mail carrier

office assistant

adjoint

postal clerk

facteur

Canada Post

TL; DR? No.

First of all, let me begin by saying that I *really wanted this job... until I got the job.

If you're looking to be treated like a piece of dookie for $19.86/hr, be my guest.

Position reviewed: Relief/On-Call Letter Carrier.

All new hires are "casual/on-call". NO ONE is hired full-time. NO ONE. You could get 1 call/week, you could 2 or 3 or more, it all depends on the work-load - but it's not consistent, even during a strike. Also, God forbid you have another job and can't answer the phone when they call, because they will call again, and again, and again. I have been told in no uncertain terms that if I'm not available, to not answer the phone; however, you'd think that answering the phone and saying you're not available (because you're working your other job, for example) is acceptable, but you'd be wrong. Dead wrong; and management will react like a scorned lover if you do this. Don't believe me? Apply for this job.

--> It took my high-school friend TEN YEARS to get hired full-time.

No one is your friend, **especially not management (supervisors). Trust no one, not even the Union steward; and while you're "sort of" protected by the union as a casual, you're not fully protected until you've completed 480 hours, and that could take ... six months, if not more.

During my second week, when I was shadowing, the carrier who was supposed to shadow me called in sick both days. Coincidentally he showed up the rest of the week. I think not. I was instead sent out with an RLC (relief letter carrier w zero f's to give), who basically left me for dead: "here's the mail for [geo-location], go deliver it and me at [geo-location]".

Routes distances are supposed to be at most 22km. Not a chance, unless you know *every single short-cut for the route you're doing (and until you're full-time AND have a full-time route, good luck). I tracked   all of my days. When I did 3 portions (each route is divided into 1.75 hr sections, called portions), I was walking about 30km/day. 

Even if/when they hire you full-time, you still will not have your own route.

Management won't help you. I called in one day because the carrier from point 2) didn't give me a tie-out sheet, and had asked for help (Where am I going? Where are the relay boxes? Do you have [carrier's] phone number?). The supervisor I spoke with said 1) she was too busy; 2) didn't have his number; and 3) when I was written up for a sleep-over (mail left in a relay box overnight), she claimed she had NO recollection our of phone call. See my point about who your friends are (no one). Also, when I was called next for work -- FOUR DAYS LATER, how do I know I left the mail in the relay box? I *should have been called the next day. 

Management is passive-aggressive. God forbid you're not available, because they **will (try to) treat you like you're 12 years old.

The Attitude of Full-time Letter Carriers sucks; and most are hoping for a slip/fall/work-place injury. If you don't think every single CPC employee is looking for an easy way out, you're dead wrong (perhaps there's 1% who genuinely enjoy their work, but I didn't meet anyone who falls into this percentile). The depot I worked at (Fredericton) was toxic to say the least. 

I was desperate for work when CPC hired me; and thought I'd hit it big. However, life is too short to be burdened with what the job entails. If you're 24 years old, and have no problems walking ~30km/day in ANY type of condition, until 8pm at night (because you will be out well passed dark), by all means apply to work for the Canada Post Corporation.

The reviews here don't reflect the actual RSMC OCRE (on call relief) positions. Be sure to read the right reviews for a clear picture of how awful it is. I'm not sure how Canada Post gets away with it. Low pay, long hours, heavy parcel load, unmaintained sloppy routes to cover, slow to support, quick to discipline, stressful and overwhelming.
The OCRE position is a hoop that must be jumped through before obtaining a route or full employment.
RSMC OCRE's are expected to complete the sorting, tie out and delivery of mail and parcels when the route owner calls in sick or needs coverage. Not all route owners keep their route in good shape. Those are the routes you'll be working on and you'll only be compensated at 85% of the lowest route value. So if the route value is $21,000 - $25,000 you'll get paid at 85% of $21,000 (calculated at a daily route value... and good luck finding that out!). You will be slower than the route owner and any route issues will slow you down further (issues include boxes without numbers or hidden in grasses, keys that don't work well, locks you can't open, sorting mail issues like improperly addressed mail and directional errors etc.). The longer it takes you the less you get paid. Managers cover their own butts instead of listening to their employees and fixing the problem routes so their RSMC OCRE's can succeed. On my second call in after training I worked 12.5 hours on a route under extreme anxiety and felt like a complete failure not being able to finish the route. On my second attempt at the same route I gave up after 8.5 hours and turned around again returning mail and parcels and ending my shift after 10 hours only to get hauled in to the office in an investigation a week later and a disciplinary note in my personal file. This is common place procedure. Another OCRE in the office already had 4 letters in her personal file after 6 months. It's brutal. On top of regular mail volume there is addressed mail advertising, flyers and over 20 parcels per day that add to your route time. At Christmas route owners work unpaid Saturdays to deliver heavy volumes of parcels. 
If you have kids at home, this is not for you. You cannot bypass this part and get your own route.
Be sure to read the correct reviews. ON CALL RELIEF is where you start.
SUGGESTION: Get the training. As soon as you you've got it switch to being a contractor for full 100% route payment (paid once a month though!) while you learn and get your understanding and speeds up then apply again to be an On Call Relief RSMC when you've gotten fast enough to be paid at a decent rate and wait it out till you get your own route.

