A letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business. For outgoing mail, post boxes are often used for depositing the mail for collection, although some letter boxes are also capable of holding outgoing mail for a carrier to pick up. Letterboxes or mailboxes use the following primary designs:
A slot in a wall or door through which mail is delivered (through-door delivery) A box attached directly to the building (direct-to-door delivery) A box mounted at or near the street (curbside delivery) A centralised mail delivery station consisting of individual mailboxes for an entire building also known as a "flock" throughout the South Island of New Zealand and parts of America. A centralised mail delivery station consisting of individual mailboxes for multiple recipients at multiple addresses in a particular neighborhood or community.
Styles and usage A "letter box", or "mail slot" in American and Canadian usage, is a slot, usually horizontal but sometimes vertical, about , cut through the middle or lower half of a front door. This style is almost universal in British homes and offices, but in the US is limited primarily to urban areas. Most are covered by a flap or seal on the outside for weatherproofing. The flap may be closed by gravity, or sprung to prevent it opening and closing noisily in the wind. Some letterboxes also have a second flap on the inside to provide further protection from the elements. There may also be a small cage or box mounted on the inside of the door to receive the delivered mail. Mail slots are limited to receiving incoming mail, as most have no provision for securing and protecting outgoing mail for pickup by the mail carrier. Sending mail from private addresses is possible in the UK, but Royal Mail usually charge an extra per-item fee for this service.
Wall-mounted or attached mailboxes may also be used in place of mail slots, usually located close to the front door of the residence. They are known as "full-service" mailboxes when they have provisions for securing outgoing as well as incoming mail. Attached wall-mounted mailboxes are still used in older urban and suburban neighbourhoods in North America. They are especially common in urban and suburban areas of Canada, where the curbside mailbox is rarely seen except in rural areas. Attached mailboxes are less common in newer urban and suburban developments and in rural areas of the United States, where curbside delivery or delivery to a community mail station (cluster mailbox, known as a bank of post boxes in the UK) is generally used.
Rural and some suburban areas of North America may utilize curbside mailboxes, also known as rural mailboxes. These receptacles generally consist of a large metal box mounted on a support designed primarily to receive large quantities of incoming mail, often with an attached flag to signal the presence of outgoing mail to the mail carrier. In the US and Canada, rural curbside mailboxes may be found grouped together at property boundaries or road/driveway intersections, depending upon conditions. Although the United States Postal Service (USPS) has general regulations stating the distance a letter box may be from the road surface, these requirements may be changed by the local postmaster according to local environment and road conditions.Postal Service, Code of Federal Regulations 39 CFR Part 111, Standard 7A, Mailboxes, City and Rural Curbside, February 8, 2001
At one time, nearly 843,000 rural Canadian residents used rural (curbside) mailboxes for private mail delivery, though Canada Post has since required the installation of community mailbox stations for many rural residents.Denley, Randall, "Canada Post set to deliver fatal blow to rural mail service" (), The Ottawa Citizen, 3 May 2008, retrieved 26 January 2012 from Canada.com
In the US, wall-mounted or curbside mailboxes that are only designed for receiving incoming mail are known as "limited-service" mailboxes, while mailboxes equipped with a mechanism for notifying the postman to collect outgoing mail from the mailbox are known as "full service" mailboxes.
A number of designs of letterboxes and mailboxes have been patented, particularly in the United States. One design was the visible mailbox (because it was made of transparent glass) with a flip-up aluminium lid produced during the first part of the 20th century by George F. Collins of the Barlet-Collins Glass Company in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.City Free Delivery mailbox, National Postal Museum (retrieved 13 February 2012)Visible Mail Box , Antique Perfection (retrieved 13 February 2012)
Letter box standards and construction
Europe
The European standard for letter boxes, EN 13724:2002 "Postal services – Apertures of private letter boxes and letter plates – Requirements and test methods", replaces earlier national standards such as BS 2911:1974 "Specification for letter plates" or DIN 32617. It specifies among other things:
Envelope size C4 (229 mm × 324 mm) must be deliverable without bending or damage The internal volume must able to hold at least a 40 mm high bundle of C4 envelopes Aperture width of either 230–280 mm (> C4 width) or 325–400 mm (> C4 height) Aperture height of 30–35 mm Mounting height of between 0.7 and 1.7 m for the aperture When positioned externally, the post box should not allow more than 1% total capacity water ingress from natural precipitation or moisture causes. Various privacy, theft-protection, vandalism resistance and corrosion-resistance test requirements
This standard is voluntary. It was developed by a German mail boxes manufacturer Burg Wächter.
