Shipping with Canada Post

J

Jimmy_grayson

CGN Regular
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Location
SK
For those of you who move rifles frequently, what is the best way to pack and ship rifles since the new regulations? Do I need the canada post small business account even if I'm not selling as part of a business?
 
"best way to pack" - if you have not been in a CP plant - is conveyors and tubs and usually concrete floors - packages roll, get smacked against each other, drop into tubs. So pack it as you want, then toss across your garage into wall and let land on the floor - that is likely what is going to happen to it in transit - so pack for that - multiple layer cardboard minimum so the muzzle can not poke through end of box, bolt removed, and padded up, etc. I prefer to send and receive with the scope removed and the barrelled action removed from the stock - each wrapped and padded separately - do not want stuff "jiggling" inside. Assume the buddy at the big city plant that your parcel is going through does not care one bit what is in there - is up to you to pack it for "disaster" - he or she is not likely to be "handling it carefully".

Can not really do much if it is going to get a forklift driven over it - as pictures posted have shown occurred - but for some really heavy iron pieces that I mailed, I did make a plywood crate to hold them. I received some parts from Numrich (or maybe Brownells?) in USA - one larger heavier piece and many small ones - loose in a cardboard box - that big heavy piece pretty much did a number inside to the other parts and to the side of that box - from inside, because it could move - and the container was obviously "roughly handled" somewhere among USPS, Canada Customs and Canada Post.

Despite what you might read in other threads, after 700 or so transactions on this site, buying and selling - CP has managed to get 100% of the parcels to me or to the buyer. Is up to the sender to pack and pad well - about worst was a seller who sent picture to me of a rifle wrapped in gift wrap tissue paper - was going to mail to me like that - I suggested to at least get a cardboard container - is what I received - that tissue wrapped rifle in a former flower delivery cardboard box. Rifle was serviceable - I do not remember which it was - but more luck than good planning in that one coming through in one piece.

By the way - those "new regulations" that you refer to are coming up about 2 years old, or so. Not sure that the need for substantial packing has really ever changed.
 
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I’ve been scouring the sites like kijiji and ####### looking for cheap plastic “hard” rifle cases for the purpose of mailing rifles when I sell them. Then I source long closet door cardboard from friend doing renovations, then i custom fit that corrugated cardboard around that inexpensive Doskocil like hard case.

Sturdy and also discrete. What is not to like? :eek:

Peace Be The Journey!

Cheers, Barney
 
Hungry said:
I’ve been scouring the sites like kijiji and ####### looking for cheap plastic “hard” rifle cases for the purpose of mailing rifles when I sell them. Then I source long closet door cardboard from friend doing renovations, then i custom fit that corrugated cardboard around that inexpensive Doskocil like hard case.

Sturdy and also discrete. What is not to like? :eek:

Peace Be The Journey!

Cheers, Barney
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I've always sourced good cardboard & closed cell foam from hardware and computer store dumpsters. I'd then fab up heavy duty boxes using glue & re enforced tape to bind everything up super snug before putting the outer brown wrap & labeling on, followed with clear packing tape to protect the labels & ends of theboxes.

I give packages a rigorous shake & 4ft drop test to check for any looseness before sending them out. Knock wood, me sent items made it to buyers without any damage from shipping.
My local postal folks like my packaging. ;)
 
There is nothing new about the regs, they have always been this. Unless you are refuring to the covid scraed of a signature thing

Shawn
 
Klondiker said:
Ok, so a firearm now has to be shipped in a hard side lockable container, and the gun also has to trigger locked as well where it didn't before? If you're selling a gun that has the original box does that box have to be shipped to the new buyer empty as an additional package?
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This does not seem to apply to businesses or is not "enforced" by CP.
 
Klondiker said:
Ok, so a firearm now has to be shipped in a hard side lockable container, and the gun also has to trigger locked as well where it didn't before? If you're selling a gun that has the original box does that box have to be shipped to the new buyer empty as an additional package?
Click to expand...

