I got a DM on Discord this week from a user asking for information on Flex Delivery from Canada Post and I explained many things and in the end, I realized I have a lot of information on that subject and I never saw a post specifically addressing this subject. So here goes, hope that helps someone.

What is Flex Delivery?

Flex Delivery is a free virtual PO Box service offered to all Canadian residents. You register a virtual mail box (tied to a physical CP location, including the tiny postal counters, Shopper's mart, etc) and you can use that address to have parcels (and now letters, since recently) delivered to that CP location, under your name.

What are the advantages of Flex Delivery over having packages delivered straight to my door or community mailbox?

1. You skip one of the middleman, namely the truck driver. While in itself it's not a huge thing, there are side-advantages to this and well, it's one less pair of hands on your package.
2. You will never risk getting your package stolen by a neighbor, co-worker or anyone that could receive the package in your name (legally or fraudulently).
3. You do not have to divulge your real address to strangers on the internet when having packages delivered, reducing greatly the impact of a data leak from whoever you deal with.
4. Community mailboxes are considered safe by a lot of people, but there are many issues that can arise with those. For instance, it's fairly frequent they have to use the bigger compartment with a key and I've often had them put the key in the wrong box. This can take several days to fix itself (or forever if you have a sneaky neighbor). Also when that bigger compartment is already loaded, I've had CP do a safe drop at my home door, despite the package being labeled as "no safe drop" AND despite new regulations at CP banning safe drops.
5. Most of the time the package will arrive faster. In my case, the package will arrive in my city in the very early hours (4-5am) and then make it to my Flex location by 10am. My mailman would drop stuff between noon and 5pm, someones even keeping packages overnight and dropping them the next day. With Flex, if I see the package in my city I can go straight to the post office at 10am and ask for my pack even if it didn't update yet. Most of the time they scan later than that because they do that on their free time, not a priority.
6. Never, ever is my wife or kids going to mistakenly open a package that's not destined to them.
7. When they do scan the package at your flex, they will send you an email to let you know something arrived at your flex. THIS INCLUDES NON-TRACKED ITEMS, which is really nice.
8. You can register as many Flex locations as you want. Have one near your work, one near your cabin, one near your home and one near your wife's work. This way when you order something you can send it exactly where you planed it would be easier to get it.
9. You can setup a temporary Flex location where you are on vacation within Canada. Whether at an hotel, friends, family, camping, air b&b, you can order your medication to where you are planing to be at the time.

There are a few important things to know:

1. Unless the shipper has a deal with CP, you can only order CP items, ruling out FedEx, Puro, etc. I *think* they have a deal with Amazon, but you should inquire before giving out your Flex to a place that only ships with non-CP options.
2. Letters were not allowed/processed and were returned to sender until earlier this year. It's entirely possible your Flex location employee didn't get the formation or half-paid attention so there's a chance, for plain letters, that stuff can be returned to sender.
3. Smelly packages are typically either returned to sender or destroyed, so make sure the package doesn't smell. CP now sells smell-proof envelopes which are semi-effective but they'll let those pass.
4. You can legally give 1oz of weed to a friend under the new Canadian cannabis law. This applies to all packages, if you go over that amount, you risk breaking the law so if the package is somehow intercepted and big enough to warrant a call to the police, you can get in trouble.

Registering a Flex Address only takes a minute and can be done online:
https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/person ... ivery.page

Most experienced MOM clients will agree that there's no reason NOT to use Flex, it's truly a good tool for us.

Feel free to reply with questions or additional info/corrections, I'll update the post.

Mods/Admins: Maybe sticky this?

back in the day they used to use the post office for warrants and for arrests ,seems to familiar there ,so I'll continue to receive my products to my door that way since the amount you possess in your dwelling isn't regulated as long as your in your place they would have nothing...

realgrimm wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:14 am back in the day they used to use the post office for warrants and for arrests ,seems to familiar there ,so I'll continue to receive my products to my door that way since the amount you possess in your dwelling isn't regulated as long as your in your place they would have nothing...

Never heard of this. AFAIK a package that isn't opened requires a federal level warrant to seize and open unless it's stinky. Plus, it would just have more chances to be seized if you shipped it home because there's 1 more CP employee putting his hands on the package.

So long as you have 1 oz left it's technically legit under current law unless it comes with an invoice.

A package that's being handled by Canada Post requires the warrant, but once delivered it's no longer considered to be mail.

JimB wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 3:07 pm A package that's being handled by Canada Post requires the warrant, but once delivered it's no longer considered to be mail.

When is a package considered delivered in the context of Flex or your home address?

Flex - once it's in your hands.
Home - once it's out of the deliver driver's hands.