Overview

• Royal Mail describes the redesign as the biggest change to the postbox in 175 years, moving from letter slots to an app-activated parcel drawer.
• Following trials in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, installations will begin in cities including Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland.
• Users scan a barcode in the Royal Mail app to open a drop-down drawer that accepts parcels up to shoebox size, while letters go in a separate slot.
• Solar panels power the scanner and drawer mechanism, and the app provides digital proof of posting plus parcel tracking.
• Royal Mail cites 115,000 postboxes within half a mile of 98% of UK addresses and more than 23,500 other parcel points, and the rollout comes after the July 28 switch to weekday-only second-class deliveries that Ofcom says could save £250m–£425m a year.