Service changes including size, weight and delivery cycle for Neighbourhood Mail

In January, we will introduce a bigger, faster, better Neighbourhood Mail service. The service enhancements will provide the flexibility to mail larger and heavier items, aligning to flyer industry standards and removing the need to fold your items.

You will see the following key service changes:

• increase in maximum dimensions for Oversize items from 12” x 9” to 12” x 11”
• increase to maximum weight from 230 g to 500 g (Standard and Oversize)
• increase to maximum thickness from 0.75” to 1.0” (Standard and Oversize)

The table summarizes the new size and weight requirements:

NOTE: The maximum dimensions for non-letter carrier routes are: length 14 in. (35.56 cm, width 11 in. (28.00 cm), thickness 1.5 in. (3.81 cm) and weight 1,000 g (35.3 oz.).

We are also introducing changes to our delivery cycles, bringing campaigns to market faster.

Some of the key changes include:

• reduction in delivery from 5 days to 3 days for Oversize items up to 200 g
• reduction in delivery for Standard items over 115 g (from 5 days to 3 days)
• introduction of new delivery cycles for items over 200 g (Standard and Oversize)

The following table illustrates the new delivery cycles:

*For non-letter carrier routes, the delivery cycle, in business days, is 1 day for items up to 500 g (17.64 oz.) and 3 to 5 days for items up to 1,000 g (35.3 oz.) with a maximum thickness of 1.5 in (3.81 cm).

Remove maximum number of items per bundle requirement for Neighbourhood Mail

As part of the ongoing simplification to our services, when preparing bundles, the maximum of 200 items per bundle will no longer apply; only the height requirement will be applicable.

The bundle height cannot exceed:

• 6 inches for items less than 500 g
• 8 inches for items 500 g to 1,000 g

New Consumers’ Choice exemptions for Neighbourhood Mail

The Consumers’ Choice Program allows Canadians to stop the delivery of unaddressed print advertising material (Neighbourhood Mail) delivered by Canada Post. Some exceptions apply.

Effective January 15, 2018, the Consumers’ Choice list of exemptions will be amended to include government and political mailings. When a consumer chooses to stop receiving Neighbourhood Mail items, they will continue receiving the following items:

• Community newspapers;
• Mailings from government departments/agencies at federal, provincial, territorial, municipal levels and Indigenous peoples and their elected representatives;
• Materials from Elections Canada, Provincial/Territorial Chief Electoral Officers and municipal election officials (or the Deputy returning officer), including material from political parties and electoral candidates during an election.

These changes will simplify the definition of Consumers’ Choice and enable Canada Post to better serve Canadians.

Remove requirement for an Agreement to access the non-contract price for Postal Code Targeting

As a result of customer feedback, we are removing the requirement to sign an Agreement to access the non-contract price, making it easier and more accessible to use the service.

Remove chevrons currently part of indicia for Postal Code Targeting

To simplify the process to create the mail items, the chevrons that form part of the indicia will be removed.

The benefits of removing the chevrons include:

• Alignment with our other services
• More creative space (10 mm quiet zone around the barcode is the requirement)
• Cleaner looking mail – customer and partner feedback has indicated that the chevrons interfere with their creative intent
• Simplifying the postage zone

Please deplete your old stock and transition to the updated Postal Code Targeting indicia artwork, available on January 15, 2018 at canadapost.ca/indicia.

Increase thickness for Personalized Mail Dimensional items

To better meet the needs of our customers who wish to have greater creative flexibility by mailing bulkier items, we will be increasing the maximum thickness for Personalized Mail Dimensional items from 55 mm to 60 mm.

The following table illustrates the new dimensions:

Remove requirement for an Agreement to access Incentive Lettermail

As we continue to simplify our services, customers are no longer required to sign an Agreement to access the Incentive Lettermail service and prices. Customers can continue to use the service when they:

• have a Canada Post customer number
• prepare items as Machineable Mail (Standard and Oversize)
• create their Order(s) using EST
• pay for their Order via one of the applicable methods (a Canada Post account, credit card or postage meter - some restrictions apply)
• have a minimum of 1,000 Machineable Mail items per deposit.

Reduce minimum volume requirement - Machineable Mail

Applicable to Postal Code Targeting, Personalized Mail and Publications Mail

Given we have completed the convertion of addressed mail from Lettertainers to Letterflatainers (LFTs), we will be reducing the minimum volume requirement per deposit from 500 items to 400 items. This will enable you to deposit smaller and more targeted mailings.

Phantom pricing, when mailing less than 400 items, will continue to apply.

Electronic Shipping Tools (EST) enhancements

Applicable to Postal Code Targeting, Personalized Mail, Neighbourhood Mail, Publications Mail and Incentive Lettermail

In response to feedback from customers and partners, the following improvements will be made to our Electronic Shipping Tools (EST):

January 15, 2018

• Selecting either a contract number or N/A from the contract drop-down list will be available to reduce billing errors caused by missing a contract number

Later in 2018

• Displaying the names of the “Payer/Mailed on Behalf of” and “Contract Owner” next to the contract numbers in the drop-down list;
• Providing notice in a pop-up window when a contract has expired or is about to expire;
• Adding a new pop-up window with options to help manage date issues when importing a Neighbourhood Mail data file.

These improvements will support accurate invoicing, and enabling a smoother customer experience.

Reduced machineable testing requirement

Applicable to Postal Code Targeting

On August 21, we removed the following requirements for Partners and Mail Service Providers (MSP). They no longer need to submit:

• 200 samples for machineable testing when using a #10 white envelope;
• samples when a similar mailing format is used and was successfully passed; and
• samples when a previous mailing was successful.

Partners and MSPs can still send 200 samples for testing and are encouraged to work with our Customer Service Network to:

• confirm via a 1:1 ratio PDF that quiet zones are being respected;
• confirm the 2D barcode format and size meets the specifications; and
• submit one sample mail item to test the Grade reading of the 2D barcode.

If Partners or MSPs have not previously tested barcode creation/Grade capabilities, they are still required to do so to meet Canada Post requirements.