Last post moved to as early as 9am

[Still Waters]

The last collection times at nearly half of the post boxes in Britain have been brought forward to as early as nine in the morning by Royal Mail.

Currently, the boxes are emptied after 4pm, but Royal Mail has moved the times to between 9am and 3pm as part of a restructuring.

A steep decline in the numbers of letters being sent means many of the country's post boxes "no longer covering their costs", Royal Mail said.

http://www.telegraph...post-boxes.html

[libstaK]

Well look at it this way - you can post your mail for next day pickup right throughout the evening before.

[Oppono Astos]

Curious; living in a village (a whole 4 miles from the nearest town!), our only daily delivery is now invariably in the afternoon - after which they make the only collection

[stevewinn]

the Royal Mail is systematically being torn apart by European competition rules. the Royal Mail by Royal Charter has to retain the ability to deliver to every single address in the United Kingdom. You can post a letter from one tip of the country to the other, from the most populated cities to the most remote and least populated villages in the country. and all for a universal price. In order to achieve this the Royal Mails profitable side of the business helped fund the no profit making side. We had the best postal service anywhere in the world. domesticmail was delivered by Road, Rail and Air with two deliveries a day morning and afternoon. they had a delivery rate of 98% of First class mail delivery, and 99% rate of Delivering second class mail on time. since then things have changed.

When the EU ruled that the Royal Mail had to open up its profitable size of the business to foreign companies, such as TNT, DHL, these companies having no Royal Charter requirement to deliver to every single address in the United Kingdom. can cherry pick the most profitable routes and deliveries. thus leaving the Royal Mail to continue offering a service to the least profitable deliveries and routes meaning the money generated from the profitable side of the business which is ever deminishing is not available to cover the unprofitable side of the business. meaning the service has had to change, including price increases. its no wonder we have seen the service performance falling. We've gone from two reliable deliveries twice a day five days (six days if you include one delivery on Saturday) a week to only one delivery a day six days a week but the mail can turn up any time from 9am to 4pm in the afternoon.

We now have TNT post now delivering to households every-other day. offering a three day a week service, Monday,Wednesday & Friday. I wish TNT had their own mail boxes because every letter i have delivered off them i'd repost back in their post box with return to sender. so costing them money in sorting the same mail twice.

Because the decimation of the Royal Mail and Post Office will no doubt be seen in twenty years time as a travesty, and we'll do what we do best, demolish a perfectly sound institution before realising our mistake and then having to rebuilt it back up from the foundations. costing billions and years to get back what we once had.

Edited August 9, 2014 by stevewinn

[Still Waters]

I can remember when postal delivers where twice a day. morning and afternoon, and that was just letters. Parcels would come under a separate delivery.

With all the online ways to communicate we have now and bill paying, it's no wonder the need for post boxes has reduced. Most things I do online, apart from sending greetings cards in the post that is, I hardly ever visit a post box.

[dr no]

Now it is privatised and with the increased competition,you are going to see more and more erosion of the Royal Mail service.A large part of the delivery system is unprofitable,tnt won't deliver to outlying rural areas but Royal Mail have to even though they sustain a loss doing so.

Unless Postcom,the postal regulator,stops the likes of tnt cherry picking the more lucrative areas of delivery we won't have a Royal Mail eventually,its unsustainable.