It gets better as you gain experience and seniority. Unlike most work places, you are given the most difficult jobs when you start and the easier jobs as you gain experience and seniority.
Most likely you will start as an OCR (On call Relief) - No benefits. Since you have no seniority when you start you will only be called when there is work that more senior OCR decline. This means that you would only deliver large, heavy and overflow packages from various route owners. (paid by the packages delivered plus mileage). Occasionally you will be called to do a route (mail + ads + packages) for a specific area on the same day due to a route owner calling in sick on that day. A route is paid on a flat rate regardless of volume for that day. You will also only be paid 85% of what a route owner would get paid for their route. Be expected to get spotty work for at least the first 6 month. You will not be able to support yourself if you don’t have a second source of income.
Postal routes are not created equally. Some routes are more difficult than others and pay will vary from route to route. If you are doing a route for the first time be expected to take a significant amount of extra time to find the Community Mailboxes or to understand where and how to deliver to business, apartment, condo complexes or retirement homes. You will also have to sort the ads that day (most route owner will sort the day before). In addition, since you are at the lowest seniority, you are likely doing a longer harder route which will make it impossible for you to complete you route in daylight during the short winter days. You will be working into the night. 
This is why there is a high turnover rate for this job at the beginning.
If you stick to the job for at least a year, work become easier. Not only do you have experience on almost all the routes (you know where the CMB boxes are. Any special instructions to deliver to business or apartments) you will also be getting steadier work due to your increase seniority. You may get a weekly route assignment (vacation relief) ahead of time. This will allow you to better plan how to deliver during the week plus talking to the route owner on any special or tricky delivery instructions.
At some point, for me it was over a year, depending on availability you may apply and be hired as a PRE (Permanent Relief Employee) this will give you benefits plus some minimum amount regardless of work availability. This is strictly based on seniority (not merit based)
As you gain in seniority, you will be working 5 days a week and you will now be given more choices on what routes are available and for how long. This allows you to take a prefer route with a prefer starting time. Now you can deliver in a more relax manor and complete your route in daylight even in the shortest day. 
Again, based on availability, if a route becomes available, the PRE can apply to become a route owner. Decision is based on seniority. Once you become a route owner you will only be responsible for your route.


My experiences for the Letter carrier (On-call temporary relief) hiring process: Initially applied online to Canada post career website with resume and personal info, waited about 1 month before getting email response from HR with bunch of preliminary questions, such about attended recent job fair, oncall unsteady work hours acceptable or not (eg. 6am to 6pm, mon~fri). Also have to Pay $12 for uncertified provincial driver abstract, and ready to present reference letter from friend/neighbor coworker/boss who is not be a relative and known for more than 2 years
The got invited onsite interview about 2 weeks after the initial email. Interview questions: what skills value at customer service position? (eg. communication, professionalism); what to do if water spill?
After interview, got fingerprint taken and address security check form on site, then waited 2 more weeks before having to take a physical test on site.
Physical test: measusring heart beat & blod pressure, lifting box of about 30kg to 2 levels of higher shelves, extended bend-down 5 minutes, runnning 3 rounds of 14 laps of back-and-forth across the room and some small stairs while carrying heavy backpack ,sorting 3-box of letters test...etc.
Then got notified by HR of passing the physical test in the same day, filled out more personal info and tax forms, with offer letter that is conditional of passing the 15 weekdays (7am to 3pm) of on-site driver training and tests, which is scheduled about 2 weeks later. But the training dates suddenly got cancelled then got pushed back with the whole "coronavirus" affairs. After more than 2 months of waiting finally got phone and email contact back from CanadaPost HR, who hid under "unknown numbers" & refuse to provide callback numbers Their email hidden in outsourced systems like under "successfactor" domain. So I filled out extra COVID-19 waiver form and send it back over email. Then after an week, finally  started 7 days of in-class training with 6 students per class, from 7am to 2pm. The last day of classroom training has 10 minute test to sort 120 pieces of mail into mail-case, along with online knowledge e-course test of 20 questions that requires 75% score to pass. After that, done 5 days job-shadow training following an experienced mail carrier with rental vehicle, and helping out actual mail & parcel deliveries, 7am to 2pm. After the 5 day, got told by local depot manager to start reporting next day to help deliver oversized parcels, or help relief part of routes.
The 12 days of training are all paid for with 8 hours each day, at around $20 per hour rate. 
It took about 5 months from online application to the scheduling and completed the training.

