Rural delivery service refers to services for the delivery of
mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...
to
rural area
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are des ...
s.
In many countries, rural mail delivery follows different rules and practices from that in urban areas. For example, in some areas rural delivery may require homeowners to travel to a
centralized mail delivery depot or a community mailbox rather than being directly served by a door-to-door mail carrier; and even if direct door-to-door delivery is offered, houses still may even not have their own unique mailing addresses at all, but an entire road instead may be assigned a single common address, such as a rural route number.
Examples include
Rural Free Delivery in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
, the rural route system in Canada, and the
Rural Mail Box addressing system in
Australia.
Because of the differences in the handling and delivery of mail in rural areas,
rural letter carriers often follow different regulatory standards than urban postal workers; for example, rural postal delivery workers may not be required to wear a uniform and may be allowed to use their own vehicles rather than driving a postal truck. In Canada, rural letter carriers were for many years not even considered employees of
Canada Post
Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation that functions as the primary Postal administration, postal operator in Canada ...
but private contractors.
["Canada Post contract changes have rural mail carriers worried". '']Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The newsp ...
'', February 24, 1989.
See also
*
List of postal entities
*
Timeline of postal history
*
Rural Internet
Rural Internet describes the characteristics of Internet service in rural areas (also referred to as "the country" or "countryside"), which are settled places outside towns and cities. Inhabitants live in villages, hamlets, on farms and in other ...
References
Postal systems
Postal services
Delivery Service
Delivery Service
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