How will Royal Mail’s new ‘postboxes of the future’ work as rollout begins

After 175 years, the Royal Mail has announced the biggest design change to the iconic red postboxes.

One of the first things the vast majority of us will associate to the Royal Mail is its red postboxes. Placed in almost every town and city across the UK, these iconic postboxes have been a staple of the delivery service for over a hundred years.

However, for the first time in 175 years, the Royal Mail has announced they will be giving the postboxes a style upgrade which will transform them into the “postboxes of the future”. Following a successful trial period earlier this year, the postal service will be rolling our 3,500 solar-powered postboxes across the UK.

Still including a slot to post letters, the high tech postboxes are set to include a barcode scanner that will open a drop-down drawer for users to place their parcels, reports the Mirror.

This new feature will be powered by a solar panel that will be positioned south to receive optimal sunlight. With this new design, customers will be able to send and return labelled parcels up to the size of a shoebox through the postbox.

Customers will then be able to use the Royal Mail app to track their parcel, as well as request a proof of posting.

The solar-powered postboxes were first piloted in April in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire and are now set to be rolled out across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Edinburgh is amongst the first cities to see the revamped postboxes installed, along with Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland. Additionally, the Royal Mail is also planning to expand its number of parcel points across the country.

Currently there are 23,500 locations where customers can collect, send and return parcels in the UK, including 2,000 lockers, 7,500 Collect+ stores, 11,500 Post Office branches, 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points and 1,400 parcel postboxes.

Jack Clarkson, managing director of Out of Home and Commercial Excellence at Royal Mail, said: “We are all sending and returning more parcels than ever before. This trend will only continue as online shopping shows no signs of slowing, particularly with the boom of second-hand marketplaces.

“There are 115,000 postboxes in the UK located within half a mile of 98% of addresses, making them by far the most convenient network of parcel drop-off points in the UK.

“Our message is clear, if you have a Royal Mail label on your parcel, and it fits, put it in a postbox and we’ll do the rest.”

This announcement comes after Ofcom agreed to let the Royal Mail deliver second class post on alternate weekdays, instead of six days a week, as well as this delivery no longer taking place on Saturdays going forward.

However, this doesn’t change the postal service’s target of having second class letters delivered within three working days.

At the time of the decision, Ofcom estimated that reducing the delivery of second class post would end up saving the Royal Mail between £250million and £425million.

Additionally, Ofcom’s approval was also due to fewer letters being delivered to UK homes, which has dropped from 20billion two decades ago down to 6.6billion today.

First class post is still delivered six days a week, Monday to Saturday.

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