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 ...

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 descri ...

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 Centralized mail delivery is a unique form of mail delivery system where a letter carrier provides delivery and collection services to a number of residences from a centrally located installation – whether in a single-family subdivision or multi- ...

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 Rural Free Delivery (RFD) was a program of the United States Post Office Department that began in the late 19th century to deliver mail directly to rural destinations. Previously, individuals living in remote homesteads had to pick up mail themsel ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the rural route system in Canada, and the

Rural Mail Box A Roadside Mail Box or RMB is an artificial address that is created by Australia Post to deliver mail to a rural or remote location. The RMB address allows a sender or recipient of mail to succinctly specify the mail's destination. Without the RM ...

addressing system in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Because of the differences in the handling and delivery of mail in rural areas,

rural letter carrier Rural letter carriers are United States Postal Service and Canada Post employees who deliver mail in what are traditionally considered rural and suburban areas of the United States and Canada. Before Rural Free Delivery (RFD), rural Americans a ...

s 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 corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...

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 (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'', February 24, 1989.

References

Postal systems Postal services Delivery Service Delivery Service {{postal-stub

See also

References