The Post Box

A Letter Box of some description is a must for receiving incoming mail and it should be in a location which is convenient both for your postman to easily deliver your mail and for yourself to be able to retrieve the mail. In urban areas of the UK, the majority of Letter Boxes are slots in the front door. However, these can be problematical if not fitted correctly, flapping around and allowing draughts and heat loss from your home. Draught excluders can be fitted to your Letter Box to stop it rattling and the LetterBox should be fitted carefully. If you are purchasing a new front door, Letter Boxes are often pre fitted, but you may have the opportunity to select your own style of Letter Box.

In reality, the majority of Letter Boxes which are of the rear retrieval design have a plate inside which is held in place with only two screws. If you are replacing your Letter Box, you might like to consider an outside letter plate which can be decorative and made of steel, stainless steel, brass or chrome. This is the part of the Letter Box which is seen by visitors and should complement the style and design of the door and can be purchased with or without a name plate.

You should measure the size of the existing hole carefully before purchasing your new Letter Box to ensure that it will fit. There is no overall standard size for Letter Boxes, so you may need to do some alterations to the existing hole. Of course, you can make the hole bigger, but not smaller, so take this into consideration. This will also depend on the material of which your door is made – PVC is not easy to enlarge whereas wood easy to work with. The thickness of the door and the length of the screws you have available should also be taken into consideration.

Once you have purchased a new Letter Box, having decided on the design and colour and made sure that it will suit your purpose, you can remove the old one. Letter plates which are designed for rear retrieval of your mail are fitted over the front of the slot in the door so this is the only part of the Letter Box which the postman sees. Inside the door, you can fit a plate which is also a draught excluder which is basically two brushes mounted on the plate, and will stop your Letter Box rattling in the wind. You may also wish to fit a letter cage inside the door to prevent the mail from falling on the floor and being chewed by the dog or the children.

The majority of Letter Boxes are designed to easily accept A4 envelopes without them folding. If you regularly receive larger envelopes, packages and newspapers, you may want to consider purchasing one of the larger capacity Letter Boxes which are on the market.

With the phenomenal growth of the internet and digital media, the question arises as to why there is a still a need for letter boxes and why they are so important. Many firms, especially banks and lawyers, still send documents by snail mail and you need a letter box as a receptacle for the incoming mail. Security of incoming mail is very important and you do not want other people accessing your mail, especially if it contains confidential information such as bank details or information about legal transactions. Much of this is sent by recorded delivery and must be signed for, but it is still important to have a letter box in case you are not in and the postman has to leave a card so you can collect the letter from the post office later.

There is a rising crime rate in data theft and you must always consider the security of your private information. By providing a letter box, you are making it easy for the postman to deliver the mail which is not then accessible to other parties than the addressee. The Royal Mail is legally bound to deliver mail only to the addressee and not to a third party, even if you are out, so a letter box is a must. Lockable letter boxes, arson proof letter boxes and letter boxes which can be built into the walls or doors of your property are all available to maximise the security of your mail.

Some people do not wish to provide bank details over the phone or internet and may prefer to have paper contracts for some documents which must be signed and returned instead of downloading them from the internet. When opening a new bank account or setting up a new insurance policy, the financial institution concerned will always want an original signature. This means sending out original paper documents which are delivered through your letter box to prevent money laundering and identity theft.

Security is becoming more and more necessary these days as criminals find ever more ingenious ways to steal identities when payments for goods are made via the internet. This can be avoided by insisting that bank details and other personal information are only provided in writing and sent through the post. The recipient will also then require a letter box to receive the documents, making it more difficult for the would-be thief to intercept your information for their own use, or to sell on to a third party.

Letter boxes for incoming mail have been in use in the UK for many years, and red post boxes for outgoing mail a national institution. The Royal Mail is legally obliged to keep your mail safe at all times while it is in their care and are very diligent when you request redirection of your mail to another address, requiring the signature of the person to whom mail is addressed as well as photographic identification. This will ensure that mail is delivered to the correct letter box at your new address.

Even the modern world of communications and the internet, people are still inundated with mail received through Letter Boxes both at residential and at business premises. As we all try to cut down on waste in all forms, it is annoying to receive unsolicited mail and to have to sift through communications which are delivered through post boxes to separate bona fide letters from unwanted mail. Advertising fliers posted through letter boxes are often thrown away without being read, and even glossy magazines received through letter boxes can be put in the paper recycling without even having been opened.  This is not only a waste of paper, but a waste of money for the advertisers and promoters. People lead busy lives, and do not want to receive unsolicited mail through their letter boxes and to have to sort out the mail at the end of a busy day.

Some people who do not wish to receive unwanted mail through their post boxes put notices with “no junk mail” above their letter boxes, but this is bad news not only for the postman who has carried the mail and has to sort it out, but also for the company who has spent money producing the material.  It is not cost effective for advertisers to have their hard earned cash basically thrown in the bin. According to the BBC News site (November 2011), new measures are being introduced to reduce the amount of junk mail received through letter boxes. From April 2012 there is to be a single web site where the people can register to opt out of receiving unsolicited fliers and other mail.  Direct marketing companies have agreed to only use recyclable materials in advertisements whereas at the moment 80% of items received through your letter box do not fall into that category.   Currently people have to register on three separate web sites if they do not wish to receive junk mail – the Mailing Preference Service, the Your Choice Preference System and the Royal Mail’s Door-to-Door opt-out service.

