Box - Postal Service Boxes

Postal Service Boxes

• Post box (British English and others, also written postbox), or mailbox (North American English and others) is a physical box used to collect mail that is to be sent to a destination. Variants of post boxes for outgoing mail include:

• Lamp box
• Ludlow wall box
• Pillar box
• Wall box

Boxes where postal workers deposit incoming mail for the recipient include:

• Letter box (in the US usually called mailbox), positioned near or on the mail recipient's home or place of work.
• Post office box, (often abbreviated P.O. box or PO box), a box rented by the mail recipient to be an independent postal address, located in a post office or in the premises of a company offering such facilities. Self-service boxes are unlocked by the recipient, otherwise a postal clerk retrieves the mail.

A relay box is similar to a post or mail box, but totally locked; post office trucks deposit mail that is then retrieved and delivered by pedestrian mail carriers. In the United States, they are painted differently than collection boxes.