please empty your brain below

Our postbox on Fish Island (very close to my house) has been operating in the same way since last September, I was horrified when I first read about it, but in reality although it states that the last collection will be no earlier than 9am I have been watching it very closely and usually it is about 5:15 pm when the collection is actually picked up, (I can hear the postbox door banging shut) and the earliest I have noted the collection was about 4pm, so its a good idea to check the "day plate" at the top of the door.
It seems unbelievable there used to be 2, 3 or even 4 collections from post boxes with the Day plate at the top showing the next collection time and also the chance of having a same day delivery in local postal areas in the 'second delivery' to your house.
Such is progress. I suppose the old regime was akin to what we now call email.
In which case the new timeplates would appear to be an excuse to no longer guarantee collection times so that targets are never missed. And perhaps cover to introduce a shoddier service in the future when we're not looking.
We have the same thing round here - it's no longer sensible to put a letter in it - I go into the village and put them in the box outside the Post Office. If everyone does that the local box won't be used - how long before it disappears - not long I fear.
It's been like this in more rural areas for 4 or 5 years now. The difference being that it's not just a bit of a walk/detour to a later collection point.

At least there is still a post box there. In many places abroad it's hard to find a post box as they are so rare.
A case of use it or lose it. No point having frequent collections from nearly empty mail boxes. People just use e-mail or text messaging now instead of writing letters.
I'm sure Royal Mail's shareholders will be pleased.
Fishislandskin is right: the time on the plate is the earliest collection time. I live in the sticks and when I asked why no collection had been made 2 hours after the plate time, I was told by the local sorting office that the box is emptied by the postie doing the local round on his way back, which is typically midday. It pays to talk to your local postie to ascertain reality and, if something is urgent, and you have missed the collection , too bad, a little further travelling is involved. Actually to me it makes sense: why have posties out on separate journeys to deliver and collect, combine the two, which is what this is, and save time, money, petrol the lot.
There is a little bit of me that sympathies with you, but the rest doesn't really care - remember all the fuss they made about what would happen to phone boxes when BT was privatised?, anyone really that bothered now?

It's like any sort of progress, when the new shiny thing is more convenient than the old shiny thing we can't get the divorce papers in quick enough.
That "O/S Bow Mspo" gobbledegook. Who is the intended reader of that?
MSPO actually stands for "Modified sub post office" - a sub-post office running under a particular kind of contract - the distinction is of no importance to the customer.
And as it's closed, googling the post office's website for it won't help.
(Of course now that Royal Mail, but not the Post Offices, have been sold off, there is less communication between them, so the relevant department in RM may not know that that PO is closed)
Fortunately it's given a street address, but a postcode would have been useful.
All I know is that I posted the Mother in Law's Mother's Day card on the Monday (thinking I'd give it plenty of time thanks to the reduced collections, and it being a 2nd class stamp) and it still hadn't arrived by Mother's Day the following Sunday.
It had by the the time we phoned the week after that, but she couldn't tell me on which day! Disgraceful!
Uncanny timing, DG. Less than 24 hours ago I went to post a cheque (I know, I know, no one uses cheques any more) and found a notice on my very convenient nearby postbox saying it will be taken away on May 1st. The notice suggested the nearest alternative, a 12-minute walk down the road and a 15-minute walk back, slightly uphill. Not so good when you've got a wonky ankle.
I laughed when you first posted this as my 60 miles away from London post box still had an afternoon delivery but alas we too have been affected. The instructions on the box say there is a later collection from the box at 'Repton', where might that be?
These new collection times were news to us,round here. No advance warning,so after a steady climb up hill to the nearest pillar box,we found that the time had also been changed to 9.am. Afternoon collections now available from next pillar box,10 minute walk in the opposite direction! # John. Please don't generalise ,using the term 'people' who write e mails and texts instead of writing letters. There are some still out there,old fashioned as we are. As for the demise of public telephone boxes - not everyone has or wants a mobile 'phone. And what happens when the thing is lost,out of charge etc.? Right,oldies rant over (for now).
This is just another example of how, in so many ways, officialdom makes life increasingly tedious and complicated.

The reason of course is that officialdom wants absolutely everything on line, so that officialdom can keep tabs on us.
The fact is that nowadays, mail is hardly ever used for time-critical items.

Yes, this is unfortunate for people without access to email or telephone. But such people are a very small part of the population.

It does make environmental sense, wherever possible, to move electrons rather than physical objects.

As for birthday cards, have you noticed that, except for newly-made friends, we all have over 365 days notice of people's birthdays?
Yep - 'they' charge you more (post prices went up last week, but buried in the 'good' news that some parcel rates had come down), offer you less and the spin is that it's a better outcome.

It's universal - railway companies, BT, utilities, even those genuinely entitled to 'benefits'. I'm still puzzled why politicians wonder why people do not vote. As pollies know where their next ten thousand meals are coming from, they only need to wonder, not to do anything.

I've just had a long day in an organisation which has a breweries and parties issue, so perhaps not in the best mood to write this. Apologies for the rant.
True, most mail is not time-critical. Hospital appointment letters can be, though. These seem to take up to a week in this part of North London, from the date on the letter to delivery. Of course they are franked so are not posted in a public postbox. End of my rant.
Well take heart, DG, the exact same dissolution of service is going on here in the the states. It's like I'm amazed if the mail ever gets delivered before dark - often it arrives about 6 pm, if at all. Saturday service is no better - but the oddest thing of all is sometimes a parcel will arrive on SUNDAY! Often it's a different carrier every day. When I was in college it was hard to land a job as a mail carrier - now anyone seems to qualify.

I think that FedEx made some deal with the USPS to make up slack delivery over the weekends or something. Considering that checks still rely on the mail, it is actually important.
It's the same round here (urban West Sussex). The collection plate says 9 AM but in reality I've seen the box being emptied at about 5 PM. If something is unreliable or uncertain though it may be effectively useless to some people.

I'd be interested to know what drop in useage there has been at these boxes since the new measures have been introduced. As daveb says surely the time will come when the Royal Mail will say hardly anyone is using these boxes now, and further reduce/ withdraw service.
But who actually sends things via snailmail these days? Most of my friends and family are on email, delivery time of mere minutes.

Mother, however, has to wait on the ol' GPO, or what's left of it now the profitable urban bits have been privatised. She's out in the sticks, so it'll have to be the GPO for her - unless I email her via another family member!

Either way a lot of the cuts seem to be made merely for the sake of making cuts. Possibly on the principle that if they cut enough we'll all go find some other way to communicate with each other!
Ahem, it's actually 'Modified Scale Payment Office'. It's an obsolete term, but the suggested replacement 'Franchise Office' was turned down when someone pointed out the abbreviation.

dg writes: Thanks cee, post updated.
Think most people in my workplace take advantage of the 4.30 ish collection to sneak private mail into... Saves getting wet in the rain ;-)










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