A quick look at the changes at Canada Post due to e-commerce growth

OTTAWA – Canada Post and the union representing postal workers are continuing negotiations to avert a labour dispute. Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton says the company has not given the required 72 hours notice of a lockout, nor has the union given notice of any job action.

Here are five things to know about how e-commerce is changing Canada Post as businesses and people send more packages but fewer letters:

Revenue: Canada Post Corp.’s revenue from operations, which includes Canada Post, Purolator and SCI Group, totalled just over $8 billion in 2015, up from $7.98 billion in 2014, helped by the parcel business.

Overall volume down: Canada Post delivered 8.9 billion parcels, letters and messages last year, down from over 9.1 billion in 2014.

Packages vs. Letters: Parcel volume grew by 9.7 per cent, or 16 million pieces, compared with 2014. Meanwhile, the volume of what Canada Post calls transaction mail fell by 6.1 per cent, or 239 million pieces last year.

Market share: According to Canada Post, nearly two out of three parcels that Canadians order online are delivered by the post office.

New services: Last year Canada Post added Montreal as the third city where customers could receive same-day delivery of online orders from select sellers. The service was launched in the Greater Toronto area in 2013 and expanded to Vancouver in 2014.