The Post Box

Imagine a world without letter boxes, with nowhere to safely and securely store your personal mail, it’s not a common concern amongst the general population, because like many everyday objects, the letter box is very often overlooked, and under valued. The letter box is something that we all take for granted, but we would struggle to live without.

But fear not, it is highly unlikely that the letter box will ever become extinct, but that is largely because it is a much needed and crucial communication tool; it maybe under appreciated but a letter box is a portal to a private and safe place for all your documents, letters, cards and bills (which you might be less inclined to feel the need to keep safe!) but let’s face it, there really are very few people who could live without their own secure letter box and the peace of mind that it provides.

So that is precisely why here at Mailbox Mania, we can help you to find exactly the right kind of letter box that will suit your everyday needs; we worry about the business of letter boxes, so that you don’t have to.

Whether you are a business that is looking to secure the mail you receive to your business address, perhaps with a lockable letter box that ensures your personal business post is kept safe and secure, accessible only to key holders, or maybe you need an extra large capacity letter box that is capable of receiving larger quantities of mail, or even if you are a homeowner who is just looking for a particular type of letter box, perhaps one that is unique, or durable and secure, one that you can trust to house your personal post, then Mailbox Mania is here to help you to find the right letter box solution that will meet your individual needs.

With a vast range of letter boxes available to choose from, and including a variety of shapes and sizes, made from a number of different materials, such as high grade plastic, steel and stainless steel or even cast aluminium letter boxes, as well as newspaper holders, or multi-occupancy and through the wall letter boxes, all available to choose from our range, with Mailbox Mania you can be sure that you will find the right kind of letter box to suit you, from a number of different options that are available now to order online.

Even with the phenomenal growth of e-mail as a communication tool, millions of letters are sent every day.  Marketing managers use internet marketing tools for promoting their products, but direct mail to send out information about products is often still used.  Letter boxes are not yet completely out of vogue and snail mail is still used in many situations for sending fliers and magazines.   There will always be a demand for letter boxes while snail mail is used.  Financial service companies such as banks also use snail mail to send confidential documents and new credit and debit cards and a letter box is needed to receive the letters and packages.  Research has shown that consumers often prefer to receive correspondence by snail mail and that many people ignore unsolicited emails and consider it as spam.

If you work from home, you may find a letter box useful so that you can receive mail when you are not in the house.   People who are out at work during the day need a letter box for receiving mail when the postman makes his delivery.  He needs to be sure that you receive your mail safely so it is your responsibility to provide a suitable letter box.

People are shopping on line more often these days, and even if you are not at home to receive parcels which will not fit in the letter box the postman will need a place to leave a card to let you know that he tried to deliver.

Apartment and office blocks often have a multi occupancy letter box in the lobby so that the postman does not have to deliver to every individual property.   This is vey convenient for the postman and for the occupants as they do not have to have a letter box in the door, which could cause problems in some high crime areas.  Each resident has a key to a letter box which is labelled with their name so that they can collect the mail from the box at a time which is convenient to them.

The original reason why letter boxes were introduced was that they reduced the workload for the postman.  As the Royal Mail developed, it was thought that letter boxes would reduce the postman’s time in finding the householder at home to receive their mail.  Instead of handing the mail to the recipient, he could just drop the mail through the letter box. The introduction of the letter box was effectively a cost cutting and productivity exercise.

Letter boxes were introduced in the UK in 1849 and there is still a place for them in the modern world. Even if you do most of your communication through electronic means, you will still need a letter box to be able to receive letters and cards.  The style of letter box you use is a personal preference, but it must be convenient and accessible for the postman. Letter boxes are convenient and save time and money.

The Royal Mail has a duty to deliver your mail to your letter box.  The Royal Mail also has a strict privacy policy and it is illegal for them to deliver your mail to someone else’s mail box.  It is your responsibility to ensure that the letter box is clean, meets the terms of the Royal Mail and is easily accessible.   Some people who live in the country have their letter box at the end of a drive.  These are called roadside letter boxes and it is also your responsibility to ensure that the contents remain safe.  If a key is required to access the letter box, the Royal Mail offers a service whereby they have a key to the letter box.  There is a small annual charge for this but ensures that the postman can access the letter box if necessary.

