Isle of Man post box collections to be reduced

Collections from most post boxes on the Isle of Man will be cut from Monday in response to a marked decline in their use.

The changes will see the majority of the island's 244 boxes emptied only once a day rather than twice, at 10:00 GMT on week days.

Currently the frequency of collections around the island varies.

Isle of Man Post Office said the changes were due to a steady decline in the volume of mail.

Parcel postage was increasing, however, and the post office said the changes would help switch the focus there instead - with more parcel boxes expected to appear.

Under the changes, frequently-used collection points and those outside post offices will retain an additional 17:00 collection, while Saturday collections will remain in place where they already exist.

Each post box will be updated with its particular new collection information, with those set to retain more than one daily collection marked in green to make them easily identifiable.

A Post Office spokeswoman said letter volumes had dropped 43% since the last revision of collections in 2017.

Changing the time of collections to 10:00 would allow the organisation to guarantee an off-island dispatch for the same day and next-day delivery for local letters, she added.

Chief operating officer Lisa Duckworth said the changes were part of the organisation's ongoing adjustment to reduced letter volumes and increased parcel volumes.

"Adjusting our post box collections to this decline enables us to streamline processes within our operation, becoming more efficient whilst seeking to reduce our carbon emissions wherever possible," she said.

In time the number of parcel boxes across the island would increase, she added.

Similar to traditional post boxes, parcel boxes are big enough to allow people to post small parcels at any time.

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