As an On-Call Relief Mail Service courier, I never know if or when I'll be working on any given day. But when I do get to work, I really enjoy it!

The main tasks of a Mail Service courier (MSC) are parcel delivery (residential and commercial), commercial pick-ups (daily and on-demand), and Retail Post Office (RPO) and Street Letter Box (SLB) clearances.

On a typical day, I get a call from the Transportation Staffing Supervisor and am offered one or more routes to cover. I accept a route and am told when it starts. I go to the Calgary Mail Processing Plant (CMPP), clock in, gather all of my things (Truck logbook, Portable Data Terminal, keys, windshield washer fluid, Delivery Notice Cards, and special instructions) and proceed to my assigned vehicle. I do a walk around of the vehicle and note the mileage and any damages in the truck logbook; checking the gas gauge to see if I need to stop at a gas station at some point in the day. I review my Parcel Manifest to set up my delivery route. Once I've checked that I can see what I need to in my rear view mirrors and adjusted them, I set out to my first address for parcel delivery. Some days I'll simply do deliveries. On other routes, after I've done my parcel deliveries, I'll proceed to my first assigned commercial pick-up and follow a set route based on pick-up times until they're completed. At 17:00, it's time to perform the RPO and SLB clearances. Once those are completed, I'll drive back to the CMPP and drop off parcels and letter mail to their designated places. Then I'll park the vehicle in it's assigned location, make sure the vehicle has no mail inside, and proceed back to the Transportation Office. From there, I'll cradle and download the data from my Portable Data Terminal, return any keys, return the truck logbook, and submit Commercial Pick-up Manifests, Bills of Lading/Landing, gas receipts, and funds collected. Then I clock out and leave CMPP for the day.

I've learned how to find any address with the aid of a map. My intuitive senses have greatly increased since I started this job. I've also learned to be a relaxed driver because I'm representing a crown corporation, so my driving needs to reflect my professionalism.

The hardest part of my job is timing commercial pick-ups. I want to arrive when the customer is ready for me and be able to perform my other duties in a timely and efficient manner.

There are two parts of my job that I find enjoyable. One is locating addresses and figuring out more efficient ways to deliver all of my parcels. The other is when I go to deliver a parcel and the receiving customer is very happy to see me with their package.

Pros: Canada Post provide great compensation to employees


Cons: 
1. Just because you are hired does not mean you will be working.
Most employees with seniority less than 1.5 years are most likely benched (In GTA), which means that you will not be making any money.
2.  You have to stay as a temporary employee for at least 4 ~ 5 years before you become a part-time employee.  Temporary employees do not have any benefit, vacation pay, nor sick leave.  You cannot even take vacation without pay without approval from your supervisors, even if you book the vacation a month ahead.
3. People think Canada Post employees automatically receive 7 weeks of vacation as soon as they are hired.  Canada Post employees are entitled to have 4 weeks of vacation (~20 hrs paid/week) if they gain part-time status (again... it will take around 4~5 years).
4. Management staffs are uneducated.  Most management employees, including supervisors, superintendent, and managers are fresh off the street, without any corporate knowledge.  Usually they are just high school graduates and rarely college graduates.
Most of them lack ethics and morals.  This is because Canada Post has strong military background system, where it is norm to abuse employees.  Bullying at work does not always mean that it shall involve physical abusement.  In Canada Post, most supervisors lack management skills, and since they are very unethical and uneducated, they tend to abuse their power.  Since they have the title "Supervisor", they will boss around employees as if they are an officer in military.  They will give direct orders that does not comply with corporate regulations.  If you refuse to accept their direct order, you will get into formal interview, where you will have interview with two supervisors who are very biased towards you.  Management, regardless if you think they are nice or not, will never be on employee's side, thus, even if you did nothing wrong, they will falsify information.  False accusation will most likely occur, which will eventually lead to termination of your employment.  
5. Supervisors are just another people in union.  If you are a postal clerk or letter carrier, being a supervisor does not necessarily mean you are advancing into higher level.  I have BSC and CGA certification, and in order to get into the accountant position in Canada Post, I decided to start from the bottom of the chain, in order to gain knowledge with regard to how the corporate system works.  However, management tend to hire people who lacks management skills and deep knowledge in postal system; thus, making them easier to accept whatever that is taught by managers (Abusing system).  If you are smarter than management staffs, most likely, you will not be promoted.

