As the post office starts phasing out door-to-door home delivery, it is unveiling an updated community mailbox, with flatter slots and bigger parcel boxes.

“These boxes are meant for the realities of today and the future,” said Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton. “The future is less mail in the box, and more boxes in the mail.”

The new design, with a larger aluminum base, can easily handle online purchases such as small electronics or clothing, but any item that requires a signature it will still be delivered to the door, he said.

Oakville is among the first 11 cities to switch entirely to community mailboxes with home delivery slated to be eliminated by this fall. In all, 25,300 residential addresses and 1,100 business addresses in Oakville will be affected.

Rural routes and delivery to apartment and condo buildings will remain unchanged.

Canada Post is targeting suburban areas, since some of those neighbourhoods already use community mailboxes.

Dense neighbourhoods in big cities like Toronto and Montreal will be among the last to change over in the five-year plan, in part because the post office still needs to figure out how best to adapt to small lots and narrow streets.

First introduced in the 1980s, these super mailboxes were placed in all new subdivisions or communities as a cost-saving measure. Canada Post says it will consult with those impacted with a mail-in survey as well as a more extensive online survey.

“We are going to work neighbourhood by neighbourhood,” Hamilton said. “Based on that we will get a good idea as to whether people are looking for, fewer boxes closer to the home, or a cluster of boxes nearby.”

Each box serves 16 addresses along with two boxes to hold parcels and an outgoing mail slot.

Residents will be asked whether they prefer two to three community mailboxes, often on the sides of corner lots, spread throughout a neighbourhood. Or the other option is one larger site, serving more households, up to 200, but it will be located farther away from their homes.

The online survey also asks people about different colour schemes including grey and beige, as well as different decal coating, from Canadian icons to landscapes to the Canada Post logo, to prevent graffiti. As well, it asks about other concerns including lighting, safety and traffic.

“We hope to find what works best, understanding that we might not be able to make everyone happy,” Hamilton said.

The final decision on community mailboxes in urban neighbourhoods has not been made, but Hamilton said possibilities include affixing mailboxes to the side of a building or even boxes of smaller sizes or shapes.

“They could also be in convenience stores, pharmacies or grocery stores where people can combine their shopping and errands,” he said.

But the union representing postal carriers says it still gearing up to fight Canada Post’s plan that calls for the elimination of 6,000 to 8,000 jobs over the next five years.

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“It’s really a political fight. It’s rallying people,” said Denis Lemelin, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. “We need to make it clear to the government that they have to stop it.”

While the federal government has made clear it supports Canada Post’s plan, Lemelin said some municipalities as well as the union are studying whether they can mount a legal challenge to block the changes.

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