A *proper* rural

[TheoF95]

I've covered a rural that has 150 delivery points BUT it's only a 4 hour duty including indoor prep.

[Celgar]

I'm on a rural with a little less than 400 delivery points but it's not truly out in the sticks. The mobile coverage is fairly nonexistent though and the landline broadband coverage there is also fairly poor. I collect letters from a number of houses too but they always put stamps on.

[postmandick]

mine has 225 calls and i drive 70 miles a day.......... i have 1 mile driveways and 2-3 miles between calls ...... all very good until you miss a tracked parcle and have to drive 7 miles back and repeat .........

great tippers at Xmass £600 +

[Pope Marmalade lll]

There's a rural duty in our office with a house on it which only has access across a stretch of beach. You can only get to the house when the tide is out.

[SpacePhoenix]

There's a rural duty in our office with a house on it which only has access across a stretch of beach. You can only get to the house when the tide is out.

Must be a right PITA if you get there when it's high tide

[Roccat4]

Scotland - Large Business park, two smallish "normal" loops and around 80 houses in varying distance from the civilization but only about 5 in real sticks. Nice views but thankfully I only cover it occasionally. Always think that I spend 30 minutes fastening and another 30 minutes un-fastening the seat belt.

Prefer "normal" rounds but seems like most of folk here dream of a rural round.

Guess we are all different,

[wacko74]

There's a rural duty in our office with a house on it which only has access across a stretch of beach. You can only get to the house when the tide is out.

We've got a couple of rurals the same.

I don't mind taking my shoes off and going for a paddle if it's a boiling hot summer day but on the not so hot days the mail just has to wait!

Not so long a ago a newish guy brought some mail back from one of the beach access houses and endorsed it as undeliverable because ''the beach was flooded''... I don't think he understands the concept of tides!

[Woody Guthrie]

There's a rural duty in our office with a house on it which only has access across a stretch of beach. You can only get to the house when the tide is out.

Must be a right PITA if you get there when it's high tide

That's what we call "no access".
Once you get into the really deep rural territory in the North of Scotland it really is Postman Pat territory, a lot of the houses up there are holiday lets and don't get any deliveries so you might have 200 calls officially on your delivery but you'll be lucky if you hit 30-40 in a day. It's mostly outdoor work though and very much a 9-5 or even later because you're not getting your mail at 6am up there.

I've spoken to a couple of them up there and they seem quite oblivious to the nonsense going on in the business, very little interaction with management so no reason to complain. Van reliability seems to be the biggest reason to grumble. They do drive "assertively" if I'm honest, even the locals give way to the postie on a single track road.

[SpacePhoenix]

Once you get into the really deep rural territory in the North of Scotland it really is Postman Pat territory, a lot of the houses up there are holiday lets and don't get any deliveries so you might have 200 calls officially on your delivery but you'll be lucky if you hit 30-40 in a day. It's mostly outdoor work though and very much a 9-5 or even later because you're not getting your mail at 6am up there.

I've spoken to a couple of them up there and they seem quite oblivious to the nonsense going on in the business, very little interaction with management so no reason to complain. Van reliability seems to be the biggest reason to grumble. They do drive "assertively" if I'm honest, even the locals give way to the postie on a single track road.

They must have 4x4 vans up there for all the walks

[Woody Guthrie]

They must have 4x4 vans up there for all the walks

No.
In some areas they have access to 4x4 vehicles if and when required but for the most part they're driving the same sheds we are.
It's rural, it's not the Western Sahara.

[Ren Hoëk]

They must have 4x4 vans up there for all the walks

No.
In some areas they have access to 4x4 vehicles if and when required but for the most part they're driving the same sheds we are.
It's rural, it's not the Western Sahara.

A rally car would be more suitable for some posties driving.

[Deadly]

I think they use the Peugeot Partner "Trek" with lifted suspension on some rurals.

[Rael, the IAK]

A rally car would be good for some of the lanes, tracks and drives I've been on!!

[burtons]

Used to cover a rural as a reserve,5am-6am inward sorting.load van up with firms bulks taken off other walks as they were all to be delivered by 9,am.return to depot, 30 minutes meal relief. Then out on delivery 47 calls mainly farms.around 20-30 daily newspapers.took around 3 hours.drive back to office 30 minutes. Piece of cake delivery in the peak district. Cracking round to cover for a week.duty holder was old boy with 30plus years service. .my own rural I got was around 250 calls some farms and houses but very easy to deliver and hardly. Got wet when it was pelting it down.them were the days around 1998.

[rambo1]

I do one occasionally when they can't get it covered which is 400+ delivery points spread over 80+ miles and takes about 7hrs on an average day.
edit: hope I didn't shatter your dreams.

I don't know why it is people think rurals are easy. Yes you're you're own boss to an extent but most of ours are longer than the town walks.