Philippa Stevenson: Spare a thought for the postie

A letter arrived from an old workmate the other day. What a delight: an invitation to a granddaughter's third birthday, beautifully created by her mother.

The inevitable bills aside, there's still nothing like the happy expectation of what the postie will provide each day.

But readers' comments on my recent experience of rural delivery (RD) drivers' daily battle with the mailboxes from hell confirm that many of us do little to ease the path of the people who provide these postal bright spots.

Nationwide, 537 RD owner-drivers each travel an average 93,000km a year on 23,000 roads to get the mail through to 197,000 rural boxholders.

If only a tenth of the boxes are dodgy - and my informal survey suggests the figure is higher - then nearly 20,000 boxes are lurking, ready to delay and frustrate the poor bod wrestling our post into them.

Add menacing dogs and speeding traffic to the hazards of poorly designed, badly maintained, ill-sited mailboxes and it's little wonder that "going postal" has come to mean that a person frustrated beyond endurance has reeked horrible revenge.

A Bay of Plenty RD driver showed my experience with a Waikato driver was not unique.

"For the past four or five years I've been a relief driver," he said.

"It sounds as if all runs must have the same problems - terrible boxes, ditches to negotiate and traffic up your bum on the main roads.

"Some are 'Arkwright' boxes - they have springs on the doors which slam shut before you can get the mail in them. Others are 'gorilla' boxes - they're so low that when the door flaps open you can't reach the bloody thing to shut it unless you have really long arms."

She found most customers nice people who loved to chat and "everyone waves to you" but the bonhomie is often tested on rubbish day.

"Why do they leave their week's supply of garbage against their boxes - to annoy the RD driver?"

A stinking pile beneath a box on her run means another postie hasn't delivered mail to one household on trash collection day for years. The practice has never brought a complaint but neither has it prompted the box owners to shift their garbage.

Perhaps, like dog lovers whose looks come to mirror their pets', box owners' attitudes are reflected in their boxes. One rubbish piler barely has a mail box worthy of the name.

Whatever box there once was has long been swamped by a mass of twisted ivy growing under, over and in the box, which now resembles a herbaceous Cousin It - the hairy relative of TV's Addams Family.

A city postie said her country cousins were not alone. "Delivery in Auckland suburbs can be as difficult and awkward due to householders neglecting their upkeep on boxes and not clearing the circulars."

And if you're in the business of making "quality letter boxes", said a manufacturer, you "cannot help when out driving but to look at the sad display of letterboxes both around town and in the countryside."

Unlike town dwellers, to whom NZ Post only makes suggestions on suitable box style, rural people sign a contract in which they agree to erect and maintain a box that meets certain specifications.

One glance at the generous requirements shows they are widely ignored.

If drivers are unhappy with a box they can drop off a card spelling out what's required and urging the owner to "help your rural post owner-driver safely deliver and uplift your mail".

If that fails, a NZ Post rural contract manager can call.

If there is still no change, mail delivery is halted. NZ Post says most cases are resolved after the manager calls and mail is rarely stopped.

NZ Post staff also travel on RD runs around every three years observing, in part, the state of boxes.

The company has no figures on how many boxes are improved as a result of the audits or the dispute process.

In a tough market hit by email and competitors, NZ Post could be excused for not wanting to anger its customers by harassing them about the state of their mailboxes.

"The main concern of NZ Post is to make sure the mail is delivered to our customers on time and in the best possible condition," the company said.

"We will only make contact with a customer in regards to their mailbox in exceptional circumstances, where either the condition of the mailbox is inhibiting the delivery of mail, or is threatening the health and safety of our posties," the company said.

So, it's up to us. We owe the postie more than a friendly wave for keeping us in contact with precious family and long-lost friends.

We owe them a decent letterbox.