Royal Mail has unveiled a solar-powered “postbox of the future” with a built-in barcode reader and a hatch to accept parcels larger than letterbox size.
In the “biggest change to postbox design since their introduction more than 175 years ago”, the hi-tech pillar box looks as if it is wearing a jaunty beret. The black, chequered lid is in fact solar panels that power the scanner.
The postbox’s extra-large opening hatch offers a new way for the postal service to cash in on a roaring parcel trade. While letter volumes are in steep decline, Britain is in the grip of a secondhand selling boom as consumers use sites such as Vinted to make extra cash.
In a process that will be familiar to those with side hustles, the postboxes can be used to drop off packages that have barcoded postage. Once customers have scanned their code – the postbox’s batteries store energy to power its scanner when there is no sun – the drawer on the front opens. They can then use the Royal Mail app to request “proof of posting”.
With competition fierce among delivery services, Royal Mail said the redesigned postboxes would make it easier and more convenient for customers to use its network. There are 115,000 postboxes in the UK, and the company flagged the potential to adapt “thousands” to accept larger parcels.
The red pillarbox has a storied history, with the author Anthony Trollope proposing their introduction in the 1850s when he was working as a surveyor’s clerk for the Post Office. The design was not standardised until 1859 when two sizes with a cylindrical shape, painted green, were settled upon. However, people complained that green was difficult to spot and, in 1874, the distinctive red colour was chosen to replace it, although it took 10 years to repaint them all.
The Royal Mail’s chief executive, Emma Gilthorpe, said that “in an era where letter volumes continue to decline and parcels are booming, we are giving our iconic postboxes a new lease of life on street corners across the nation”. You may have to wait for one near you, though, as the trial involves just five in the Ware, Hertford and Fowlmere areas of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
News of the postbox pilot comes before the imminent sale of Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services, to the Czech energy billionaire Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group in a £3.57bn deal.
At the same time, Royal Mail is grappling with a shake-up of postal service rules it must follow. As part of a modernisation plan drawn up by Ofcom, it would only have to deliver second-class letters on alternate weekdays. However, the regulator also wants to set new reliability targets requiring 99.5% of first-class letters to be delivered within three days, and 99.5% of second-class letters within five days.
In Royal Mail’s response to the consultation, published on Wednesday, it complained that these targets would “add significant cost”, potentially resulting in even higher prices for consumers. (On Monday, the price of a first-class stamp increased by 5p to £1.70, while second-class stamps went up by 2p to 87p.)
The company also called for the rules to be changed so it could offer tracking on all parcels sent first- or second-class around the UK. Currently, customers are required to select and pay for a tracked service, rather than allowing Royal Mail to offer tracking for letters and parcels sent using standard postage services.
