We usually receive the economist on Saturday morning. Recently it has been Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon. When I enquired at the post office I discovered that our excellent postman has been moved to Orciano and Barchi. His replacement covers Piagge and Barchi which means post will be delivered in the afternoon instead of the morning. I also discovered that there is now no delivery on a Saturday morning which then has a knock-on effect for delivery in the following week.
This curtailment of Saturday delivery services is part of PosteItaliane’s plan to deal with competition from companies such as DCL. The postal service is now concentrating on streamlining their business services and so the manpower saved in Saturday deliveries is now being used to man late night shifts allowing the postal service to offer customers the opportunity to specify a day and time of delivery.
Still we miss our postman and we miss not getting the Economist on a Saturday morning and settling down to read it with a nice cup of tea.