Post box on busy road in city - last post time 9AM???

[Snog]

My local post box is on a busy road in a city. I went to post a birthday card at lunchtime only to find that the last post time for this box is 9AM!!!!

So my birthday card with a first class stamp on it won't arrive the next day. If I want a later last post time I need to walk a mile to another post box.

I thought 5pm was a normal last post time and a bit earlier for rural or less busy locations. AIBU to think 9am is ridiculous?

Our closest one is 7am. It's annoying but I've learnt to be more organised by posting a day earlier or walk to the co-op/post office which have a 4.30 cut off.

Quite normal, it is clearly only on the morning post route rather than the afternoon. The post box at the end of our road is 9.45am (the next closest, outside the PO is 4.30pm). It isn't a new thing, I remember the post box collection time nearest to my parents house was 11.15am growing up.

Are both of you also talking about post boxes in cities on main roads or are you rural/minor roads?

Large town on main road

I have a mental note of the collection times for the local boxes. The closest is 9am but there's one a bit further that is 4:30pm and the one at the post office Spanish is about 5:30pm. There's one between the closest and the PO that is 11:30 i believe 😂 I think I need to get a hobby...

The van collecting mail will be going through the city on a set route and get to each box at approx the same time every day. They can't all get collected at a time more convenient to you. Maybe post your letters sooner next time to ensure they are delivered on time.

The last posting times were changed a couple years back when there was a biggish reorganisation of what posties did what activities. In our area, instead of an individual postie having an individual route, they clumped several routes together, gave them to two posties in a van, and made them collect from the postboxes as well, whereas the collections were previously done by a different postie to the delivery postie.

Many years ago, when I was a teen, I lived in a village/small town with a post box near our house away from the main street. There were two collections a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. (Over time those collections reduced.)

In the bigger town we live in now, 30ish years later, there is only one collection a day from whichever post box you use. The posties drive around from estate to estate and empty the boxes as they go, so they are all emptied at different times of day, but generally in the same order.

We were in a local city about three weeks ago for a meeting and needed to post a letter to do with the meeting afterwards. Went to the nearby post box, on the main street and found it was only emptied once a day and we'd already missed the collection as it was done in the mornings. The letter box was on the corner of the main street and the road that came off the roundabout there had the post office on it. (Yes, we still have a Post Office there!) You would think the busiest post boxes, especially those in the vicinity of the Post Office, would be emptied again close to the end of the working day and at least dropped into the PO overnight.

Our letter never got delivered either so it nearly cost us a decent percentage of our monthly income for this month and we would have to start an application from scratch again. Thankfully we sorted it out before we lost it.

Also, Royal Mail do not guarantee delivery of first class post by the next day, they have not guaranteed this for many years. If you need to send something for a certain date it needs posted in plenty of time if possible.

Our post box get emptied by the postman who does the deliveries on the estate, usually between 12.00 - 1.00 once he has finished delivering, we have 2 man teams, 1 to deliver letters & anything that will go through the letter box & 1 to deliver larger parcels. Both travel together in a van & then separate to do the deliveries.

At least I now know what to expect. I'm not impressed by the service though. I will be mugging up on last post times for all the post boxes in the vicinity now...

I'm aware that there is no guarantee for next day delivery for first class mail but over 93% is delivered next day and the destination was only 5 miles away. I was aiming for day before birthday so should now arrive on the birthday...

How would you expect all post boxes to be emptied at 5? They are emptied as the postmen go through their route. That makes best logistical sense. It has always been thus. Around here you need to have your mail to the post office by 12 to ensure 1st class goes that day.

In my city they changed all the street boxes to 9am BUT they don't collect them at 9, they collect them at some point that day but it allows for them to effectively schedule them.

Maybe it varies in different areas, but here posties do not collect from post boxes, they only deliver. My brother works for royal mail on collections and most routes are only done once a day, with busier ones also having an evening collection, they've cut a lot down to once a day now to save money.

Yep. This changed a couple of years ago. It's a pain.

We still have a couple of 5pm collections in the town centre that I use for urgent mail almost forgotten birthday cards.

There are loads of postboxes in my town... most are 9am... I’ve found the few with a 5pm collection.

Had it actually been collected? We live in London and the nearest box to us says 10am but if you check the the ‘next collection box’ it is always that day - I think it is usually collected about 5pm

This sadly does not surprise me and is unreasonable. However, Royal Mail lost the plot a long time ago when Peter Mandelson had Adam Crozier run the organisation, and has never fully recovered since.

Think logically- how could all main road post boxes be collected at 5pm?

Our post office one is around that time, the nearest one is done by the postman when he delivers

Yes mine are 9am it's really annoying.

Yes recent change and very annoying. They were never all at 5pm but were late afternoon. Luckily I now live very close to a post office, plus there are a couple of later collection boxes where my office is.

Even better was the long gone Sunday collection.

It says 9am on my local one but like PP said my postman empties it and he doesn’t come until 11.30am. 9am is the standard time they put on I think.

My heart absolutely bleeds at the thought of you having to walk a full mile to post a card. What a time to be alive, eh.

Obviously all the post boxes can't be emptied at around 5pm.

Ours recently changed to this. I have noticed though that fairly late in the day it quite often still has that day pick up on the day thingy, so suppose they are just covering their backs.

All the local post boxes here say 9am. Every last one apart from the one at the post office. It's a lie. A team of posties is dropped off the estate in a van to deliver the mail, and the box is emptied whenever that happens to be, usually around lunchtime. The box is across from my house. I'd post anything vital at the post office, but I reckon your card has a fair chance of being picked up, OP.