Rural mail?

[cowman]

About a year ago Canada Post decided to go with employees to deliver the mail rather than a contract system, in my area? To say the service is NOT better...would be an understatement!
I think we are on our third employee in the last year.
The old "contractor" had the route for several years and because he was a local knew all the ins and outs of who was who! The employees come from the city and don't stay around long enough to get to know anything!
This last girl decided all the mail boxes needed to be moved to the other side of the road for "safety reasons"? I guess she didn't like being parked on the wrong side of the road while she threw the mail in the box? Now sh

[cowman]

Not quite sure what happened there but whatever!
Anyway now this girl parks on the right side of the road and walks around the car to put the mail in the box. I guess she gets to log in a few more hours that way?
I had no problem moving my box as it is welded on a pipe and old heavy truck tire, but some people were kind of mad they had to move theirs!
Now the snowplow operator is complaining that they put the posts to close to the road!
I guess this is a case of the "rules" being applied and never mind common sense and something that worked for 50 years?

[coppertop]

The mail boxes are a mile and a half down the road from here, they have been knocked into the ditch more than once because they sit right on the edge of the road. I decided to pay the price and continue to get my mail in town.

[carebear300]

I can't imagine that in this day and age that rural mail delivery is available at all. I am sure that everybody goes to town often enough that the need for the service is not necessary. I have gotten along without it all my life and managed to survive quite nicely.

[coppertop]

carebear it is a good service for those folks who don't want to drive to town often. In our area the post office is so small that there is a two year waiting list for a post box, and that means either getting your mail in rural delivery or town delivery if you live in town, or only being able to pick up your mail during hours when general delivery is open. I am charged $120.00 anually to keep my post box at the post office because rural mail delivery is available within two miles of my home.

[cowman]

Well Carebear, I actually agree with you. It really is an antiquated service that should go the way of the dinosaur!
Apparently the Harper government tried shutting it down in some areas but the squawking made them backtrack fairly fast! Maybe they figure if they let Canada Post employees take over people will get sick of the cruddy union service and be open to change!
I think a lot of old people like rural delivery and count on it?

[coppertop]

For those who get mail at their gate, it is an excellent service. Anyone having to drive a few miles to pick up their mail from the super boxes aren't really getting much better service than driving a bit further to town, or the closest hamlet. On a day like today with most roads drifted in, I doubt if the Canada Post mail delivery will get done !!!

[cakadu]

If you cannot get a post box in town and have to rely on getting your mail through general delivery, then you are forced to go during business hours, whatever those might be. Not exactly convenient if you happen to be working business hours as well. There is no picking your mail up on the weekend because the post office is generally not open on the weekend.

The super box at the end of the road is likely the compromise.

Cowman, the young lass delivering your mail is doing it on a tender basis and I'm sure that in many cases it is the lowest bidder that gets the contract. Instead of weaving back and forth across the road, she may be wanting all the boxes on one side in order to make the job go a little quicker and with less hassle. Don't know for sure - just a guess.

[coppertop]

At the hamlet five miles down the road over 150 people get their mail from the superboxes. They were put in place when the post office in the general store closed. It is great for the store owners, because people drop in and shop for items they would likely get in town when they pick up their mail. I go to town several times per week, and never need to travel on the road where the super box is, so it would mean a special trip to pick up my mail, which is just one of the reasons I chose to continue to get it in town.

[grassfarmer]

We get ours delivered to the end of the drive by a tender operative. Excellent service that saves us driving 12 miles to town, use it to post a lot of letters as well as collect them. Quite primitive by UK standards - there we got rural delivery 6 days a week instead of 3 here. It is good enough though as important stuff can go by fax or email nowadays. I reckon with postage rates continually increasing they should be delivering them to you - not to the nearest town. The driver has only got stuck in a snowbank twice in the 6 years I've known her - a while back and then again today!

[coppertop]

When I was growing up we got our mail at the little post office half a mile down the road, then we went to a Rural Route and got the mail at our gate.

The placing of rural super boxes was done by someone at Canada Post who knew nothing about travel routes etc.

Some of my neighbours drive five miles out of their way to pick up their mail which makes no sense. We were told originally that placement was dependent on denseness of population in specific areas.

[cowman]

Actually on the route I'm on the mail person is an employee of Canada Post...not a tender? They changed that system about a year ago out here?
Now for me personally, rural mail delivery is not a big deal but then I'm not all that far from town and usually someone is in town every day or so. A lot of this route is the big green communal boxes but we have our own box, have to drive about one quarter mile, five days a week.
About 5 years ago I got sick of the snowplow knocking it down in the winter so put it on a heavey truck rim? Now he can plow it over and you just set it back up! About three years ago I loaded it up in the front end loader and brazed up all the bullet holes and re painted it. Same mail box since 1946...they built them stout back then!