Royal Mail is set to roll out 3,500 solar-powered ‘postboxes of the future’ across the UK, which will be able to take parcels up to the size of a shoe box for the first time, following a successful pilot earlier this year.
These new postboxes boast a solar panel which powers a barcode scanner and a digitally-activated drop-down drawer which will enable customers to use postboxes to send and and return labelled parcels.
The postboxes will also have a letter slot to allow customers to post letters as normal.
Customers will also be able to 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 solar-powered postboxes are now being rolled out across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after a successful pilot in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire in April this year.
The first cities to benefit from the new postboxes will include Manchester, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland.
Jack Clarkson, Royal Mail managing director of out-of-home and commercial excellence, commented: “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 is the biggest redesign of Royal Mail’s iconic postboxes in its 175-year history, according to the company and is part of a wider strategy to corner even more of the burgeoning parcels market.
In addition to home delivery and collection of parcels, there are now more than 23,500 locations where Royal Mail customers can send, return and collect parcels. These include 2,000 parcel lockers, 7,500 Collect+ stores, 11,500 Post Office branches, 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points and 1,400 parcel postboxes.
