The morning of Rasma, a postwoman in Tukums, starts at 6 am, when she arrives at the post office and finds out where she will be going and what items she needs to deliver today. Every day for the past 10 years, Rasma has been travelling more than 100 kilometres.
The biggest problems are damaged, unusable mailboxes and mailboxes without correct addresses. Also, most people do not lock their mailboxes, which poses a risk of theft.
Post deliverers often find their way around using old address numbers that have been crossed out and corrected by hand. This makes it difficult to know where to leave the parcel. It is not only people's carelessness or indifference that makes a postman's day-to-day life difficult.
"It's bad when a dog bites. Then you have to take a sick leave because I can't work. If the mailboxes are not tidy, then letters are not dropped in properly; maybe it is in the wrong box, and people don't get their bank cards in time," explained Rasma.
In Tukums municipality, post deliverers have to deliver mail to 29,510 addresses, but about 1,660 mailboxes are damaged, inadequate or not installed at all.
Inita Fedko, a representative of the Latvian Postal Service, confirmed that of the 1.27 million addresses serviced, about 90,000 had unsafe and unsuitable mailboxes.
Mailboxes should be sealed and protected from precipitation, which is particularly important in autumn and winter. It is also important that the letterbox is in a location known and accessible to the postman. However, as Latvijas Pasts stressed, the responsibility for the condition of the mailbox always lies with the owner.
Currently, the only punishment that residents receive for not having a tidy mailbox is undelivered mail.