Bare with me here......So you're hired as a Temp on call Letter Carrier, then are told you're being trained at everything in the 
warehouse, which isn't what was agreed too, but could provide more opportunities to work so I went along with it.  As a letter carrier I maybe recieved 5 phone calls in 10 months to do one day replacement. And 99% of the time there is some kind of storm that the reg carrier doesn't wanna work through and thats why they are calling. They then expect you to be on call 24 hours a day which I don't believe is "showing reasonable avaliablity".  The only people this job could suit is possibly a stay at home parent who could run in at anytime or someone who is retired looking for supplemental income. As for anyone 18-65, unless you are working at a big depot in a city, with hundreds of workers to replace, their system just doesn't work. In a small town there are very few workers to replace and even then, new hires are so far down the call in list that calls are few and far between so it's no wonder the turnover of temp employees is utterly horrible. 
As for obtaining permanent employment, everything is based on seniority. You can be the worst employee but the union protects everyone, so no matter how much initiative or good work habits you show, it means absolutely nothing. There are employees there that should've been fired years ago but they are protected and get away with basically anything they want. Everyone at my depot has been there forever and would be prob 5-8 years before you get probably the worst route as a permanent employee.
Uniforms are only provided after roughly 440 hours of work which without calls can take well over a year and you have to provide your own clothing. There are supplements added to your pay but they are no where near enough. 
Also the way you are trained to do letter carrying is to follow your 'headerboard' , so when you do get called in, that's how you are supposed to know the route. Not 1 of the full time letter carriers follow the headerboard and just deliver the route the best way they see fit. I would arrive and other employees would tie off my mail in the order they like to do things and it made delivering mail extremely difficult when you're not familiar with the area or route. Yet management believes this was the proper way of doing things to make things "easier".
I could go on forever so I'll end with summing this all up.......unless you live in the city near a major depot, this job will not provide you with enough work. If you don't mind just being an employee number and working like a robot, this is the job for you. Unfortunately that doesn't work for me but to each their own .


Depending on your position your day will start off usually around 8 am (I am term or "on call" so my day is 8-4) if you were lucky enough to get a call in the first place.

More than a few times I've come in, sat in the lunch room for 3 hours and was sent home with 3 hours pay due to "no work" which I do not believe to be true, there was always something to do if you looked hard enough.. also, you are assigned to work based on your seniority (your hire date) so if you're new like me, don't expect to work much.

If you were called in and got to work, your job consisted of gathering the mail from several different locations around the depot, sorting the mail into a case, then you had to sort flyers which, depending on your route and volume of flyers that day, could take anywhere from 15 minutes to 1.5 hours.  After that, you are responsible for gathering little packets and large parcels.  Typical volume will be around 35-40 packets and parcels per day, however some unlucky folk like myself have been on routes with more than 130 packages total.  This is not something I would wish on my worst enemy as a day like that leads to a lot of new people quitting.

Let's talk about Management.  Your supervisors, if you can call them that, basically walk around shouting at the top of their lungs, loving the sound of their own voices, chastising you for things you haven't even done yet or never will do.

Every day I have reported to Canada Post I have seen at minimum one or two interactions between workers and supervisors and it's normally a toxic exchange.  It seems like everybody is at each others throats for reasons I can't understand, nor do I care to.

If you apply for this job thinking it's going to be a piece of cake, you are dead wrong.  This was my mindset going it and it turned out to be one of the hardest jobs I have ever done.  

The hardest part of the job is the actual delivery part.  Your satchel is only supposed to carry 35lbs, or that's what they tell you. In reality you'll be holding closer to 50-60+lbs on your shoulders for hours at a time. This is only if you've got nothing but letters in your bag.  Packages are a whole different story. 

