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 are typically desc ...

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 Rural Free Delivery (RFD), since 1906 officially rural delivery, is a program of the United States Post Office Department to deliver mail directly to rural destinations. The program began in the late 19th century. Before that, people living in ru ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the rural route system in Canada, and the Rural Mail Box addressing system in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Because of the differences in the handling and delivery of mail in rural areas, rural letter carriers often follow different regulatory standards from 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 considered employees of

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (, trading as Canada Post (), is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office Department of the Can ...

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 ''Ci ...

'', February 24, 1989.

References

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

See also

References