If you see a pillar box with what looks like a wonky hat on it and you are a fan of the knitted postbox toppers that were a craze in 2022, then start to worry! Royal Mail are rolling out 3,500 solar-powered ‘postboxes of the future’ and the wonky hats are really just a holder to point a solar panel at the sun. The postbox toppers craze is going to have to die out as these new fangled high tech postboxes are going to need power!
Royal Mail will be rolling them out across the UK following a successful pilot earlier this year, as the company continues to find ways to make sending, returning and collecting parcels more convenient.
The new design allows customers to send and return labelled parcels – up to the size of a shoebox – through a postbox for the first time. Customers can also request proof of posting, and track their parcel, using the Royal Mail app. This is also available for smaller parcels at any of the UK’s 115,000 postboxes.
The reimagining of the iconic red postbox is the biggest redesign in its 175-year history. The modern makeover includes:
- A barcode scanner which opens a drop-down drawer to place parcels that are larger than those that fit through the traditional postbox slot
- A solar panel, positioned due south for optimal sunlight, to power the scanner and drawer
- A separate slot for letters
The postboxes of the future were piloted in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire in April and they are now rolling out across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with cities including Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland among the first locations.
Royal Mail is on a drive to make sending and receiving parcels as convenient as possible for customers and is rapidly expanding its number of parcel points. On top of home delivery and collection, there are now more than 23,500 locations where customers can send, return and collect parcels, 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.
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.
– Jack Clarkson, Managing Director of Out of Home and Commercial Excellence, Royal Mail
