During the afternoon of June 18th, 2009 a vehicle with a flashing light on its roof and containing thee men rolled into my driveway; the men were employees of Canada Post and they preceded to tell me that I had fifteen days in which to move my mail box to a proscribed location marked about sixty yards to the east of its present location.

The reason given was that the Canada Post Corporation was concerned for the safety of its mail delivery people and considered the present location of my mailbox a potential hazard.

That mailbox has been in that location for more than fifty years, except for one occasion in1982 when another employee of the postal service measured the height of my mailbox from the ground and found it to be 41inches rather than the required 42 inches and four inches too far from the roadway. The height discrepancy was probably due to subsidence after many years in the ground. To accommodate the Corporation I dutifully removed the post, bored another hole and carefully replaced the mailbox to the height and location demanded.

This new requirement has me puzzled; for the past half century, in its present location, there has never been an accident or even a close call and no mail delivery person has ever voiced a concern about the potential for an accident because of its location.

During May of this year a traffic count was made on this side road for about a week. During that period there was an accident on highway 10 and traffic was diverted down this side road. The traffic count must have included the numbers of vehicles diverted and the full usage by local people over a 24 hour day. The mail delivery is usually between 11am and 12 noon when the traffic is at its lightest.

Furthermore, traffic on this side road has not increased appreciably for the past 50years because there has been no new construction along its alignment. Most of the existing properties are either farms or estate properties. My mail box is at the foot of my driveway and about a fifty yard walk from my house. The new location demanded by Canada Post will place the mailbox about anther sixty yards to the east making access difficult and dangerous in that to reach it, especially in winter time, requires a walk for a considerable distance along the ice and snow covered gravel side road thus placing me in a dangerous situation.

My neighbour also must relocate his mailbox from its existing spot at the head of his driveway 22 feet to the east on the traveled road, in its present spot he drives to the mail box and while still in his driveway retrieves his mail. Now he will have to drive on to the road, stop his car, exit the vehicle, walk across the road to the mailbox, retrieve the mail and walk back across the road and into his car. If that is not a dangerous situation conjured up by Canada Post then I don't know what is.

My protests concerning the hazard this unnecessary move would create fell on deaf ears and my telephone call to Ottawa regarding this was met with derision by the snippy female who answered the phone.

Being a handicapped WW2 veteran, unable to walk any distance, one would think that Canada Post, before instituting this change, would have consulted with people to determine the problems such changes would impose on their customers, if only to establish good public relation, but bureaucrats, given a little authority, are apt to exercise that authority to the limit.

Mail delivery personnel have always provided excellent service and I suspect they will groan when the change is made because the safety component anticipated will not exist.

The mail deliverers will remain exposed to the perceived hazards this change is supposed to prevent, but the customer will be become the endangered
K. Hayward
Mono