Linton Road post box in Penn, Wolverhampton

Image: © Roger Kidd Taken: 25 Dec 2022

The trend for giving post boxes a festive hat for Christmas has spread this year. Here near the junction with Pinfold Lane the design is a modest design with a sprig of Holly on top. PO BOX WV4 321D Some years ago (2015?) the collection time plates of most boxes in this area were altered from various times in the afternoon or early evening to 09:00, with later times elsewhere in the vicinity specified*. This meant that Royal Mail could avoid an effective "next day delivery" for first class mail, because people would have to post their letters before their day's work had even started. What replaced this former high class service was a "next day collection", meaning a two day postal service rather than a next day one. Sneaky. In practice, these boxes are not emptied at 9am at all. The local delivery postperson often empties them while he/she is doing his round. Careful observation will reveal the approximate time of weekday collections (through to early afternoon), and that is fairly regular and reliable most of the time. Knowing that often facilitates next next day delivery. Not a lot of people know that. ;-) * This box lists a 4pm collection from Penn Post Office (770 metres/842 yards walk, each way) and a 7pm collection from the Royal Mail office in Sun Street (5km/3·2 miles walk each way). Image]

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