I do not know - maybe some senders make their own problems? In past two years, I have received several boxes from TradeEx and from Cabela's - I have no clue what they told Canada Post might be in those boxes. I have also received and sent at least several dozen other boxes to and from people on CGN - I do not know what they said on their end, but every single time that I took a SnapShip package to the local Post Office, was never one question from them what was in the box. If I had not prepared the parcel with a SnapShip label, every time I get asked if I am shipping Dangerous Goods - the answer is "Yes" or "No" - I key the answer into that little payment machine - has never been any other question, nor would it be answered. Some of those boxes contained rifles. Many did not. I presume that some Postal facilities may have the capacity to scan parcels - like airlines do at security check-in for carry on - but I have never found that out for sure - is definite that our local Post Office does not have that.

In 1980's (?) I remember ordering from SIR catalogue in Winnipeg - as per the "rules" then, we had to mail our FAC card with our paper order form and the payment. That card would be in the box with the order that we received some weeks later. Seemed pretty simple - do it and get your order - or don't do it and then do without - up to the buyer, I guess.

Perhaps four or five years ago - before Canada Post's "new rules" - I received a rifle by mail in a plastic "hard case" that was closed with zip ties at each locking point around the perimeter - as I recall, my mailing address and sender's return address were on a card or paper that was taped on outside of that case - it came by mail from Ontario. Other than that, every other rifle that I received or sent has been in a plain cardboard box - with reams of tape holding it closed and nothing on exterior to indicate what the contents might be, except perhaps the name of the sender on the return address.

Some CGN posters have claimed that there is "different rules" for a commercial entity than for us "normal" Canada Post customers. I have seen no evidence of that at all. Many of the rifles that I receive or send from CGN people are dismantled or partially dismantled - to what, exactly, is a "trigger lock" to be attached when the trigger is on one component in the parcel, and the trigger guard is on another component? I did receive a rifle from Cabelas with a trigger lock - the key was taped to inside flap of that cardboard box - I suspect that made someone feel all warm and fuzzy and safe - was a waste of time and cost, so far as I was concerned.

Perhaps is what I have been "getting away with" versus what some rules might say. What would I know??
 
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I've never quite understood the "resistance" to creating a Snap Ship account? they really don't ask for anything more or less than say Amazon. The ability to make my own labels and package the firearms at home and get a "home pickup" for an additional $3 appeals to me, and it's about the only time CP has been "on time" LOL. I have shipped a few rifles, and simply get a "cheap" Cdn Tire case (whatever that is at the time) and either add that to the total cost? or bear the cost out of my bottom line, the same goes with the trigger lock, over the yrs most if not all pistols came with a cable lock, so they get re-purposed. Once you do it a few times, new regulations or not, it's pretty simple and painless IMO. YMMV
 
Potashminer said:
I do not know - maybe some senders make their own problems? In past two years, I have received several boxes from TradeEx and from Cabela's - I have no clue what they told Canada Post might be in those boxes. I have also received and sent at least several dozen other boxes to and from people on CGN - I do not know what they said on their end, but every single time that I took a SnapShip package to the local Post Office, was never one question from them what was in the box. If I had not prepared the parcel with a SnapShip label, every time I get asked if I am shipping Dangerous Goods - the answer is "Yes" or "No" - I key the answer into that little payment machine - has never been any other question, nor would it be answered. Some of those boxes contained rifles. Many did not. I presume that some Postal facilities may have the capacity to scan parcels - like airlines do at security check-in for carry on - but I have never found that out for sure - is definite that our local Post Office does not have that.

In 1980's (?) I remember ordering from SIR catalogue in Winnipeg - as per the "rules" then, we had to mail our FAC card with our paper order form and the payment. That card would be in the box with the order that we received some weeks later. Seemed pretty simple - do it and get your order - or don't do it and then do without - up to the buyer, I guess.

Perhaps four or five years ago - before Canada Post's "new rules" - I received a rifle by mail in a plastic "hard case" that was closed with zip ties at each locking point around the perimeter - as I recall, my mailing address and sender's return address were on a card or paper that was taped on outside of that case - it came by mail from Ontario. Other than that, every other rifle that I received or sent has been in a plain cardboard box - with reams of tape holding it closed and nothing on exterior to indicate what the contents might be, except perhaps the name of the sender on the return address.

Some CGN posters have claimed that there is "different rules" for a commercial entity than for us "normal" Canada Post customers. I have seen no evidence of that at all. Many of the rifles that I receive or send from CGN people are dismantled or partially dismantled - to what, exactly, is a "trigger lock" to be attached when the trigger is on one component in the parcel, and the trigger guard is on another component? I did receive a rifle from Cabelas with a trigger lock - the key was taped to inside flap of that cardboard box - I suspect that made someone feel all warm and fuzzy and safe - was a waste of time and cost, so far as I was concerned.

