokes in the Internet age, where the growth of speedier tools such as Facebook, online shopping and billing could relegate mail to the museum.

Volumes around the world have been in a free-fall for years, including in Canada, which has seen a drop-off of 17 per cent over the last five years.

But the impending death of mail, like so many other communications industries that were supposed to be buried by modern technology, may be exaggerated.

Late Thursday, postal workers in Winnipeg began a 24-hour strike -the first of what will be rotating work stoppages across the country. The strike is to move to Hamilton, Ont., where postal workers were to picket from late Friday until Sunday night. The union and Canada Post were still trying to avoid a Canada-wide walkout.

The strikes are leaving postal users looking for alternative ways to move their packages and documents. Despite the increasing use of the Internet, there’s still a lot of people who care about mail service coming to a halt.

There are signs of rot in the number of postal users, for sure. It’s older Canadians that are the most likely to still use the mail for things like personal letters and ordering. Canadians living in rural areas are also heavy users, presumably because they have less access to broadband Internet.

As those demographics change and the web becomes even more widely used, mail volumes will likely continue to decline.

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“There’s no question the Internet is having a profound impact on the postal system, but Canada Post is still a $6 billion business,” company spokesman Jon Hamilton said, rebuffing the argument.

“We have still a huge letter mailing business, one of the biggest parcel businesses in Canada and we have a huge direct marketing business, because we can get to the mailbox of every Canadian and actually put something in their hand.”

Even on the personal side, Hamilton noted that his kids still get birthday cards through the mail “and it means the world to them.”

Among the biggest users today are charities and businesses, which favour the mail to reach customers directly for invoices, advertising and to receive cheques. Even companies that send invoices online often send out a paper copy of the bill as well.

A full-fledged strike will cause a major disruption to firms, particularly small and medium-sized companies, says Catherine Swift, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

But she is torn between how her organization’s members depend on the mail and the thought that a strike might jolt more businesses into abandoning paper and moving online.

“We can’t get along without (the mail) at this juncture, but it won’t be too long in the future and boy that will be a happy day, that will be a very happy day for small business,” she said, fuming.

Her anger, she says, is because her data shows businesses will lose between $200 and $250 a day if a general strike happens, through lost time and production, and having to resort to costlier alternatives such as couriers.

Some believe the costs are already piling up as businesses shy away from trusting a mail service under threat of a Canada-wide shutdown.

“Clients are backing away from the mail channel, mail is getting warehoused. It’s a very dire situation,” said Kathleen Rowe of the National Association of Major Mail Users, which she says represents 500,000 jobs in Canada.

She estimates that even the rolling strikes could result in 25,000 industry workers losing their jobs, including direct mail advertisers.

But while some firms will be hurt, TD Bank chief economist Craig Alexander says it’s unlikely the damage will be severe enough to jeopardize the economic recovery. He notes a strike will just delay payments to firms, not negate them.

Many business have already notified their customers about how to cope during a strike, and charities are seeking to shift to online donations.

But bad news for some can be an opportunity for others.

Couriers such as Purolator have said they are preparing to ramp up to pick up the slack.

And the strike is making the public more aware of private sector mail firms, such as Toronto-based Spring Global Mail, which handles large volume mailings to the U.S. and overseas at rates they claim are competitive or superior to Canada Post.

Since the threat of a strike first began looming, business has been good, said Lou Laforet, president of Global Mail, which also has offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.

“We’ve seen a spike, our customer service lines are busy, and we’ve picked up a lot of new customers because people want to make sure their mail moves,” he said.

Which goes to show that if Canada Post didn’t already exist, someone might have to invent it to meet consumer demand.