The Post Box

Security of your mail is very important, especially when documents containing your personal information are sent through the post and delivered through your letter box. There is a growing number of cases of identity theft when mail has been fished out of letter boxes and information used to access bank accounts, apply for credit cards and even apply for passports. There are anti arson letter boxes available which are designed to extinguish any fire started in the letter box and also prevent the documents from reigniting. Lockable letter boxes may deter all but the most determined criminal, and there are guards available can be installed on the letter box so that the perpetrator cannot see much when they look inside. With a traditional letter box which is a slot in the door, the mail will fall on the floor, so a would-be thief will not be able to retrieve your mail by hand. Use only good quality letter boxes which are not easily removable from their fixings,

There are various other ways to protect your mail, such as ensuring that the incoming mail does not stay in the letter box for very long. This is easy to monitor if you are at home all day, but the postman will inevitably call when you are at work, so the documents will remain in the letter box all day, giving a potential thief an opportunity to steal them.

If you are expecting important documents from the bank, for example, you can arrange to have it delivered by registered post to your place of work. If this is not possible, then you can ask the post office to hold any registered mail so that you can collect it. Having a lockable letter box or an anti arson letter box will go some way to protect mail delivered to your letter box and give you peace of mind that your mail is less likely to be tampered with.

You should report any instances of suspected mail theft, tampering with your letter box, destruction of your mail or attempts at arson to the Royal Mail. If you are going on holiday, you can ask the Royal Mail to hold your letters for a specific period. If you are expecting a bank statement or cheque book and it does not arrive, contact your bank.

The growing trend of identify theft is very worrying and you should take as many precautions as possible to prevent your mail from being stolen from your letter box. In remote areas letter boxes may be situated at the end of long drives and cannot be seen from the house giving a potential thief a further opportunity to steal your mail. Familiarise yourself with the postman’s routine and delivery times and retrieve the mail as soon as possible after delivery so that your mail does not remain in the letter box for long. Make it as difficult as possible for a potential thief to retrieve the mail from your letter box by having a lockable mail box and from being destroyed by fire by having an anti arson letter box.

Letter boxes are part of life, and are often something we take for granted. They are, however, one of the ways we communicate with the outside world, as mail delivered to our property can be important – though a lot of junk mail is delivered as well!

We do not often give a thought about our letter box, what it is made of or what style or colour it is. All we think about is receiving our mail. However, there is a wide range of colours of letter boxes on the market and if the letter box is fixed to your front door, you might want to consider how aesthetically pleasing it is. When developers are building new properties, they will not often consider the style of letter box required, but install a standard front door with a slot design. In new buildings, the letter box will be of a colour to complement the colour of the front door. This can of course be changed at a later date.

There are four basic designs of letter boxes - 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 letter Boxes can be made from stainless steel, aluminium, cast iron, uPVC and even plastic. Within the basic four designs, there are different styles of letter boxes to suit the style of your home.

The simple slot in the door design of letter box is generally a standard size of 30cm by 5cm (12 inches by 2 inches) to accept the standard A4 envelope. These letter boxes are available in uPVC, steel and aluminium to suit the style of your front door. There are also different colours of letter boxes. A slot design of Letterbox is often pre-fitted into a new door, whether it is uPVC or of timber construction. However, you may at some stage want to change the letter box, due to it becoming damaged or has started to rattle. It is relatively easy to amend the size of a timber door, should the new letter box be slightly larger, but it is not so easy to resize a uPVC door, and you may need to call in a professional to get his advice.

Letter boxes which are attached to the wall beside the door can be of many styles and colours and you will have more choice. There is also a wider range of materials used in constructing the letter box and of course it will be much easier to change. There are letter boxes available with newspaper holders built in, large capacity newspaper letter boxes, letter boxes which are more stylish made from non corrosive plastic, and letter boxes made from decorative cast aluminium which is more suitable for an older style property.