Perhaps is what I have been "getting away with" versus what some rules might say. What would I know??
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There are no NEW RULES only the addition of the business account requirement and yes commercial accounts are different
From 2009 but goes back further than this
Why lately people now think they need a plastic case is beyond me. Original box and brown wrap is still acceptable per my post master this morning unless you can see through it I can't

2009

Please contact the Canadian Firearms Centre at cfc-cafc.gc.ca or by calling 1.800.731.4000 to determine whether it is permissible to ship your firearms.

When it is determined permissible to ship firearms, they must be shipped as follows:

Non-contract Customer - Regular Parcel with Signature option.

Contract Customer - Expedited Parcel with the Proof of Age (18 or 19) option using EST. Visit section 4.3.2 “Mail Addressed to Children” of “Policies” for an age of majority by province or territory listing.

There cannot be any ammunition in the firearm or in the package. Bullets, cartridges and other ammunition are dangerous goods and cannot be mailed. These items fall under Class 1 (Explosives) of the Canadian Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and Regulations.


Customers who wish to ship firearms must:
unload the firearms
attach a secure locking device to the firearms
lock the firearms in a sturdy, non-transparent container, and
remove the bolt or bolt carrier from any automatic firearms (if removable).
 
I just spent some time on Canada Post site, looking through various policies, etc. - and am more confused now than when I started. It appears that a "Contract Customer" - has a Parcel Services Agreement. So, is someone who holds a Solutions For Small Business account, as required to use "Snap Ship", a "contract customer"? - I could not find a "yes" or "no" answer to that - is not at all clear to me. Does anyone here know?? Where does it say so, one way or the other? With SFSB account, Regular Parcel and Expedited Parcel are the same cost - why would I be given that choice, if I must use different class of mailing, for different products?
 
Potashminer said:
I just spent some time on Canada Post site, looking through various policies, etc. - and am more confused now than when I started. It appears that a "Contract Customer" - has a Parcel Services Agreement. So, is someone who holds a Solutions For Small Business account, as required to use "Snap Ship", a "contract customer"? - I could not find a "yes" or "no" answer to that - is not at all clear to me. Does anyone here know?? Where does it say so, one way or the other? With SFSB account, Regular Parcel and Expedited Parcel are the same cost - why would I be given that choice, if I must use different class of mailing, for different products?
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No small business is not the same but yes classed as a contract customer. Confusing for sure
Then again I am only going by the fact we have both one in the family business ( volume based ) for many years and the other I formed for shipping firearms maybe 2 years ago

Have never tried to ship a firearm through the business and never will since it is not mine any more


You should always have the choice except firearms they tell you how it has to be shipped no exceptions if just an average joe small business no idea why. Maybe one of the business owners here could chime in a clarify with respect to firearms
Cheers
as you know they say this online

How do I get a customer number for my business?
A customer number gives you access to our shipping tools and to lower postage rates. There are 2 ways to get a customer number for your business:

Sign a volume-based contract
If you plan to ship at least 1,250 domestic parcels a year or 100 international parcels, you may qualify for volume discounts. To apply, call us at 1-866-757-5480.

Join Solutions for Small Business
We have a small business program designed specifically with you in mind. Save on parcel shipments and direct mail to your customers. Canada Post Solutions for Small Business™ membership is free with no hidden fees.
 
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What is now called Solution For Small Business, used to be called Venture One by Canada Post - is likely 20 years since I got the Venture One account - they simply sent me a new SFSB card when they changed the name. Has been so long, I simply do not remember what forms were required then - was all done at the counter of a Post Office in small town Saskatchewan - I think - was at the suggestion of the clerk, because of the number of parcels that I had been mailing, then.
 
Potashminer said:
What is now called Solution For Small Business, used to be called Venture One by Canada Post - is likely 20 years since I got the Venture One account - they simply sent me a new SFSB card when they changed the name. Has been so long, I simply do not remember what forms were required then - was all done at the counter of a Post Office in small town Saskatchewan - at suggestion of the clerk, because of the number of parcels that I had been mailing then.
Click to expand...

yep remember it well but with the business account at the time had no need for one so even the post office gave some 12(x) LOL and grandfathered them in :)
 
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