MORE POSTBOXES DECORATED FOR SPECIAL EVENTS

It’s been a busy few weeks for Royal Mail, with more special postboxes created, the trial of a new uniform, and the start of the parcel pick-up service.

World Book Day saw Royal Mail unveil five special postboxes honouring British authors and illustrators who have used literature to help keep children entertained during lockdown. The postboxes honoured writers Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola (Shepherd’s Bush, London); Cressida Cowell (Oban, Scotland); Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Sheffield); Eloise Williams (Cardiff); and Sam Mcbratney (Belfast).

But there weren’t the only postboxes getting a spring clean. Special postboxes were decorated in an elegant plum colour to celebrate Mother’s Day, with each box featuring testimonies from local reallife Royal Mail employees. Each design incorporated images of the colleagues’ mums, and a heartfelt account of their relationship with them, and how recent lockdown restrictions may be impacting them. The Mothers’ Day postboxes were located in Inverness, Lisburn, Pontypridd, and Liverpool. The special postboxes will feature their decoration for one month before returning to their usual colour.

Royal Mail is also trialling a new uniform for its postmen and postwomen, designed to ‘better reflect the modern delivery round’ and based on feedback from postmen and postwomen across the UK. The new-look uniform will retain Royal Mail’s iconic red colour and will be trialled for a twelve-week period on a range of delivery rounds across the nation. If successful, the designs will replace the current uniforms worn by Royal Mail postmen and women.

The new-look posties have been kept busier than ever thanks to the recently introduced parcel pick-up service. According to initial data, postmen and postwomen have collected over one million parcels since launch, with growth accelerating during the festive period and following the reintroduction of lockdown measures.

Finally, a number of retail brands will begin trialling Royal Mail’s new Sunday delivery service across the UK this month. Royal Mail is currently in discussions with additional retailers about rolling out the service to their customers too. The trial is the first salvo in Royal Mail’s move to tap into the seven-day-a-week delivery market as more and more consumers expect Sunday deliveries as part of their online shopping experience.