All letter boxes should be weather proof. If you live by the coast you may want to consider a letter box made from non corrosive materials so that your letter box does not rust and allow water in which will damage your mail.

Even with the advent and growth of electronic data communications and on line shopping, many organisations use the regular postal service, or snail mail, as a method of keeping in touch with their clients, and updating them on products and services available. There is, then, still a requirement for a postal system and letter boxes. Some firms cut their direct mailing budget, but research has found that some people still prefer the traditional method of communicating by post and to receive reminders about some products through their letter box. Despite the wide usage of e-cards which can be sent at birthdays and Christmas, people still prefer to receive a traditional card. At Christmas millions of cards and parcels are sent, and a letter box is required for receiving them. Goods ordered on line has also meant that many more parcels pass through the postal system and letter boxes are still required to deliver notifications if no one is at home.

Direct mail was traditionally used to keep in direct contact with customers who were interested in the company’s products, reducing advertising costs. Catalogues and fliers were sent to the known customers and delivered directly to their door through the letter box. Nowadays, products are often listed on a web site and can be ordered on line, but there is still the need for a letter box in the event of no one being in to receive the parcels so that the postman can leave a note. Some people still prefer to receive a hard copy of a catalogue or brochure through the post box along with the price list.

Traditional greetings cards are habitually sent, regardless of the electronic versions available on the internet. It seems more personal somehow. Technophobes still prefer to receive communications via snail mail. For the elderly, receiving a card through the letter box which they can hold and read is often far preferable to receiving an email or e-card.

Another reason for receiving mail through traditional sources through the letter box is that there is so much spam and junk emails sent, that many people tend to ignore emails which are sent from unknown sources. The sender may be missing the opportunity of making a sale if the customer deletes the email without reading it. It may be company policy therefore to have a mixture of methods of communicating with clients, some through the postal system and others by email. Some clients may prefer to receive mail by traditional methods.

Important documents which must be in hard copy, such as legal documents and bank correspondence, are still sent by traditional methods through the postal system. Security of your letter box is therefore very important and you should ensure that unauthorised persons are not able to access your mail.

Checking the letter box for incoming mail is part of the daily routine, both at home and at the office. Letter boxes are just an important part of life as they were before the technological revolution. Regardless of the growth of electronic methods of communication, the letter box is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

The usage of letter boxes has developed differently in other parts of the world, but in Britain the Post Office introduced the letter box in 1849. Prior to that, outgoing mail was taken to the Post Office and dropped through letter boxes which had been made available in the walls and doors of the Post Office buildings. As the mail delivery system to homes and businesses was established, people were encouraged to make facilities available so that the postman could deliver mail quickly and easily. Letter boxes, or mail slots as they are known in the United States, started to appear in front doors and office buildings started to have multiple occupancy letter boxes which were allocated to businesses who occupied the building. This also applied to multiple occupancy residential properties with each resident being allocated a personal letter box.

In Europe, personal letter boxes did not become popular until the mid to late nineteenth century. In North America, the first letter box was set up in 1863. The Free City Delivery service was established and postal services were improved by the delivery of mail to individual addresses. Prior to that, the postman was obliged to knock on the door of a property and wait for a response. This meant that a lot of time was wasted if people were not at home or were slow in answering the door. For incoming mail, the advent of the letter box made the postman’s life easier and less time consuming. For outgoing mail, it is common practice in the US for mail boxes to be located at the side of the street to save the postman time in having to physically walk up each path individually to deliver the mail. This method is used in rural areas and mail boxes are mounted on posts at the end of a road or track. Mail boxes are often fitted with a flag to indicate that mail has been delivered.

Typical sizes of letter boxes are 30cm by 5cm (12 inches by 2 inches) and the slot is usually cut horizontally in the middle or lower half of the front door. A weatherproof flap is placed on the outside over the slot and this can be made of brass, chrome or other material to complement the style of your door. The inside of the letter box can be fitted with another flap to exclude draughts as well as a cage to catch the mail so it does not drop on the floor. The cage is often known as an indoor post box and catches the mail as it is pushed through the letter box. Both letter boxes and indoor post boxes are designed to accept A4 envelopes, but larger capacity letter boxes and newspaper boxes are also available.