Mail Boxes are often overflowing or letters are piled up behind the door when people return from holiday and much of it is unsolicited mail.  This all has to be sorted, causing aggravation when the majority of what has been delivered through the letter box is effectively rubbish. According to the BBC News report, on average the UK householder receives more than 370 items of unsolicited paper mail through their letter boxes each year, the greater part of it unaddressed.

In the same report, it was stated that an estimated nine billion items of unaddressed post are delivered through post boxes every year. Such mail inevitably ends up in the bin creating a lot of waste.    The Government are so concerned about the level of waste that they have brokered a deal with the Direct Marketing Association to reduce the level of unsolicited mail being delivered through post boxes in a crack down on junk mail as part of its waste review in the UK’s effort to forge ahead with a zero waste economy.

Even in these days of emails and other electronic transmission of correspondence, the humble Letter Box is of paramount importance for your communications.   There are four main designs of Letter Boxes for incoming mail – a simple slot in the door,  a box attached directly on to your house, a Post Box on the street and a unit which is designed for multi occupancy buildings which provides Letter Boxes for individual residents.

The simple slot in the door style of Letter Box by far the most commonly used in the United Kingdom, especially in urban areas.   It is convenient for the postman as he can simply deliver the mail without having to open individual receptacles.  The Letter Boxes are often pre-fitted into new doors and can be made of aluminium, chrome, brass, uVPC or stainless steel.  The design of the Letter Box allows weather proofing by having an interior draught excluder.  Many Letter Boxes have spring loaded flaps to ensure that they close automatically and are weatherproof.   The slots in the door are usually horizontal, but can be vertical, and measure 30 cm by 5cm (12inches by 2 inches).

Letter boxes which are directly attached to your property  may be more beneficial if you regularly receive larger envelopes which will not fit through the standard slots.  .  The Letter Boxes can be mounted on the door and be made of stainless steel, cast aluminium, uVPC or wood.  Security of your mail may be an issue with this style of letter box and the slot should be small enough so that the mail cannot be retrieved once it has been delivered.  The front of the box usually has an aperture which can be opened with a key by the owner of the letter box.

Standard letter boxes on the street in North America consist of a metal box mounted on a post, usually with a tag which can be reset to indicate that mail has been delivered.  In the UK,  there is a selection of letter boxes which can be mounted by the roadside on posts or on walls for the convenience of the postman.  If you have a dog who does not like the postman, this may be an option for you as you can mount the post box outside the gate so that the postman does not have to come into the garden.  To keep your mail safe, the post box will have a key so that mail can be retrieved only by the owner.

Letter boxes for multi occupancy buildings usually consist of a bank of individual boxes with keys.  This style of letter box can be located either inside or outside the building with the numbers on the boxes corresponding to that of the apartment or office.   The Letter Boxes can be constructed to suit each building, with the same number of individual boxes made available for each company or residence.

All in all, Letter Boxes continue to be an important part of any communications, despite the phenomenal rise in the usage of email and electronic messaging.

When you move into a new home one of the most important things is to make sure that you have letter boxes for your post to be delivered through. All properties have post delivered to them, be it bills, letters, parcels, papers, catalogues, brochures, leaflets or flyers and it is down to the home owner to make sure that you have secure letter boxes and receive all of your post.

Dependent on your home and its needs dictates the letter boxes that you need to make sure that you get your post. If you have letter boxes through your front door this should be safe, but if you have pets (especially a dog) then you may need to make sure that the post is not eaten before you get to it. There are letter boxes that attach to the slot in the door and it acts as a cage to keep your post secure until you remove it.

If access to your letter boxes is restricted then there are letter boxes that can be attached to the wall or fence on the outside of your building, so that the postman can gain easy access and this makes sure that you post is delivered, no matter what.

There are such large selections of letter boxes that are on the market today and here at Mailbox Mania we have an excellent range of different letter boxes, so that you will be able to find a unit that will meet your home’s postal needs and your budget.

If you own a property then you will almost certainly have letter boxes so that your post can be delivered to your property with ease. It is your responsibility to make sure that your post is delivered and kept secure until you are able to collect it from your letter boxes.

There are a wide range of options when it comes to protecting your letter boxes. It really depends on your personal situation to make sure that you have letter boxes to suit your exact needs. Here at Mailbox Mania we have a wide range of letter boxes that come in a selection of prices to suit your budget.

If access to your front door letter boxes are restricted, due to being blocked by either electric gates or fences, this means if no one is at the address when you post is delivered, access to the building may not be granted and your post will not be delivered. To make sure that your post can still be delivered then there are post boxes that can be attached to the wall, the gate or the fence outside your property.

All the letter boxes that we have work well as they have a cylinder lock, so all of your post is kept secure. They are all treated so that they can withstand any weather conditions, making them durable and long-lasting. The letter boxes come in a range of sizes, so if you are someone that has a large quantity of post delivered there will be larger letter boxes to suit.