Thing: Mailboxes, etc.

>> A look at the linchpins of the snail-mail system
by PHILIP PREVILLE

If some guy invented the idea of a postal system today, he'd get laughed out of town. Think about it: a system that requires oodles of unskilled labour, costs 46 cents every time you use it (more if you send something across the border), and will deliver your hand-scrawled note from one end of the country to the other within five days.

Yawn. Dozens of late-20th-century technological advances were seemingly invented for no other reason than to beat the posties at their own game--everything from courier services to e-mail to on-line bill payment. Buying stamps is just so yesteryear. And yet the postal system soldiers on, with the red letter boxes as its street-corner sentries.

There are 936,000 "points of entry" into the Canada Post system, including post offices, community mailboxes and, of course, the standard letter boxes. On the Island of Montreal, there are 2,300 red letter boxes in all. It's Canada Post's policy that Canadians should not have to make a round trip of more than one kilometre (!) to and from the nearest mailbox.

Despite all the technology, Canada Post has yet to feel the pinch. In the last 20 years, the volume of mail handled by Canada Post has increased by 45.3 per cent: they delivered (or tried to deliver) over 9 billion pieces of mail last year alone. Locally, those 2,300 mailboxes collect about 1.8 million letters per day--an average of 782 letters each.

For some, mailboxes are ideal places to scrawl graffiti or publicize a gig. Which begs the question: why hasn't Canada Post started renting out all that prime space to advertisers? Answer: they've thought about it, and about turning them into community billboards. "We won't be making a decision in the short term, but anything is possible at this point," says spokesperson Line Brien. In the meantime, Canada Post spends $60,000 a year cleaning mailboxes and is a charter member of Mayor Bourque's graffiti task force.

A standard red letter box costs $323.27 and weighs 150 pounds; they pour an extra 150 pounds of sand into the base as protection against strong winds and as a deterrent to vandals.

Final factoid: Though Canada Post hasn't yet felt the sting of the Internet, they're preparing for their mail volumes to drop considerably within the next 10 years. But the mailman's job will only get harder: their bags will be filled with all the books, CDs, and other knickknacks that people order over the Web. :