Post Box Royal-Mail Collection Times

[Dinger2]

Can anyone (RoyalMail employee) out there tell me what are the current collection times in the suburbs of Manchester (South) some years ago there used to be about 5-a-day.I know 'fings ain't wot they used to be !there is one in the Wythenshawe Forum Centre (red plastic moulded lookalike box) that has only one per day at 2.30 ! How come?

[Canary42]

Privatisation.

Profits before people.

[Buenchico]

The current 'collection windows' are here:
http://www.royalmail.com/personal/help-and-support/when-do-we-collect-from-postboxes

However if, say, a van will completing the last collection on its round at 1730 then (obviously) the postboxes before that one will have earlier times for their final collections. (Typically around 1600 to 1700 around here).

Postboxes within private premises (such as lage supermarkets and the Wythenshaw Forum Centre) are subject to separate commercial arrangements between those premises and Royal Mail.

The system is simply responsive to customers' needs. Commercial organisations need collections up until the end of their working day, so Royal Mail collect directly from their offices up until 1930. However very few people now send urgent letters (prefering to use email instead), so there's no point in sending out vans to empty postboxes. Further, most people now have transport to get them to a sorting office on the rare occasions that they need to post an urgent letter in the evening.

The Post Office (which, of course, I recognise is now separate from Royal Mail) has been remarkably good at modernising its services in recent years, with loads of post offices around here open 7 days per week (often fom 0600 to 2300), so it's not all bad!

[baza]

I once posted a letter on the travelling post office train at Euston and it was delivered in Alnwick the next morning, ah, those were the days.

[BilSuth]

You might want to note the local boxes for future reference by checking them out individually. Where I stay, some are 9a.m. only, some are mid-afternoon and the best are 5 to 5.30. There are very few 6 to 6.15s now.
Elsewhere, I always check the panel before getting the envelope out of my pocket.

[Ouzel]

^^ Very true - where I stay, there are only two post boxes .. one has a collection at 9.00 am and the other, at the Post Office, is at 4.15 pm.

[fiction-factory]

Our local post box says something like 9am but I think he small print underneath says it's the latest guaranteed collection time. In practice I often see the box being emptied much later in the day and sometimes more than once. There are details given of boxes with later last collection times. It's not satisfactory and makes me wonder whether I should bother paying for a first class stamp- but I suppose it's very rarely that I need to post anything and I am guilty of leaving birthday cards to the last minute

[mikey4444]

Be careful with "last" posting times. The postbox in my village says that the last one is 09:00....in the morning !

In other words, its the first and the last ! So in order for a 1st class letter to get to its destination, you will have to get up early and post before before 09:00 !

Anybody still think that privatising Royal Mail was still a good idea ?

On a side issue, my Post Office has a large sign up, saying that "due to a technicality, we have no more second class stamps"

When I enquired I was told that there had been a printing error and they were trying to get some more. How a Post Office can run out of stamps this side of Xmas is beyond me !

[EDDIE51]

^^ just had the same mikey, no 2nd class stamps at my PO either.
They did say I could bring the cards in and they would print post labels for each item. This is far from first time my post office has run out of stamps.
(bit like a pub with no beer or a baker with no bread!)
I suspect they are trying to get rid of the traditional stamps and make everyone either use their printed labels or get their own franking machine.

[vulcan42]

You don't have to buy your stamps at the post office, there are many places that sell them. I nearly always buy mine at the local newsagent and at this time of the year at the shop that sells the cards.

[spudqueen]

Basically many post boxes have more than one collection a day, but nowadays they only put on them the time of the last collection. I work in a Post Office and the post box outside is emptied three times a day (Monday to Friday anyway), but only the last collection time is posted.

For those Post Offices running out of stamps. Shame on you. You need to keep a close eye on your stocks and order more. They can always be sent back, or do what I do, order more ordinary second class stamps, they will always be used in the new year. Or maybe it's just a ploy to get people to buy 1st class.