Canada For those neighbourhoods where mail delivery is to a mail slot, the mail slot must have an opening not less than 17.5 cm by 4 cm, and must be located in a front door or adjacent panel not more than 125 cm and not less than 60 cm from the finished floor line.Canada Post, Mail Receptacles Regulations SOR/83-743: Regulations Respecting the Delivery of Mail To And the Collection Of Mail From Certain Mail Receiving and Dispatching Facilities, Canada Post Corporation Act, Department of Justice, 15 September 2006 Wall-mounted mailboxes equipped with a slot must have a slot opening measurement not less than 13.5 cm by 4 cm and the slot located on or near the top of the box.
Curbside mailboxes, known in Canada as rural mailboxes, must be weatherproof, have space for the name of the mailbox owner, and possess a signal device on the right-hand side (when facing the front of the mailbox) for pickup of outgoing mail. The signal device must rise above the mailbox and be visible at a distance, and must not obscure the mailbox owner's name or impede vehicular or pedestrian traffic. Canada Post requires all rural mailboxes to have a minimum interior dimensions of 45 cm in length by 17.5 cm in width by 17.5 cm in height for a rectangular mailbox, and 45 cm in length by 25 cm in diameter in the case of a cylindrical mailbox.
United States
The US Post Office has established guidelines for mail recipients, including mail slot or mailbox size, location, and identification requirements. While the Post Office permitted alternative designs for attached mailboxes and mail slots that met basic size and construction requirements, the same was not true for curbside mailboxes, which postal regulations required be in the form of the traditional dome-rectangular or 'tunnel-top' design first established in 1915. In 1978, seven years after the establishment of the restructured US Postal Service, postal authorities at last approved a "contemporary" mailbox specification for alternative designs.
Currently, US curbside mailboxes are classified as (T) Traditional, (C) Contemporary, or (L) Locking.U.S. Postal Service Standard Mailboxes, Curbside, U.S. Postal Service STD-7B01, retrieved 8 February 2012 Traditional or Contemporary non-locking curbside mailboxes are approved in three sizes - No. 1, No. 2, or No. 3, measured by minimum interior dimensions. The largest acceptable curbside mailbox is the No. 3, which measures 22.81 inches long, 11 inches wide, and 15 inches in height (58 cm x 28 cm x 38 cm) at the peak. Locking mailbox designs that provide security for the recipient's incoming mail have fewer restrictions on shape and size, though designs with a slot for incoming mail must be at least 1.75 inches high by 10 inches wide. Residential locking mailboxes cannot require the postal carrier to have a key, by USPS Specifications. Therefore, no USPS approved residential locking mailbox has secure outgoing mail. Installation requirements vary from standard unlocked mailboxes: with locking mailboxes, the incoming mail slot must be 41"-45" above the roadside surface, and the front of the mailbox must be 6"-8" back from the curb. USPS specifications for all mailboxes mandate the same, except the placement of the 'incoming mail area' varies with a locking mailbox.
Environmental conditions External or curbside letter boxes are not temperature-controlled, and this can sometimes be a concern for temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceuticals, live plants or other organisms, or chocolate candies. Conditions can include high or low temperatures outside of the recommended storage conditions for certain products. For example, the USFDA found that the temperature in a steel mailbox painted black could reach in full sun while the ambient air temperature was .
Security There is a recommendation to have a lock on the letter box, if it is not built into a lockable door. Unlocked letter boxes are often used for identity theft, including the ordering of something valuable which is then stolen from the unlocked box. In the United States for example, by policy, the USPS will not deliver mail to an unlocked or unsecured box which is located at a centralized mailbox installation.
Letter boxes are often destroyed as a prank using fireworks.
History
Europe Private letterboxes or mail slots did not become popular in most of Europe until the mid to late 19th century, although they were used in Paris from the late 18th century. Earlier examples are recorded in Italy, where the town of Portaria preserves a plaque marking the site of a mailbox dated 1674, identified as the first in the country.
In 1849, the Royal Mail first encouraged people to install letterboxes to facilitate the delivery of mail. Before then, letterboxes of a similar design had been installed in the doors and walls of post offices for people to drop off outgoing mail. An example of such a wall box (originally installed in the wall of the Wakefield Post Office) is dated 1809 and believed to be the oldest example in Britain. It is now on display at the new Wakefield Museum.
North America
In 1863, with the creation of Free City Delivery, the US Post Office Department began delivering mail to home addresses.
Until 1916, mail carriers knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.Household Mailboxes, National Postal Museum, retrieved 8 February 2012 Efficiency experts estimated that each mailman lost over 1.5 hours each day just waiting for patrons to come to the door.Marsh, Allison, Household Mailboxes , National Postal Museum To correct this problem, the Post Office Department ordered that every household must have a mail box or letter slot in order to receive mail. This requirement was phased in, starting with new delivery locations, around 1912. Slowly, homeowners and businesses began to install mail slots or attached mailboxes to receive mail when they were either not at home or unable to answer the door. The requirement was made mandatory in 1923.