City's postboxes go high-tech

A man uses a postbox printed with a QR code for the courier service. — Xinhua

Shanghai Post Co has launched a new high-tech "courier" service that guarantees to deliver parcels anywhere in the city within 24 hours.

To use it, people must visit their nearest postbox armed with a smartphone and a prepaid envelope — filled with whatever items they want to send.

Two types of envelopes are available at post offices and Oriental Newsstand outlets.

The first is for printed documents and the second for all other items.

The envelopes for documents cost 6 yuan (98 US cents) for economy class and 7 yuan for business class.

The goods envelopes cost 12 yuan, 15 yuan and 20 yuan, depending on size, but with no limit on the weight of the contents.

At the postbox, customers are asked to add a new account (SHPOSTKJ) to their WeChat app. They must then scan the QR codes on the postbox and envelope and wait for a confirmation message.

Once the transaction has been approved, the envelope can be dropped into the postbox.

The service is available from today at 2,805 postboxes across the city.

It will not affect the traditional postal service, Shanghai Post said.