Canada Post direction

[crazyjackcsa]

There is no recycling bin at my superbox. I (and lots of other people) cram the junk mail right back into the "out" slot. I didn't ask for it, it isn't addressed to me, I'm under no obligation to take it.

[Four Pillars]

I agree that epost is a good idea and could work well if all companies participated.

But why can't a private company offer this service? I hate when the government is in direct competition with private industry. As an example, as much as I like watching HNIC (hockey) on CBC, I don't think the gov't should be airing hockey games if private channels are willing to do it (and they are).

There are plenty of good reasons for having a CBC/Canada post etc etc, but they should stick to those reasons.

/end tea party rant

[72camaross]

I bet you I've checked my mail box 7 times in the last year. It even got closed because I forgot to renew it. 99% of the time it's useless crap that I leave there in the recycle bin. I'm also part of the age group that probably doesn't use stamps, I've probably used 10 in my lifetime. (27yo). I think they should focus on epost, get rid of paper completely. Call it a day.

I use it for my power and Bell bills. Works great. I log into my bank account, says I have some ebills. I click the link shows me my bills and I click pay.
Boom. Done. Back to the golf course.

I think someone mentioned it but they could do well being just like a courier service with box stuff. Online shopping is taking over.

[brad]

I agree that epost is a good idea and could work well if all companies participated. But why can't a private company offer this service?

I think we've seen how that works with Quicken (BillPay, etc.). When you put a private company in charge, they will most likely treat both ends of the transaction as a money-making opportunity (charge the service providers to offer their bills through the system, and charge customers to use it). Right now, the nice thing for me is that epost is free to consumers. Presumably the service providers are paying a fee to Canada Post in order to be part of the system (which of course is why they don't have a lot of participation).

Of course, if there were private competition presumably someone would come up with a business model similar to that of epost and consumers wouldn't have to pay, so everyone would migrate to that model eventually because it would be more popular. I wouldn't be surprised if a private-sector competitor to epost isn't already being developed; I could see ING developing their own homegrown version of epost, for example, which might explain why they aren't offering the epost service.

[Jungle]

I also think they companies could save money on postage stamps and just scan to a mail box.. it doesn't even have to be epost, like on Roger's website you can log in and look at or download your bill. Save the trees!!

[kcowan]

I am on electronic statements for Telus, Rogers, Shaw, TD, TDW, CIBC, Canaccord to name a few. I don't know any monthly utility supplier who does not offer soft copy today. All my regular payments are automatic, either to the CC or bank draft. I fail to see where ePost can survive because the only thing left are the outliers.

[Four Pillars]

I think we've seen how that works with Quicken (BillPay, etc.). When you put a private company in charge, they will most likely treat both ends of the transaction as a money-making opportunity (charge the service providers to offer their bills through the system, and charge customers to use it). Right now, the nice thing for me is that epost is free to consumers. Presumably the service providers are paying a fee to Canada Post in order to be part of the system (which of course is why they don't have a lot of participation).

Of course, if there were private competition presumably someone would come up with a business model similar to that of epost and consumers wouldn't have to pay, so everyone would migrate to that model eventually because it would be more popular. I wouldn't be surprised if a private-sector competitor to epost isn't already being developed; I could see ING developing their own homegrown version of epost, for example, which might explain why they aren't offering the epost service.

The fact that a private company might charge isn't really an argument against privatization. We do pay for epost with taxes after all. It's not free.

A common business model is to offer a free service and then charge for upgrades or make money from advertising. However, if the service is good enough, there is nothing wrong with charging for it.

[brad]

I am on electronic statements for Telus, Rogers, Shaw, TD, TDW, CIBC, Canaccord to name a few. I don't know any monthly utility supplier who does not offer soft copy today. All my regular payments are automatic, either to the CC or bank draft. I fail to see where ePost can survive because the only thing left are the outliers.

But the beauty of epost is that you receive all those bills in one place. You don't have to log into separate websites to see your bill, or receive bills by email and forget to pay them. Everything goes to one place (your bank's website); you log in, review your bills, and pay them all from the same website. It couldn't be more convenient. Quicken allows you to do something similar but after trying it for five or six years I gave up because there were too many small glitches and eventual incompatibilities.

[MoneyGal]

What's EVEN more convenient is setting up autopays. I can't recall the last time I had to take ANY action to pay a regular bill...it all just comes out of my bank account with no action on my part (other than setting up the autopay in the first place).

[brad]

What's EVEN more convenient is setting up autopays

True, and that's great for bills that don't vary from month to month. But some bills do (e.g., credit card) and I also find that it's too easy to miss the fact that some recurring bills slowly increase over the time if I set them on autopay -- somehow I pay more attention to the amount when I have to take action to pay the bill.