Although the most typical mailboxes are locking roadside mailboxes and wall mounted mailboxes, they are not necessarily the only varieties of mailboxes that are available to commercial and residential customers.
Homeowner and commercial customers the same have a variety of options for mail delivery, though times are changing and the need for more security has generated the need for additional options. It is no longer safe for homeowners to use unlocked residential mailboxes.
One of the trendiest additions in the mailbox market is the cluster mailbox. Extremely common in townhouse areas, these boxes group a number of mailboxes together and the residents then get their mail from the large cluster mailbox unit.
While they could be somewhat annoying for those who must leave their homes or offices to gather mail, they permit the mail carrier to make a lot fewer stops and thus deliver the mail faster.
Many people may also feel they are less secure than wall-mounted mailboxes as they are not always located close to the building. However, they’re just as secure if not more so than the wall mounted mailboxes you see in apartment buildings.
Door slots are also quite normal mailbox options although they are becoming less common in residential areas than they once were. Often in commercial buildings it’s quite common to see door slots with connected locked boxes on the reverse side to catch the mail.
This enables the mail to get there securely within the box as opposed to being scattered all over the floor. Many professional customers also use the boxes when they offer after hours drop off of payments in order to avoid coming in to a pile of checks that have made their way all over the floor of the front office.
Another solution that some people pick is a mail drop which means they pay a vendor to receive their mail. Companies like Mailboxes Etc. and UPS offer customers an alternative for secure delivery of their mail to an assigned post office box.
Lots of people choose to get their mail dropped at these locations because they don’t want their mail delivered to their home or office, most often for security reasons.