The basic design of the standard letter box used in the majority of houses in urban Britain has changed little since its inception in 1849. The availability of a letter box improves efficiency for the postman which in turn cuts costs to the consumer by keeping the price of postage at an economic level.

Creating a professional environment is essential when setting up or revamping an office space. For example, colour is incredibly important. The instinctive reactions your staff are likely to have to particular colours (e.g. red means danger) will help you to choose the colour tones and shades most conducive to your particular work environment. We had a chat with a design expert; she suggested (for the regular office environment) using warm colours in the foreground (e.g. desks, chairs) and cool colours in the background (e.g. walls, doors) to enhance the perception of depth and welcoming warmth in the central work areas.

But the professional touch isn’t just about paint shades and seat choice. The right building accessories can help to create a fruitful atmosphere. Bespoke options such as mail boxes (we can help there!), space-specific storage (an office full of files and mess looks unprofessional) and company logo-bearing accessories help to cement the integrity of your brand with both employees and clients.

One of our favourite finishing touches is letter box engraving and labelling. We offer both full laser engraving (engraving on the letter box flap or door itself) and steel plate engraving (to affix in place of the Perspex name plate) options on most of our commercial mail boxes (excluding the “Trent” and “Ouse” multi occupancy mail boxes)

Choosing the right peripheral finishing touches to enhance the productivity, professional impression and overall operational integrity of your office is easier than you might think. Start today by browsing through our huge range of mailboxes (and perhaps thinking up a new colour scheme for the office!)

The importance of guaranteed privacy in our growing population should never be underestimated. With a population exceeding 60,000,000 living, working and playing in an area 1/13 the size of Alaska, safeguarding personal space and security is an important step.

Whether at home or throughout the business world, postal services keep us connected and informed, providing a vital daily lifeline that most of us simply couldn’t live without. The security of this lifeline is certainly a valuable asset.

Occupancy
Multiple-occupancy mail boxes can present a problem when installed incorrectly. As unpleasant as it may sound, multiple-occupancy mail boxes often fall victim to vandalism, making their qualities of strength and durability more crucial than ever.

The absolute aim of our designers and instillation experts is the safety of occupant mail (be that from external threats or each other). We’re so confident in our multiple-occupancy mail boxes that we provide unique customer service post-instillation.

Commercial Business
Although potentially exposed to many of the same threats as multiple-occupancy post boxes, commercial business post boxes need be no less strong, professionally designed and installed, or durable. In busy atmospheres commercial post boxes make a fantastic way to guard the individual privacy of a person/business with incredible ease (resulting in far less lost post we’re sure!)

Whatever your mail issues, give one of our team a call to see what our designers and mailbox engineers could do for you in terms of providing workable, cost effective solutions that satisfy your mail needs 100%.

We’re certainly a nation that loves nostalgia! Here are a few odds and ends we discovered about that most British of street furniture institutions – the red postbox!

•    The very first postboxes (pillar boxes to be precise) were erected in Jersey during the Post Offices’ 1852 campaign of modernisation. It’s commonly thought the idea hailed from France.

•    It was another five years before roadside postboxes were a common sight along the highways and byways of Britain. It was during this time that the Birmingham District Council commissioned what is now cited as the traditional post box design of a single column.

•    Pillar boxes always bear the monogram of the reigning monarch. Take a look at any old-looking post boxes in your area to see if the monogram “V.R” resides on its front. If so, it’s dates from the reign of Queen Victoria!

•    Windsor Castle has a blue post box. The now-redundant air mail boxes remained in service for less than a decade and are a incredibly rare sight.

•    The oldest working red post box in Britain is over 150 years old.

