Over-75s can get free postal delivery to the door, but not without complications

Itella does not advertise service; housing cooperatives point up flaws

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Not many Finns are aware of the fact that those over the age of 75 years or with a physical handicap have the right to get their daily postal deliveries free of charge to the door, rather than to a mailbox outside or in the apartment block hallway.
      Itella, the former Finland Post (the name changed in 2007) does not actively market the services, since they would only incur additional costs to the state-owned enterprise.
     
The services available to special groups within the population are set out in a guideline produced by the country's Communications Regulation Authority (Viestintävirasto).
      At present only around 8,000 people are receiving deliveries based on special needs, but it is quite obvious that the right to such services would apply to a great many more who live in detached houses with an outside mailbox, possibly some distance from the property.
     
Special services are not offered automatically, but the customer has to understand that he or she could ask for them.
      This is most easily arranged by calling Itella's customer service unit, from where the request would be passed to the local delivery service.
     
Itella also does provide chargable services of delivering mail to the door for those who are not in eligible groups.
      The tariffs for this are based on delivery costs according to addresses, and the service becomes the more expensive the longer the distance from the mailbox to the door.
      In the case of condominiums or housing cooperatives, pricing depends on the number of addresses to be dealt with.
      The housing companies concerned pay for the service and the cost is usually included in the monthly fee paid by residents.
     
What makes things rather more complicated is that when such a package is worked out, no account is taken of the free delivery available to those over the age of 75.
      Hence they, too, find themselves paying for the service in their monthly fees like any other shareholders in the cooperative.
      The alternatives are a bulk arrangement for the entire property, but which does not take any account of those eligible for free services, or an arrangement where each resident pays individually, depending on the distance from the mailbox to the door. Those eligible get their mail delivered free.
      This individual contract can work out more expensive for the residents, and hence the temptation would be to take a package deal, regardless of the "free" residents' interests.
      Itella has acknowledged that this is a basic flaw in the system.


Links:
  Itella
  Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA)

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