An Post’s New Plan While Welcome is Not New in Some Areas

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, and I am sure An Post thought to some degree they were onto a winner in the last few days when they announced that they would implement a series if new services to help people during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The news that they are to take parcels and letters from elderly and vulnerable people and deliver them free is something that I am sure will be welcomed, but who is to decide who is elderly and who is vulnerable. I have heard people in their eighties tell those they were talking to that they were not old people or in the case of one person in his eighties – he was not a geriatric. On the other hand I have heard people in their early sixties tell people that they are the new older generation of people.

The question has to be asked once this terrible pandemic has passed will we see the cost of posting letters and parcels increase to make up for the losses the Post Office might suffer now that there will be free postage to some. After all we have heard often enough that the post office is not making enough money as less and less people use it since the introduction of electric posting to send bills, emails etc and since many people have started to carry out online banking to pay their bills rather than to go through the post office and to have any social welfare payments etc paid into bank accounts.

 We are told that Post men and women will call into elderly people and those living alone on their routes to check on their wellbeing and if needs be contact the charity Alone if assistance is needed.

We are also told that An Post will roll out a newspaper delivery service whereby a person can get delivery of a local or national to those that are cocooning, whereby customers can sign up and pay online for their paper or papers of their choice can have them delivered to them by their local post man or woman.

All this to some might seem new and a great idea, but to many particularly in rural areas is something that has happened since Adam was a boy, or at least since Post Men and Women no longer relied on a bike or ‘shanks mare’ as a mode of transport to get them around their often large daily route.

All of us living in rural areas and maybe some in urban areas will know of post men and women who would deliver whatever needs to be to particular houses on their daily route.

My Father’s only brother ‘Bob’ was known to many people in West Waterford and to everyone in the Ballinamult area where he worked. For much of his working life he worked as a postman and for much of this time drove the old Orange and White Renault “P&T” Van that many postmen had and later the Green “An Post” Van.

In many of those van’s which he drove over the year’s there was often no passengers seat, but if there was one, he would possibly have had got someone to take it out for him as there would be no room for it in the van.

To his left after sorting the post at the Post Office at Ballinamult just over the road from his house and later in Ballymacarbry Post Office he would lay it out to his left in bundles sorted into the different Townlands which he was passing that day.

The back of his van would also be packed. He would call to some houses every day even if he had no post for them. He would call to those that lived alone and those that might not see anyone during the day just to see that they were ok and also for them to have someone to talk to even if it was for only a few minutes.

In some of the most remote areas which he worked in he would bring maybe bring the daily paper to some, a bottle or carton of milk to others, a loaf of bread to others, a bottle of gas to some, a bag of coal to someone else. All would be paid for by him when he was getting the items in one of the local shops and a receipt would be got for each person and would be paid there and then by the person whom he shopped for.

He and some of the other post men and women in the area if they were well known and trusted by some people living away from the Post Office would give to them there pension book or children’s allowance book after signing it and would have it collected for them the following day and delivered to them the following day often in an open envelope and would ask that it be checked so that all the money was in it, not that there was ever need to check it.

While most people these days have the means to go to the Post Office to collect payments or get to the shop etc. there is still some Post Men and Women who are still calling to people on a regular basis maybe dropping in one of the free newspapers printed each week to people that live alone or who will stop and talk to people that they see out and about especially if they live alone or spend large parts of the day alone.

While some of what An Post have announced in the last two or three days is something new to many and must be welcomed by most, in some areas what they have announced is happening with many years.