At first glance, a postbox in Alsager appears to have been vandalised, but it is actually awaiting conversion into one of Royal Mail’s new “postboxes of the future”.
The updated design, being rolled out nationally, includes a solar panel, a scanner and a drawer for parcels, allowing customers to send and return small, labelled parcels through a postbox for the first time. Letters can still be sent via the usual posting slot.
Several postboxes in the area are due for the same upgrade.
In Alsager, they are on The Fairway and outside Alsager Pet Stores on Crewe Road. Others set to be converted include boxes on High Street in Newchapel, Chapel Street in Mow Cop, and Cornfield Drive and Dorset Drive in Biddulph. An automated postbox has already been installed on Lawton Way in the Elworth area of Sandbach.
Each upgrade takes several weeks. Each box is individually measured, the door is removed and sent away, the upgraded door being sent back from Royal Mail’s engineering centre in Gloucester. Each door is retrofitted individually.
While work is under way, postboxes are usually wrapped to protect them from the weather or vandalism. Residents are asked to use nearby alternatives, which can be found via Royal Mail’s “Services Near You” page and are signposted on the out-of-service boxes.
Hand-stamped letters can still be given to postal workers.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Our postboxes of the future offer another convenient way for our customers to access Royal Mail’s services, alongside home delivery and collection, our customer service points, Post Office branches, lockers and Royal Mail Shops. We’re pleased to see positive feedback from customers in areas where the postboxes have already been introduced, and we hope that local residents will find them just as useful and convenient.”
Royal Mail is introducing 3,500 solar-powered postboxes across the UK.
A pilot scheme tested the new boxes in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Two designs were trialled in the pilot, including one where the round lid of the postbox was black. Royal Mail told the BBC that the firm decided that keeping the top red was more in keeping with the brand.
The new design that is being rolled out is topped with a grid of dark solar panels on a white rectangle, which will be orientated “due south for optimal sunlight”, the firm said.
The change comes as Royal Mail is struggling in the face of competition from other delivery companies.
The firm, bought by a Czech billionaire in December, has been fined millions after failing to meet letter delivery targets, and faces competition over parcel delivery from the likes of Evri and Yodel.
