Canada Post Surprises Mailers with a Big Postage Rate Increase Effective May 6, 2024
It’s unusual for Canada Post to increase postage rates mid-year, and without much notice, but these are unusual times for the struggling Canadian postal service. It announced significant increases in postage rates for letters and transactional mail, effective May 6th.
- Pricing for a single stamp increases by 8¢ from $1.07 to $1.15.
- Pricing for stamps in rolls, or for a postage meter, increases by 7¢ from 92¢ to 99¢.
- Pricing for volume commercial mail increases by 7¢ from 91¢ to 98¢.
The increase impacts letter and transaction mail only – not marketing mail – and is subject to regulatory approval from the Trudeau government. A similar increase in prices for marketing mail was introduced earlier this year.
In its official communication, Canada Post claims these increases are necessary as it’s “… been steadily impacted by inflation. This is combined with the fact that each year we deliver to more addresses.” (We think having more users would help reduce costs, but apparently not for Canada Post.)
Canada Post’s mail volumes have been in decline for years, attributable to reliability issues arising from labour disputes, continual price increases, and digitization opportunities that have been widely embraced by its customers. The corporation is burdened by legacy labour agreements, huge pension commitments, and fixed costs that are outsized relative to current volumes. Parcel volume, on the other hand, has been growing thanks to e-commerce.
The good news is that Cleanlist can help mailers offset these high postage costs by improving their data quality. Its service screens letter batches in real-time, looking for invalid and out-dated addresses before going to print. Letters with invalid addresses are either fixed or dropped, saving mailers as much as 25% on their postage bills. Contact Cleanlist to learn more about how this service can help you save on postage.
Current Canada Post Postage Rate Price Lists:
For more information or to request a free assessment of your postage saving opportunities, contact Cleanlist at sales@cleanlist.ca or 1-800-454-0223.
About Cleanlist
We’re Canada’s largest customer data company. We clean, enrich, and validate business and consumer data. We’re also experts in data-driven document composition and Canada’s largest data provider for digital and offline marketing. To learn more, visit us at Cleanlist.ca
