FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – One of the most familiar symbols of rural life – the mailbox with a flag at the end of a country driveway – could soon become just a memory.

Canada Post is reviewing the way it delivers mail to rural areas as a result of a growing number of health and safety complaints from the drivers who put mail in rural boxes.

Canada Post spokeswoman Avril Vollenhoven said Monday delivery to rural mailboxes has been cut off in several areas across the country, including a number of routes in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, because drivers have complained that road conditions are too dangerous or they are suffering repetitive stress injuries from loading the boxes.

“Since November 2005, we have had over 200 drivers refuse to deliver the mail,” Vollenhoven said in an interview. “It is on various routes across the country but one of the first sites that started reporting this was in the Fredericton area.”