Canada Post will begin moving mail again as of Saturday, October 11, with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers shifting from a nationwide work stoppage to rotating strikes that roll across facilities starting at 6 a.m. local time. The pivot ends a two-week shutdown but won’t restore normalcy: service guarantees are suspended and delays are expected as operations ramp back up selectively across the network.
For shippers, the first constraint is immediate and specific. Canada Post says it will not accept new commercial volumes until Wednesday, October 15, prioritizing the clearance of parcels and letters trapped in the system during the walkout. The corporation also warned that rotating actions could strike any location without much lead time, complicating planning for pickups, plant induction and last‑mile commitments.
The union’s tactical switch is designed to maintain pressure at the bargaining table while letting essential traffic move. Roughly 55,000 workers initially walked off the job on September 25; they will now cycle on and off picket lines, which should get freight flowing through unaffected plants while still creating periodic bottlenecks where locals are out. The shift follows the federal government’s announcement of sweeping reforms at the postal operator, which CUPW fears would eliminate jobs and reduce service.
Canada Post, for its part, is bracing customers and carriers for a choppy restart. The company said uncertainty from rotating strikes historically strains its integrated national network and that on‑time guarantees will remain suspended while it works through the backlog. It also underscored how prolonged labour unrest has already pushed many customers to alternatives—context that matters for trucking and parcel carriers preparing for diversion and re‑routing.
What this means on the ground for trucking and parcel operations: expect surges and slack to arrive out of sequence. As Canada Post clears stranded freight, volumes will reappear in waves—heavier where facilities are operating and thinner where locals are out—producing erratic tendering to private carriers, regional consolidators, and cross‑dock partners. Linehaul planners should treat the next week as a rolling restart, with lanes tightening around major processing hubs before stabilizing further downstream. SLA language for Canadian deliveries will need temporary flexibility to account for rotating closures and suspended guarantees.
For U.S. shippers into Canada, the takeaway is similar: parcels and small B2C items that normally interchange into Canada Post’s last mile may dwell longer and route unpredictably when a targeted facility is struck. Where possible, enterprises should pre‑assign contingency routings for time‑sensitive goods, segregate returns to avoid commingling with fresh outbound volume, and stage inventory closer to customers to reduce exposure to plant‑level disruptions.
The calendar matters, too. With new commercial intake paused until October 15, merchants and carriers eyeing peak‑season ramp should plan a staggered restart: push non‑urgent items later in the week, reserve scarce linehaul and dock capacity for medical, perishables and other priority freight, and communicate revised ETAs early to reduce failed delivery attempts and re‑handle costs.
Big picture, this is a partial unblocking, not a reset. Canada Post reiterated its call for CUPW to return to the table and flagged the financial strain from repeated disruptions, while the union intends to keep job action rotating until it sees progress toward new agreements. For carriers and shippers, that adds up to an operating environment where freight can move again—just not predictably.
Sources: FreightWaves, Canada Post, Reuters, InfoNews
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