Finnish post office offer lawn mawing service after delivery decline

People who want their lawns mowed during the summer will now be able to ask a postman or postwoman to do it.

The Finnish post office, Posti, is launching a service offering lawn mowing as part of its Tuesday deliveries.

The new service will commence mid-May and will be available until the end of August. The household who requests the service will be charged 65 euros (73.39 U.S. dollars) per month, and must provide the lawn mower. The service has to be booked in advance.

Facing a steep decline in the delivery of letters and magazines, the Finnish postal service has been looking for new forms of business. Mowing lawns is the first domestic assistance service that an individual consumer can order from Posti.

So far, postal service workers have provided household assistance only to companies or organizations. For example, in southeastern Finland, a local health district has hired the post to provide assisted living service to customers chosen by the district, such as having lunch with the disabled.

In two municipalities in sparsely populated northern Finland, a commercial security company has purchased the assistance of postmen and postwomen for surveillance duties. Such security services are still considered as pilot projects.

Anu Panula, a director at Posti, said the initiative to start providing lawn mowing actually came from postal delivery staffers. Tuesday was chosen as the day of service as the volume of mail is usually smallest on that day. However, if it rains on Tuesday, another day will be used.

The state-owned national mail service provider has made headlines recently because of dismissals and the closing of post offices. It has been hard hit by digital communications, but has also lost some package business to courrier companies as well.

The post office says the level of distribution has already reached the figure of the 1960s. In 2015, 103 million addressed postal items were distributed by the post in Finland, showing an eight percent decline from 2014.

The postal law requires five-day delivery in Finland. Saturday mail rounds were cancelled decades ago. Endit