The Postal Service

The photo challenge pictures of post boxes threw up some interesting comments about how other countries manage their post / mail. So for those of you who live in ‘Foreign parts’ I thought I would explain the UK system.

If I want to send someone a letter or Birthday card I need to buy a stamp and stick it on the envelope. I can get stamps in loads of places – a post office, a supermarket, greetings card shops or even online. I can choose between 1st Class which should get there the next working day (but that is not guaranteed) or 2nd class (cheaper) which is slower. If I really need to be sure it gets there next day I have to go to a Post Office and send it ‘Special Delivery’ meaning it will be tracked and is guaranteed to arrive before 1pm the next day but that, of course is more expensive than 1st class. Then I need to put it in a post box. Every post office has one and there are others strategically placed around the towns and countryside though there are fewer than there used to be as use of ‘snail mail’ has dropped. When we moved here 30 years ago there was a telephone kiosk (the iconic red telephone box) at the end of our drive which was then moved to a lay-by (passing place on a single track road) just past the cottage next door where there was already a post box. The phone box was moved as fewer and fewer people used it thanks to mobile phones Then the postbox fell down because the wooden post it was attached to rotted. It was never replaced so now the nearest is a mile and a half away.

If I want to send a parcel as well as a card I need to take it to the post office where it is weighed and measured – the cost depends on whether it can be delivered through a letterbox at the home of the recipient or must be handed in, and its weight. I also have to confirm that there is nothing dangerous inside! The cost is calculated, stamps put on, I get a receipt as proof I posted it and it goes into a large sack behind the counter. Some Post Offices are large ‘stand alone’ places and others are a dedicated counter in part of another shop.

The post box at Cardigan Post Office – a large imposing building on the High Street

Postmen and postwomen drive around in small red vans delivering post and collecting items from post boxes and post offices. Every postbox has a sign on the front (the white rectangle in the photo) which says when it will be emptied. Round here all of them say mail is collected at 9am which is clearly not accurate. What it really means is ‘Not before 9am but anytime after that when we get there’! At bigger post offices there may be 2 collections each day.

The sacks of mail go to a Sorting Office in one of the towns and are distributed into other sacks according to where they need to go. It all used to be done by hand but now we have to put a Postcode onto all mail which allows it to be automated. My code is SA34 0JH – SA stands for Swansea, 34 means Whitland and 0JH is this stretch of lane with 9 houses. Then they are loaded into lorries, trains and even airplanes and taken to the sorting office for the area where they need to be delivered. So post for me goes to Swansea then to Whitland and then into the right little van for my lane.

Post for me arrives early afternoon usually but if I am sent something by ‘Special Delivery’ the postman has to do his round in reverse order so that it arrives before 1pm. He just hopes he doesn’t have one of those at each end of his round! But it is rarely used so he is usually OK.

Houses that are close to the road usually have a flapped slot in the front door for post to be delivered through. The postman parks somewhere on the road and walks up and down delivering mail. But out here in the country where driveways can be long most of us have a box of some kind near the entrance to save the postman time. Like many locals I use a ‘dead’ Microwave oven ( or popty ping in local parlance)!

If any of you feel moved to tell the rest of us how your system works I would love to hear from you. I wonder what Teddy Bears and Statues, the April topics, will get us talking about?