•    One of the conditions cited when Consignia took over Royal Mail was that all current postboxes be preserved as heritage icons.

The good old British postbox is certainly one of our favourite icons of the UK. And whilst we can’t provide you with your own cast iron Victorian pillar box, we can supply personal and commercial use mailboxes that will stand the hardy test of time (many of them come in red too!)

It’s one of the most popular post destinations in the world. All of us are likely to have sent letters there on a few occasions. In fact his mail box must be one of the largest, most study and magnificent mail boxes in the world!

The hopeful little children of the 1800’s didn’t invest their dreams and wishes in the postal service. The tradition of burning your letter in your home hearth, safe in the knowledge it would pop up in old St Nick’s mail box was the custom of the day.

Flash forward a few decades and we see less home hearths and more electric heaters – oh no! The practice of popping a letter to Santa in the general post is a harmless one. However is does create a hefty amount of, dare we say… waste! The Royal Mail actually provides an excellent reply service, sending notes back to the mail boxes of good little boys and girls all across the UK!

In the USA, a little town rather jauntily named “Santa Claus, Indiana” receives hundreds of thousands of crayon-addressed letters to Santa every year. The good people of Santa Claus actually make the effort to reply to as many as they can too!

Our team couldn’t quite decide on which of our mail boxes Santa might choose, suffice to say it would almost certainly be red! And just in case you’re in the mood for a little festive wishing and maybe dropping a note into Santa’s mail box….

Santa/Father Christmas,
Santa’s Grotto,
Reindeerland,
SAN TA1

We all love our pets, but if the dog gets his teeth into that new bank debit card you’ve been waiting for you might just…! Pet-proofing your mail used to mean the singular option of weak metal or plastic cages to catch the day’s post. We’re pretty sure our old granny could pull those things off the door, never mind our hyperactive Labrador!

Choosing the right letter box to keep your little ball of fur firmly separated from the post is crucial. Protecting your pet from harm is as much of a reason as any to install one of our letterboxes or sturdy mail cages. Creepy as it might sound, you quite simply never know what might come through the door, meaning the health and well-being of your pet could be at stake alongside the health and well-being of your bank statement!

This blog entry could have been very short because almost all of our letterboxes are pet-proof! One of our most popular products is the Brass Indoor Letter Cage (which is actually galvanised steel coated in tasteful brass). Evolved from the flimsy cages of old, our model is strong enough to take on the fiercest pooch (or granny!), and comes with a five year warrantee (testament to our confidence in its performance).

Installing the most appropriate letter box pertaining to your particular needs is something about which our telephone team can offer great advice.

You know the old saying “Don’t shoot the messenger”? Well, we often feel like that here at Mailbox Mania. Whilst we can provide you with durable, top quality mail boxes, we can’t stop a lot of the drivel that get’s pushed into them! Here are a few facts we’ve gathered about pesky junk mail, followed by a few handy tips to reduce it.

•    In a single year, almost 700 items of junk mail could wiggle their way into your letter box.

•    That’s roughly 18 billion pieces of junk mail annually circulating the UK.

•    According to the Environment Agency, by recycling a single ton of junk mail seventeen trees, 2.3 cubic metres landfill, 31,400 litres of water, 4,200 kilowatt hours energy, 1,600 litres oil and 26kg air pollutants can be avoided.

So, how do we keep this troublesome monster at bay and out of our letter boxes? There are varies opt-out schemes. Arguably one of the most opulent sources of information for junk mail practitioners is the electoral register. Although the opt-out option exists, many folks simply aren’t looking for it, making their juicy addresses and demographic details tasty fodder for junk mail list creation. Contact your local council for detail concerning how to remove yourself from the 50% of voters currently opting-in to junk mail lists.

Registration with the Mailing Preference Service is a great way to avoid unwanted, unaddressed direct mail. Similarly, opting-out via the Royal Mail’s opt out service ensures your friendly neighbourhood postman won’t be stuffing your mail boxes with unaddressed junk mail.