William Kaplan’s stark portrayal of the economic and labour crisis at Canada Post, along with his radical solutions, underscores the urgent need for change. The future of the Post Office as we know it is at stake.
His observations and recommendations are all contained in his submission to the Federal Government, Report of the Industrial Inquiry Commission Appointed Under Section 108 of the Canada Labour Code on May 15, 2025
However, in his observations, he missed a crucial point—the historical and present problem of calculating the length of a delivery route. The software algorithm’s inability to accurately calculate an eight-hour day presents a significant challenge, but with a serious update, Canada Post can pave the way for a more sustainable future.
If the software remains unchanged with no serious updates or revisions, the same problems will continue between management and employees, and the downward cycle will continue.
The faulty algorithm, if calculated, has cost Canada Post well over a billion dollars in labour costs, management surveillance, interviews, injuries, and more.(1) This is the same amount of money that Canada Post had to borrow from the Federal Government to avoid sinking further into financial crisis.(2)
Although Canada Post has experimented with an overhaul, the company has not made this a priority and continues with the present route measurement software. The company will not survive if it continues making structural changes based on its current algorithm.
The software has obvious flaws. It doesn’t consider environmental problems like snowfalls, blizzards, construction, heat waves, hard-to-find parking locations, construction delays, or delivering outside in the dark. One or all of these can easily add one or more hours per day. Then there is the preparation and delivery of flyers, which is not included in the algorithm. Flyers can take anywhere from no minutes to two hours each day, depending on the volume.
Sometimes the algorithm produces a delivery route that takes an experienced delivery agent four hours to finish, and other routes consistently take overtime.
Those who finish in four hours can go home when they finish their route, while those who do overtime are monitored by management, harassed, potentially suspended or fired.
Is the algorithm the fault of the employees? No, many have taken advantage of the software’s weaknesses and exploited them. This flaw is a leadership problem, not an employee one.
Neither has Canada Post officially recognized the failure of this software and allowed lower management, such as supervisors, to override it to give more work to those who finish early and reduce the workload on those who finish late.
Mr. Kaplan submitted that Canada Post has to convert to a flex-delivery model—that is, the delivery distance, number of parcels, and points of call are calculated by the algorithm on a daily basis. One day, the eight-hour day could involve 20 km of walking to 1200 points of call and 100 parcels in an 8-block radius. The next day, the route could involve 10 km of walking, 800 points of call, and 200 parcels in a three-block radius.
With the current algorithm, it cannot properly calculate an eight hour day for flex-delivery. It is a recipe for cost-overruns, inefficiency, injuries, and continued tensions between management and employees.
Hopefully, a software update of its route measurement system has become the top priority at Canada Post. Otherwise, the results could be catastrophic for Canadians, the company, and its employees.
Software, while an issue, won’t save Canada Post if there is no or insufficient mail and parcels to deliver. One also has to look at other sources of financial loss, such as the Retail network and not to be minimized the terms of the collective agreements with the unions which render Canada Post non competitive unless they lower their prices to lose money on each item delivered. Their issues are multidimensional and extremely inter related.
A sole focus on route software is misleading and an over simplification.
Dean Pope
Hello Dean. You are correct that the software won’t save Canada Post, but it is a serious money loser for the corporation. Other large companies like Sobey’s when they took over Safeway, faced a severe crunch because of software compatibility problems between the two companies merging. Target left Canada because of a botched database dilemma. I wanted to point out that Kaplan made a serious error in business judgment when he overlooked this critical feature and demonstrates a lack of fully comprehending the situation.