by Helen Llewellyn 
So many things are different to where you came from. Post and parcel deliveries are one of these for anyone living outside of a large town anyway. If you live in a large town or city or are planning to do so then this article is not for you.
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I am from the UK so we have post delivered to the door daily (except Sundays) and parcels to the door any day. This is the same whether you live in the country, town or city. In the country it may take a while for new drivers to find you but it will get there, mostly.
How does post work in Spain
The postal system is generally very good. Today (Tuesday) I had parcel post from an order that I made on Saturday from the far side of Spain so speed can be really good. More about this delivery later. The general system is handled by Correos which is the publicly run Postal Service.(oops, nearly made an embarrassing typo there!) It has branches and also handles local deliveries. Often not to your actual house though.
Then there are various courier services who do Amazon and other shop deliveries. You get a tracking number and can see where your parcel is. You can even guess which bar your driver has popped into for a coffee en route. So far no so different.
Rural (ish) deliveries
As you drive through villages and rural areas you may see clusters of mail boxes or banks of what look like safety deposit boxes. These are post drops. Many are owned by Correos and will cost you €20 or €30 a year. Some are village run and you will find that someone in the village or hamlet has been nominated to give out keys and keep a record of who is expecting post. I think they register this data with Correos but it may just be that the local person is one point of contact for the delivery driver.
Have a look near where you live. Ask your neighbours. Yes you may well have to practice your Spanish to do this. The more people who know your name, the better the chance that your post will arrive.
Human Nature
My post box is at the end of the road with a few other neighbours. My other half’s first name is Austin. His post often ends up 3 kilometres away with a chap who’s surname/family name is Austin as he has lived here for 15+ years and we have only been in our house for 2.5 years.
Neighbours will often take in mail for you too. My neighbour – 92 year old farmer brought me a letter last year thinking he was doing a good deed. It turned out to be a letter for another English person who lives 1km away. Very kind of him though and by the power of Facebook I found the rightful owner.
Common Sense
Spain is renowned for it’s bureaucracy and paperwork. Postal things can fall into this too but sometimes things work like clockwork. Today’s delivery for me is a great example. I had ordered items from a Spanish shop and put my home address on rather than the usual postal address I use.
I live up a road off a road off a dirt track so it can be a bit challenging to find. In this case the delivery driver rang me and asked me where my hamlet was and to tell me where he was. I was about 3km from him. I started explaining how to get to my house but could tell that he wasn’t following me. I did however know where he was. So we agreed that I would go to him and collect my parcel. I got certainty and he probably saved 15 minutes on his round.
Meet me
It is pretty common, especially for large deliveries like kitchens, furniture or building supplies, to meet them at a convenient spot and either take your goods or they will follow you home and unload for you. You can offer a drink but in my experience it is rarely expected nor is a tip needed.
So it is a good idea to know the local landmarks and have an awareness of villages and places around you.
Postal Boxes
Another way of simplifying things is to buy a postal box. These can be located at a local Correos or local shops will offer this service -some do it free of charge. All your letters and parcels go to this address and you get notified of when you have a letter or parcel. It might cost €70 per year and often less.
This is especially handy if you have large parcels or are away. Both Correos and the couriers will deliver to post collection points.
You have Mail
If you have mail and it needs to be signed for a card will be left in your mail box. You can then take this card to Correos and retrieve your parcel. This is also the case if customs charges are payable. Any customs charge will need to be paid in cash not card. It is very rare to get a receipt for this. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
So now you can receive letters and parcels with confidence.
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