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POSTBOXES big enough to accept parcels are now open for business in Swindon.
Royal Mail has converted meter cabinets so they are big enough to post packages in the same way as letters.
Equipped with a larger slot and with a secure design to prevent any parcels being stolen, they are part of a programme to install 1,400 around the country in the next six months.
Royal Mail revealed the areas around Swindon that are among the first to benefit from the new postboxes.
The boxes in Swindon are at Newcombe Drive, Cheney Manor Road, Dunbeath Road, Crompton Road, Lancaster Mews, Southmead Close, Delta Business Park, Euro Way and there is one in Shrivenham Hundred Business Park.
After a successful trial last year the organisation has installed the new postboxes in 58 places across the UK including Bristol, Reading, Oxford, Cardiff and central London.
Mark Street, head of campaigns at Royal Mail said: “The introduction of the first parcel postboxes in the Thames Valley area means that customers can now send parcels with pre-paid postage and their returns in the same way that they do letters.
“The new parcel postboxes provide added flexibility to online sellers who might be running a business in their spare time and not keeping regular office hours.”
They represent the first major change to postboxes since they were introduced in the UK more than 160 years ago.
Online shopping has become increasingly popular in the last decade and this development is intended to make it easier to process and deliver goods.
The boxes are now ready for pre-paid parcels to be posted at anytime, seven days a week.
If packages are being returned they will need to have a Royal Mail barcode attached to them.
The change is mainly aimed at small businesses that want to avoid wasting time queuing in busy post offices to send their goods out to customers.
And it is seen as a move by Royal Mail to challenge other delivery firms like Hermes and DPD that have grown in popularity over recent years at the organisation’s expense.