I would say the best part of the job is minimal supervision once you're actually out delivering your route, however the toxic atmosphere of the depot really doesn't make it a perk and instead you tell yourself  "thank God I'm not in that building anymore"

the pay is not worth the amount of stress and anxiety this company puts on you.

I just started as an Ocre (relief worker) I love it. It keeps me on my toes and my brain functioning and thinking. 
My co-workers are amazing, and the training is top notch. The hardest part of the job is the first couple of weeks of training. (Like any job or career) It is A LOT to absorb. It is not as physical as I thought it would be, which is great. (When someone is sick or plans a holiday, thats where I come in) I sort mail, oversized letters and parcels before I go on the route I am doing that day.  I suggest owning a mini van. (I know its uncool lol, but you will thank me for the suggestion come christmas time. You dont want to be going back to the main postoffice 2 to 3 times to collect the parcels you need to deliver that day. Everyone at work has one. I have a dodge Nitro which is 75 cubic ft with the seats down in the back. I would suggest 85 cubic ft. 
There was a ton of paper work and running around to get all my ducks in a row to be hired. The hiring process takes anywhere from 4-6 months, so be patient. Everyone starts out as an on-call relief worker. (OCRE) unless you have worked there before and you are hired internally and moving up the ladder.  So if you have another job that can be flexible with your OCRE hours, keep it until you are hired part or full time. (That will depend on what positions that will need filling at the post office you applied at) as an OCRE, you don't get benefits. But you will when you move up the ladder. 
There is a ton of online training for this job. It seems like it never ends. Luckily I got to work a few days in the post office to familiarize myself with all the lino and work with the hand held PDT machine so I understand the jargon and can relate that to my online training. 
Someone told me that an OCRE is paid more than a regular RSMC, because I don't get benefits. I am awaiting my first paycheck. Being able to drive around, listen to the birds, enjoy the sunshine and chat with people on the route is one of my favorite parts of my day. Usually you have 4 hours to sort before you go out and 4 hours to deliver. That is standard. My first day I was super slow and did a 12hour day. That is to be expected when I had no idea what I was doing. Everyone was super supportive and encouraging when I was beating myself up. They said, "hey, it's your first day. We're you perfect on your first day of any other job?"
I asked my co workers, "How long did it take for you to get comfortable and decent with your job, remembering everything?" Most said 6 months, some said a year. 

Supervisors experience cultural challenges that are NOT normal in any other work environment. If you're coming from the outside, progressive world, you will struggle. Management practices and day-to-day operational processes are archaic, inefficient, counterproductive, and lead to low employee morale and poor customer service. Your energy will be drained just trying to adjust and navigate.

Blunt rudeness, disrespect, nepotism and harassment toward Supervisors and amongst employees are experienced on a regular basis. You'll either be observing it or directly involved. You'll be told not to take it personally and to let it roll off you. One of the most common pieces of advice offered from all sides is to trust no one and keep your back to the wall. You will constantly question if you can, and should, put yourself through it. You'll be pushed to constantly feel like you need to defend yourself.

Management likes to blame the toxic environment on past military management styles but fails to look at their current practices that go hand-in-hand with the toxicity. This organization's culture has a direct, measurable impact on their frontline leaders' performance and the Supervisor turn-over rate is very high. It's simply not a sustainable role.

You'll be told that your workload will be over-structured, and you'll never be able to get everything done in a day, but will be negatively evaluated when you don't complete it all. Most times you will accomplish monumental amounts of work despite not having the tools, resources, and training to do it, but receive zero credit or recognition. You'll be made to feel unworthy of overtime because you "should" be able to get everything completed.

The messages regarding performance expectations are contradictory and confusing. Because of this, you should keep notes and document everything. You won't believe what kind of picture they might try to paint of you.

You will be expected to watch paint dry if your boss tells you, and never question their authority, even if they've given you a reason to.

This work environment and company culture are beyond challenging, it's an oppressive, aggressive, negative culture that's plagued with drama and chaos and the well-being of everyone and the company's future success is at stake.

Hands down the worst work experience of my life.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Mail carrier 20 salaries reported	$24.46 per hour
Office assistant 1 salary reported	$19.15 per hour
Adjoint 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour
Postal clerk 8 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Facteur 1 salary reported	$23.81 per hour

Working at Canada Post: company overview and reviews

Canada Post

Canada Post ratings

Popular jobs at Canada Post

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected