Parcels and packaging are often designed for standard measurements because they are often used as part of a regimented, standardised supply chain and logistics systems.

Given that many businesses need to maximise the efficiency of the pallets and containers they use, it typically does not make much sense to try to fit a square peg in a round hole.

This is what a lot of custom cardboard boxes are intended to help solve; awkwardly shaped or sized products can be fit into more universal stock keeping units whilst also being provided as much protection as possible from the rigours of parcel delivery services.

It is much easier to account for modern parcel delivery than it used to be, however. Before the development of a universal parcel post service in Great Britain, it was far more complex to deliver purchases, parcels and packages to people.

When Parcel Post Became Possible In Britain

In the modern age, most of the same infrastructure used to deliver letters is also used to deliver parcels, but before this was the case, the two services were entirely separate and so unfathomably complex that a lot of people could not or did not want to bother with them.

Parcel deliveries had technically existed in the form of private messengers and couriers for as long as commerce and business have existed. Rather infamously, the oldest surviving letter of complaint sent to the copper merchant Ea-nasir related in part to issues surrounding the treatment of a messenger facilitating delivery.

In Great Britain, however, the complexities of parcel post began with the establishment of the General Post Office in 1660, which legally formalised an arrangement amongst messengers and early post offices.

This eventually led to the Post Office getting a rather contentious monopoly on delivering letters, but parcels continued to be sent across the country through private couriers, with the service becoming more widespread once the stagecoach and better roads cut delivery times from days to hours.

This innovation, credited to theatre entrepreneur John Palmer, highlighted the effectiveness of stagecoaches for not only transporting people but props and scenery. The Post Office would use its own fleet of stagecoaches, and private couriers would fill the void for parcel post as well.

The Parallel Monopoly Of Parcel Post

The Post Office was famously underutilised from the 18th century up until the reforms of Sir Rowland Hill and the penny post system in the 1840s, and this issue was worse for parcel post’s early days.

Courier systems were typically paid on delivery based on a complex system of pricing based on weight, distance and many other factors. This, alongside reliability issues caused by the infamous highway robbers of the era and concerns about corruption, made it a niche service.

However, this changed with the establishment of the railways. Not only did this reduce delivery times due to the sheer speed of the railways and the efficiency of travelling post offices, it was also considerably safer, more secure and more reliable.

It was also very quickly monopolised by railway companies, which created a confusing series of parallel services. Unlike the penny post, which had become much simpler and easier to use, parcel post was still somewhat confusing and fragmented, making it difficult to send packages between different lines.

Early mail order services, such as those operated by Pryce Pryce-Jones, got around this by working out agreements with the individual railway companies, but it was a complicated mess for smaller businesses and individuals who wanted to post gifts to other people.

When Did This Change?

The growing popularity of mail order and the frustration that a letter and a slightly larger package needed to be sent through completely different services led to calls for change and reform, but this was more difficult with parcels than it had been for letters.

The railways held an effective monopoly over parcel post, and given its profitability and popularity, were reluctant to give it up. 

Somewhat infamously, whilst Great Britain was part of establishing the Universal Postal Union in 1881, it also claimed that there was no parcel post service, because delivering parcels was part of the railway companies.

This began to change thanks to the work of Postmaster General Henry Fawcett, who channelled the spirit of Sir Rowland Hill in prioritising parcel post as a service to the country rather than a way to generate income.

Ultimately, after two years of negotiation, Mr Fawcett cut a deal with the railway companies and shifted the responsibility of parcel post to the Post Office, changing how packages and boxes needed to be delivered once again.