Canada Post has given its assurances that recent mail delivery delays will improve, and explained the company has bulked up its workforce as the holiday season approaches.

Canada Post was responding to an inquiry from Masthead following some complaints in the publishing industry that magazines were taking up to two weeks or more to reach their end destinations.

"We've had some recent challenges in our service, but we believe we've put in place the right mechanism to ensure delivery according to our standards," said Canada Post spokesperson Anick Losier in an email.

She said publishers' complaints about long delivery times are taken "very seriously ... we're working very hard to improve our service and meet our customers' expectations.

"We are a business in transition — as we're changing our infrastructure, our processes and even the way we deliver the mail. This doesn't come without its challenges and our goal is to go through it with minimal impact to our customers."

A release from Canada Post states the company will employ 2,400 additional workers to help with the increased mail volumes during the busy season.

The National Association of Major Mail Users (NAMMU) has been keeping tabs on Canada Post's performance, as well as Canada Post pricing adjustments coming into effect January 2012. "We are optimistic that the January 2012 pricing can be overcome with mail use incentives implemented quickly in collaboration with mailers," said Kathleen Rowe, NAMMU president. "However, the real fix, according to the mail industry, needs to be in the product delivery performance, reasserting reliable, consistent mail delivery to business and consumers, as a core value. NAMMU members have been and will continue to share their delivery performance results with Canada Post. They now expect to see a very positive impact, and we have received Canada Post's assurance that they will."