Canada Post unveils design for new and 'improved' community mailboxes

A mock-up of the new Canada Post community mailboxes is pictured. (Canada Post)

Canada Post has revealed what its new "community" mailboxes will look like once they are put into use this fall.

The new and "improved" community mailboxes feature larger individual compartments, larger parcel compartments and an outgoing mail slot which residents can use to send out mail. All the compartments will be secured with locks.

The community boxes also feature a sloped top, which Canada Post says will direct rain and snow away from the letters and packages contained inside.

In a mock-up of the new boxes, the Crown corporation says the individual compartments are big enough to accept more than 50 per cent of the parcels mailed in Canada.

Canada Post says it can allocate individual compartments at a particular height to meet the needs of customers who have a disability.

Each community mailbox will also contain two parcel compartments, both of which are big enough to fit 80 per cent of the packages mailed in Canada, the corporation says.

Residents who have a package inside the parcel compartment will be able to access it with a key that's left inside their individual box. That key can be returned in the outgoing mail slot, Canada Post says.

The mailboxes are part of a larger five-year plan to begin phasing out door-to-door mail delivery in a number of urban centres across Canada.

Starting this fall, 11 communities will see the new community mailboxes in their neighbourhood.

Eventually, five million homes will be switched over to the community boxes, with densely-populated urban centres being the last to make the change.

First announced last December, the plan was drawn up in an effort to help return Canada Post to financial stability by 2019.

With files from The Canadian Press