After a successful trial in April, Royal Mail now are rolling out ‘postboxes of the future’ to 3,500 postboxes across the UK. These are modifications to existing Elizabeth II and Scottish Crown pillar boxes rather than brand new ones. The main features are a modified aperture with a small slot for letters; a drop-down drawer for parcels, which only opens when a valid barcode has been scanned; and a solar panel and aerial on the cap to power the scanner and validate the codes. The drawer should accept small parcels up to the size of a shoebox.

The initial trial was conducted in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire with an alternative black cap design, but the new parcel boxes feature a plastic red cap with solar panel and aerial built in. Cities such as Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland have already received modified postboxes, and more are appearing nationwide.

The move to adapt postboxes to accept parcels comes as Royal Mail is also installing thousands of Parcel Lockers across the country, and adds to existing parcel boxes, Collect+ stores and Post Offices as methods UK residents can send parcels.

Jack Clarkson, Managing Director of Out of Home and Commercial Excellence at Royal Mail, said: “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.”