Times are tough for companies state owned or not; they must run efficiently. The Swiss post is a public company owned by the Swiss Confederation. Even as Switzerland’s second largest employer they are tightening their belts and streamlining processes to make ends meet.
Not even every town has their own post office now because they have consolidated them. The ones that are still in business have almost turned into kiosks selling books, stationary, candy and even garbage bags. Oh, they still send and deliver mail and stuff like that almost as an afterthought.
Mailbox Regulations
Switzerland loves their rules and regulations. So much so that the postal service even has regulations and laws specifically about mailboxes. Granted, most people, us included, never even noticed the regulations for the mailboxes. We never ran into any problems, probably just dumb luck.
A Swiss mailbox has 5 things that are regulated: location, size, letter opening size, box material and address. If you buy a mailbox at a hardware store you are probably good to go with sizes and material. Some friends of ours wanted their address to be ‘at the pond’, which was vetoed by the post office pretty quickly. So, unless you have a company called ‘At the Pond’ you have to go with street and house number.
As far as mailbox locations go, the post decided a couple of years ago where they must be placed. They must always be on the edge of the property near the main entrance. Exceptions are apartment buildings and office buildings which follow other regulations.
Individualists
Friends of ours thought that American mailboxes were cool so bought one. After a long discussion with their mailman and against regulations they were allowed to use it. Which means if your mailman is willing to deliver your mail it can go against regulations. It can very well be, when their mailman retires the next one won’t be as lenient.
Consequences
The consequences of not following the regulations can mean getting your mail delivered or not. People whose mailbox was built directly into their homes or right by their doors expierence the most problems. They are not happy when told they must move it. To meet regulations some are required to reposition it 10 meters or so down the walk. Not much fun on a cold winter’s day to make a dash outside to get your mail. The train of thought is, if the mailman was able to deliver your mail yesterday, why not today?
Of course, you can always butt heads with the post and go to court. But rules are rules and if you are moving outside those boundaries you have little to no chance of winning. Exceptions are far and few between. History shows that the Post has won most of the cases. The losers must move their mailboxes and are stuck with the costs of the process. If you take your case to the next higher court, the federal court, your chances of winning are even slimmer. To date the post has won all their cases. Is it really worth that much trouble?
Silver Lining of ‘No Mail’
If they stop delivering your mail, then you must go to the post office to pick it up. Looking at the bright side; no more junk mail and excess paper to recycle. And, you can go on vacation and don’t have to pay them to hold back your mail because they are already holding it.
The beginning of this year we had to go to the States. We had to pay the basic price of CHF 20.00 for the service, I could have done this per Internet for CHF 8.00 but our situation was somewhat complicated. We also have a company and another person whose mail is delivered to our address. Because our trip happened so quickly we also had to pay CHF express charges of 10.00. We had to do the same for our company. For the third person there were extra costs, too. We ended up paying in the ballpark of CHF 80.00 if I remember correctly.
The words from a Greek work of Herodotus describe the ancient Persian system of mounted postal carrier around 500 B.C. ‘Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.’ They forgot to mention ‘… also, if the mailboxes are conform to the regulations’.
Really, we understand that being a mailman is a tough job. They freeze when it’s cold, melt when it’s hot and get wet when it rains. We try to be nice to our mailman. We give him boxes of chocolate occasionally and we’ve even invited him in for a cup of coffee.
Still, it amazes me the amount of bureaucracy that can go into such a little box. Blessed is a country with such Problems.
-
-