How about this for a think outside of the box idea: mowing lawns and landscaping
If you are lucky enough to live in Finland, you can have a postie cut your grass…. for a small fee.
Believe it or not, the postal workers came up with the idea and put it to management according to Anu Punola, the director of Posti, Finland’s official postal service. “We believe many customers will be happy to outsource lawn mowing when we make it convenient for them to do so,” she said announcing the program.
The idea is that the posties will do the job every Tuesday which is traditionally a light day for mail numbers in Finland. In recent years there has been fewer ads and magazines for them to deliver. The idea is also that the customers have to provide the lawn mower which really only makes sense. You cant really expect then to carry a portable one on the back of their bikes. The proposed cost will range from 65 euros to €130 ($75 to $149) per month and this depends on the size of the customers lawn. Another bonus is that it’s tax deductible.
Finland’s Posti was already a service that is considered to be very enterprising. They already deliver meals to many customers. The postal service also has plans to have a health care company teach its employees to help people who have many types of disabilities and help them with their cooking and cleaning needs.
But then, why stop there? How about a full landscape paving service, or shovelling snow in the winter months? Or maybe even building retaining walls or walking dogs perhaps? Watching the kids for an hour or two or picking up some milk before delivering the mail? Helping with the kids homework? The list is endless. Curiouser and curiouser the whole plan seems to be.
It’s not just Finlands postal service that have innovative services. In Japan, their postal service provide banking and insurance. In Korea, mainly at some of the offices in rural areas, postal workers can make rail and airline bookings for you. If you live in India and want to sell stuff online, guess what? They sell goods online for you and then they also delivers them. However, the most innovative one comes out of the land downunder. Australia Post are testing the use of drones for their mail delivery. We are very impressed…but! Is a drone able to mow your lawns or build a retaining wall? Not yet, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.
