Rural mailboxes require safety stamp of approval to stand

BY CHRISTY MARSTERS

NovaNewsNow.com

Bob Williams lives at Chipman’s Corner north of Kentville and he has enjoyed rural mail delivery since it came by horse and buggy. It’s a service he’d like to see stay.

There’s a fear, with the advent of a rural mail delivery review undertaken recently by Canada Post, that such service is on the way out.

“I have no idea why they’re doing this now,” Williams said. “It seems like a move to discontinue the service.”

There are some busy roads out there, which should be checked for safety, Williams noted. “I’d just be disappointed if I couldn’t keep using the service because I like that my mail is delivered to me. I wouldn’t like to have to travel to get it.”

However, a mandatory mailbox assessment may force some to travel further for their mail.

Canada Post has begun a review of 843,000 rural mailboxes across the country as safety standards such as sight distances, vehicle speeds, positions of mail carrier vehicles on roads, double centrelines and locations of mailboxes are considered.

The national assessment, to this point, reflects that 30 per cent of customers have to change delivery modes. The routes checked have been reviewed based on priority rankings where those areas of higher risk are looked at first. Thus, numbers are expected to change dramatically in terms of rural delivery as the project unfolds.

More than 1,300 complaints from employees

Tinna Bonner, with communications for Canada Post, says rural areas are changing geographically because of population growth and something has to be done to ensure the safety of employees working to deliver the mail.

The review was a direct result of more than 1,300 complaints from employees along with 40 safety-related decisions from Labour Canada officers, Bonner said. “However, our main goal is to keep as many boxes in service as possible.”

Canada Post plans to have representatives go door-to-door and meet with customers so they understand why their mailboxes failed, along with what other options are available, Bonner said. “We’re trying to be as open as we can.”

Mail courier Brian Tupper, who works in Port Williams, says the rural safety review is a good idea because although most of the boxes on his route seem pretty safe, there are a few too close to the side of the road in some places.

“The service is great and people are very lucky to have the mail delivered right to them,” Tupper said. “Especially since the rural population is aging and it would be harder for them to get the mail. I can’t see them getting rid of the service because of what it would cost them. The rural route is a better offer.”