Throughout the summer, employees of Finland’s postal service Posti will offer a weekly lawn-mowing service during their regular delivery rounds.
In face of the decline of physical post, Finland’s mail service Posti is expanding its services to include lawn mowing — the latest example of an unusual but convenient job overlap. Throughout the summer, Posti’s employees offer a lawn-mowing service on Tuesdays, since this is the least demanding day of the week in terms of deliveries. Customers can sign up for a 30- or 60-minute session online from 65 euros per month, and they must provide their own lawnmower. The postal workers fulfil the service while making their regular delivery rounds, creating an efficient workday around the neighbourhood.
The idea for the lawn-mowing service came from mail delivery employees themselves, who recognized lawn mowing as a tedious job that many customers would jump at the chance to avoid doing. As well as being a chore that many able people would like to avoid, it can be one which is too physically demanding for many elderly or less able people to carry out on their own. Postal workers realized that, with their declining business and the quieter Tuesdays, they could helpfully and efficiently perform this basic task.
Orders for lawn-mowing services will be taken into account in the planning of mail delivery routes. In the event of rain on the day of intended service delivery, the lawn will be mowed at another time. The lawn-mowing service is tax-deductible for domestic costs.
The work of mail delivery employees in Finland has become increasingly diverse. Posti currently delivers some two million meals to Finnish homes annually. As part of the development of new home services, Posti is also partnering with the South Karelia Social and Health Care District Eksote in the provision of home care and services for people with disabilities by assisting customers with eating and daily chores. Posti is also partnering with Securitas to perform security services in a pilot being conducted in the Finnish towns of Muhos and Ylivieska.
The company has acquired home care company HR Hoiva, which produces home care and personal assistance services for municipalities, joint municipal authorities and private customers. HR Hoiva’s net sales in 2016 were approximately 2.5 million euros and the company will continue its operations as a subsidiary of Posti. HR Hoiva will provide Posti with care professionals and the capability to address customers’ home-care needs. HR Hoiva currently produces services in approximately 30 localities. HR Hoiva is part of the HR Yhtiöt Group. Ilpo Marttila, CEO of HR Yhtiöt, believes that Posti will help to deliver essential services to municipal customers as well as improving the cost-effectiveness of the municipalities involved.
We have seen other examples of dual job efficiency, with tattoo artists trained to spot skin cancer as seen earlier in this chapter, and cashiers in Dutch supermarkets keeping an eye out for signs of loneliness or neglect in older customers as part of the Super Care initiative.
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Website: www.posti.com
Contact: www.posti.com/contactus
Company name: Posti
Innovation name: Posti lawnmowers
Country: Finland
Industry: Home & garden