You should always ensure that you empty the letter box regularly, preferably daily, so that new mail can be delivered.  If you are going on holiday, you can ask the Post Office to hold mail for you until your return.   Travellers can take their letter box with them and get mail delivered to the nearest Post Office for collection.

We all take the postal service for granted, and we expect our mail to be delivered to our letter boxes to be trouble free and that we receive our mail without any problems.  However, if there is a problem and we do not receive mail which is expected, we can refer to the Post Office and try to find a solution.   In some areas, letter boxes are vandalised by being broken into or set fire to.  Instances of this should also be reported to the Post Office, although it is ultimately your responsibility to provide a letter box.  Mail can also be stolen from letter boxes and again this should be reported to the Post Office so that they can build up a picture of the problem.  If your mail is constantly being delivered to the wrong address, you can complain to the Post Office who will make the necessary investigations.

The Post Office provides a vital service, especially in outlying areas and is important to support rural post offices wherever possible so that we can keep our mail being delivered to our letter boxes.  With the recent increases in postal charges, fewer people are likely to use the postal service due to the expense.  The Post Office may be forced to reduce services to remote areas and people living in those areas will be required to collect their mail from the sorting office instead of it being delivered through the letter box.  Some analysts consider that parts of the Royal Mail will be privatised resulting in a reduction in services.  The growth of e-commerce and electronic mail has already reduced the amount of mail being delivered through letter boxes, but it remains an essential service with many people relying on the services of the Royal Mail.

There are many letter boxes on the market, but the style most commonly used is a slot in the door.  The problem with this style of letter box is that the mail falls on the floor and can be eaten by the dog, picked up by the children, or, if your door leaks, it can get wet.   You can fit an indoor letter cage on the back of the door so that your letters do not fall to the floor.  This is a very simple addition to your letter box and serves to keep mail together instead of all over the hall floor.  Letter cages could also be fitted on the reverse of through the wall letter boxes.

If you are concerned that your mail will be set alight while it is in the letter box, you can purchase anti arson post boxes which are fitted with heat sensitive fire extinguishers.  The extinguishers come into play when the temperature in the box rises.  Anti arson post boxes are available in steel, stainless steel and cast aluminium and are heavy duty.  In addition to protecting your mail from arsonists, the post boxes also protect the surrounding area as they prevent the fire from spreading.

With an increase in identity theft, security of your mail is important.  Personal documents such as passports are often received through the post, although they will usually be signed for.  However, the legal profession and financial institutions do not send letters by this method unless they are requested to, and mail is received through a standard letter box.  You should always have a key for your letter box so that mail cannot be retrieved by anyone other than the person for whom it is intended. Lockable letter boxes are the norm these days, and you should always keep the key in a safe place.   If you live in an apartment block, there is usually a bank of letter boxes and you should have a key to your own post box so that you can collect your own mail.  If you move into a multi occupancy block, or if your office is in one, you should always make sure that you are given a key to the correct post box.

There are a few other ways in which you can protect your mail.  The obvious one is to be available when the postman calls so that he does not have to put your mail in the letter box. If you are very concerned about theft of your mail, you can set up a post office box so that you have collect all of your mail from the post office, though this may not be very convenient.  Instruct banks and other professional services to only send your mail by recorded delivery or registered post so that you have to sign for it.  This may not be convenient either, as the post office may not be local, and you will have to go there to collect your mail and provide identification.

There are many styles of Letter Boxes on the market, and it will depend on whether you live in a house which is an individual dwelling or a multi occupancy building as to which type of Letter Box suits your requirements. Multi occupancy buildings such as apartments and office blocks will often have a Mail Box with individual compartments either inside or outside the building. This will make the postman’s job much easier, as he will not have to visit every individual apartment or office in the building to distribute the post, unless he has to deliver a package which must be signed for.

