If the package you're sending by Canada Post is large but light, you could end up paying a lot more postage than you expected.
This happened to a lady who came to one of my talks on mailing.
One Christmas, she decided to have some fun with her niece in Europe by sending her a tiny gift in a huge box filled mostly with foam peanuts.
It weighed next to nothing, but the aunt ended up paying nearly $150 in postage.
(She would've taken everything home and repackaged the gift if it hadn't been too late.
) It was an expensive way to learn that weight isn't the only thing Canada Post considers when it charges postage.
Many Canadians aren't aware that the Postal Guide says, "Volumetric weight is charged when items of any shape are large in size and light in weight.
The shipping price is based on the greater of the volumetric weight or the actual weight.
" What is volumetric weight? It's simply the length times the width times the height of the package, divided by a "cubing factor" - 6,000 if you're using metric, 166 for pounds.
The Postal Guide gives an example of a package that weighs 22.
7 kilos and measures 100 by 60 by 40 centimetres.
This brings the volumetric weight up to 40 kilos.
As of this writing, mailing a regular parcel like that from BC to Newfoundland costs $72.
86.
(You probably don't want to know how much it costs by Xpresspost, let alone Priority.
) A package half that size, but the same weight, costs $48.
96 to make the same trip.
It's still not cheap, but the difference between the two rates is enough to let you buy at least one more gift for someone.
So save the joke boxes full of foam peanuts for a time when you can deliver them yourself.
They're probably more fun, anyway, when you can be there to watch the lucky recipient open them.
Pack your gifts into a small space and save your money.
To read more about the rules on volumetric weight, visit the Canada Post site [http://www.
canadapost.
ca/tools/PG/manual/PGabcmail-e.
asp#1378864]