Marc Lefebvre, the underwriting coordinator at the
Insurance Bureau of Canada, loves to share the story of how Canada Post rebranded Express Post as Registered Mail USA – and how it earned him the nickname the ‘Postmaster General of Insurance.’
It begins back in January, when Canada Post announced it was temporarily suspending registered mail service to the United States, forcing insurers to find alternate methods for cancelling policies of insurance mid-term, where the insured’s mailing address was in the United States.
“Needless to say this had an immediate impact on Canadian insurers,” says Lefebvre, “[They] would be unable to fulfill the termination requirements, as prescribed in the respective Provincial Insurance Acts, to communicate with insureds, additional insureds and interested parties (lessors, lienholders or mortgage holders) of Notice or Termination.”
For Lefebvre, the obvious next step was to contact the mandarins at Canada Post in Ottawa.
“Once I was able to speak to the right people at CP in Ottawa, I was able to help them understand the impact of this change in service to Canadian insurers,” Lefebvre told Insurance Business. “As it was explained to me, CP audits of Registered Mail to the U.S.A., it was determined that the U.S. Postal Service simply put foreign registered mail into First Class mail delivery stream.”
So Lefebvre moved on to the director of international products at Canada Post, Michael Poirier, to find a solution – and so Registered Mail USA was born.
“Ultimately, Express Post was rebranded as Registered Mail USA,” he says, which actually has enhanced service to Canadian insurers by allowing for volume discounts, faster delivery (two to three days) and on-line tracking.
“Which were not available under the old Registered Mail routine to the United States,” says Lefebvre. “Now they call me the Postmaster General of Insurance.”