As with Post Boxes for individual residences and businesses, there are many styles and designs of multi occupancy Mail Boxes on the market. These can be horizontal or vertical, mounted on supports or fixed to a wall inside or outside the building. When a new apartment or office block is commissioned, the style and location of the multi occupancy Mail Box will often have been decided by the developer. Security of the mail should be taken into account, and each individual Mail Box will have a key so that the recipient can retrieve the delivered mail. Each box will be labelled with the name of the person or the office or apartment number to ensure that the mail goes to the correct addressee. The Mail Boxes are usually made of stainless steel or steel and are fire resistant.

The sizes of the Mail Boxes will depend on whether the building is a residential or commercial premises, and there are multi occupancy Mail Boxes which are of a larger capacity than the standard A4 and will accept bigger C4 mail without bending as well as more post.

Communal Mail Boxes in large apartment blocks are often the target of vandals, so they must be fire proof so that a fire started in a Post Box will not spread to other parts of the building. Some Mail Boxes are specifically designed to extinguish fires and are fitted with fire extinguishers which detects the fire and puts it out before it can spread to other parts of the building. It is always important to protect the important documents which are delivered to your premises, so investing in a Mail Box with the additional feature of being anti arson is money well spent. If you are moving to new premises which already has a multi occupancy Mail Box you can ask whether it is fireproof, and if it does not have this feature, it would be worth lobbying the other occupants of the building to agree to a new Mail Box for the building. If the building is still under development and are considering a lease for an apartment or office within the block, you can request the management company to negotiate with the builders to agree the style of the multi occupancy Mail Box which is fire proof. Often these details are overlooked in the rush to finalise and commission a building.

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.

The letter box could be considered one of the unsung heroes of the front of your home. You and your postman interact with it daily, and it probably sees more use than the expensive outdoor umbrella stand Aunt Maud gave you for Christmas in 1993!

Our mail boxes are designed do one of two things, either perform the basic function of a secure, simple post box, or make a stylish statement to the front of your home that you can rely on 100% in terms of security and durability.

Statement Mail Boxes
In the current financial climate, most folks don’t have the resources to get the brickwork of their house re-pointed and have a Groundforce-like garden makeover on the front garden. That said, there are still thrifty little ways to make a difference; re-painting the fence, re-painting the front door, clearing weeds and defining pathways using large stones/bedding fences etc. can have a huge effect on the frontage of your house. Item number two – statement mail boxes! When all the other bits and bobs of your front area facelift are to do with simplifying and generally tidying up a bit, something cheap and cheerful like a statement letter box could be just the finishing touch!

Simple Mail Boxes
Simple and stylish needn’t be mutually exclusive. Many of our simple mail box designs are ideally suited to nestle harmoniously with the frontage of your property, adding that little extra subtle final touch to your own makeover elbow grease!

If you are buying a new front door, you may well need to decide whether to fit a traditional letter box in it to receive your mail, or install a modern, residential postbox outside. Both options have their own respective benefits, so a little consideration may be needed before making your decision.

Traditional
Probably the most convincing argument for fitting a letter box is that you can pick-up your post without going outside. This can be a compelling factor on those winter days when the last thing you need is a an Arctic breeze in your face first thing in the morning. Security is also not an issue as once your post has been delivered, it is safely inside your home. Sadly, the key disadvantage of this option is in having to cut a hole in your attractive, new front door.

Modern
Residential boxes are made from highly-resistant materials with robust locking systems so they are incredibly secure. A residential box typically has a bigger access slot than a standard letter box, so it can accommodate those larger packages which you normally have to collect from the post office. A postbox can also be fitted near enough to the front door so that you don’t need to slip out of your pyjamas to collect your post first thing in the morning.

For more information, and to view our great range of residential and commercial mail box collection solutions, feel free to browse our pages here at Mailbox Mania.