With a lot of businesses of all sizes and shapes relying on parcel post and custom cardboard boxes to safely store their merchandise, it is perhaps no surprise that the ways in which we send and receive packages are set to radically change.

The announcement of a radical redesign to the bright red pillar boxes that have become an iconic sight throughout Britain has led to a mix of reactions, but optimism is high that they can become a revelation for small businesses and cottage industries.

Whilst elements such as solar power are beneficial, the two main advantages of the new parcel postbox system are a registration system to allow for proof of posting, and a larger slot to allow parcels larger than a large letter to be posted directly without needing to go to a post office.

As the medium of delivery so often shapes the parcel, here is everything you need to know about what the postbox was and what the new one hopes to accomplish.

The Red Pillar Of Society

The pillar post box was first introduced to Great Britain via the Channel Islands, 12 years after the introduction of the penny post, postage stamps and the Royal Mail as we know it today.

The idea was credited to prolific novelist Anthony Trollope, who wanted to solve the problem of collecting and delivering post to the Channel Islands.

Instead of relying on a postmaster, which could arrive at inconsistent times due to the tidal and weather conditions between the English mainland, Jersey and Guernsey, Mr Trollope suggests that letters could be inserted into cast-iron pillar boxes, which could be collected at regular times instead.

The concept took off, and whilst there have been slight changes to the dimensions and the letter slot was changed from vertical to horizontal, the general concept and capacity of the pillar boxes remained the same for well over 150 years.

During that time, they have become a symbol of Great Britain in the same way the red London Routemaster bus has. However, whilst the pillar boxes remained consistent and stood firm, the postal service was changing around them.

The New Letter

The pillar box was ideal for posting letters, safe in the knowledge that they would be picked up by a postman on their rounds, but by the start of the 21st century, that was becoming far less necessary.

According to Ofcom, the number of letters delivered each year has halved from 14.3 billion in the 2011/12 financial year to 6.6 million in 2023/24.

The number of letters has steadily declined since the rise of the internet, email, SMS and instant messaging has largely replaced the letter as the primary source of correspondence. Instead, the majority of letters sent today are “bulk mail”, largely outside the scope of the post boxes.

What has replaced it is sending packages and parcels, which are sent at a much greater frequency by more people than ever before.

The problem with this is that the main universal postal service in the UK is not necessarily one that is designed with parcel post in mind, even at the relatively small scale that most individual sellers and small businesses will interact with it.

Whilst padded envelopes, large letters and some very small boxes designed to be posted through a letterbox can theoretically be sent via a pillar box as long as the appropriate postage is put on it, it is somewhat limited and means that most parcels are sent by the post office, via post lockers or at customer service points in shops and supermarkets.

With second-hand marketplaces such as eBay only increasing in popularity, these needs will only increase.

The New Postbox

Following a successful pilot early in 2025, 3500 new “postboxes of the future” will be rolled out across Great Britain, and the first cities to see them installed were Manchester, Nottingham, Sunderland, Sheffield and Edinburgh.

The idea is that, rather than take a parcel to a post office or collection desk, a sender can buy a postage label via the Royal Mail app, print it, stick it to the parcel and go to a more convenient postbox.

Once there, they can scan the postbox, scan the label, and the parcel delivery door will automatically open, allowing the sender to drop the parcel in as they would a normal letter.

If it proves to be successful, it could be a boon for small businesses in relatively rural locations where they are much closer to a post box than a post office.