Shake Your Economic “Mondays” With a Renovation
It’s hard to look positively towards the future during this economic recession. We’re all feeling it…like a never-ending “case of the Mondays”, the weight and gloom rests on our shoulders and fogs up our minds. But what’s great about the “Mondays” is that they quickly become “Tuesdays” and “Wednesdays”; all it usually takes to cure them is a hot cup of coffee and a little time to re-invest yourself into the projects unfolding in the week ahead. Energy and endorphins flow as you make progress towards something new and better.
Re-energize yourself, your crew, consumers and, ultimately, the housing market by investing in a renovation project or facelift. It’s amazing what a new coat of paint and some repairs can do to improve the visual look-and-feel of an existing property. It’s “feng-shui” for the soul! Giving tenants a higher quality of living gives them a reason to make higher quality, status-based purchases in other areas; encouraging spending and driving the economy back up. A makeover for a community can do so much to inspire the positive attitudes of those affected.
The Hudson Dockett community in Valdosta, Georgia, is doing just that: Receiving a facelift of $1.4 million, the makeover features a completely remodeled and expanded community center, and an updated look for the housing units with new color schemes, roofs, patios, etc., all aimed at building a stronger, more satisfied community. Check out what they doing, and see if you can’t spot your favorite varioTM Florence mail shelter:
“Hudson Dockett Getting a Makeover” by Johnna Pinholster, Valdosta Daily Times. Photography by Jonathan Chick.
Get Online in August
Get Online in August!
It seems to be all about the web around here this month. . .which may be unusual coming from a manufacturing company I know. . .but we’ve had a lot of fun doing it and I just couldn’t keep it all to myself!
As you saw last week, we are no longer just dipping our big toe in the social media pool, but rather we have jumped in head first to the likes of FaceBook, Twitter, and coming soon UTube and Flicker, too! (Forgive all the cool pool references – it’s been really hot here in Kansas lately!) As exciting as social media is all by itself, I’m even more pleased to tell you about some recent cool changes to our main website.
Why does that matter, you say?
Many of the new features we have included came directly from your input. . .thank you very much!. . .and I couldn’t help but brag and share what cool things we have come up with together. So, drum roll please, introducing the. . .
Top 8 Cool New Features of florencemailboxes.com:
(Why eight? Because it is the eighth month of course!)
- An enhanced member profile tool so you can now update your information quickly and easily;
- a brand new order history tracking tool so you always know the status of your online order and where it is in production;
- freight tracking numbers at your finger tips for your online order with links to the carrier website so you can see where in the country your order is at that moment;
- the Stay Connected Tab so you can quickly find links to follow and talk to us;
- expanded Custom Product Pricing to help you quickly get a quote on your unique job or product options for one of our Authorized Florence Dealers;
- to help you find exactly what you are looking for, more detailed product search capabilities on the site;
- for our media friends, a newly expanded newsroom. . .and. . .
- oh yeah, a few new products to boot, too! (Check out the What’s New tab for details)
We hope you are as excited about these enhancements as we are – especially since they came from your ideas in the first place. So keep the hot ideas coming, whether it is for another new product, a new feature, or a new way to communicate with you – we want to hear all about it.
Until next week – stay cool!
Yes, you’ve seen us here before, but it has been awhile. Other projects and priorities often push to the forefront and take precedence over social media, but we have three good reasons for jumping right back in: Read more…
Emerging Mailbox Trends Part II
Just as suburban neighborhoods grew and changed the types of mail delivery methods – from curbside mailboxes to the new cluster box units (CBU) as discussed in Part I, so too did the early tall building boom affect the handling of the mail for urban residents.
These multi-family residences and tall office buildings required new ways to collect and distribute the mail. So, the USPS created guidelines which dictated the specification of wall-mounted vertical or horizontal mailboxes in these settings.
To represent the various levels of “approval” by the USPS, these wall-mounted mailboxes were “rated”. The original vertical and horizontal type boxes were rated STD-4B and related to specific form factors and security levels of the mailbox. Eventually, a newer STD-4B+ regulation increased the security of these types of mailboxes. Then, after more than 30 years of the same regulation, the first changes to “apartment style” mailboxes were introduced in 2004.
This new regulation, STD-4C, replaces all previous regulations for mailboxes such as this which were previously approved under STD-4B and STD-4B+. (Full details of the USPS STD-4C specification are published in the Federal Register.
The STANDARD-4C (or simply STD-4C) is the current USPS regulation for any wall-mounted mailbox. This regulation came into full effect as of October 5, 2006. USPS STD-4C compliant mailboxes are now required for all new construction, and major renovations.
However, if residents would like to increase the security of their existing STD-4B products without doing a complete mailbox replacement, some manufacturers like Florence Manufacturing offer a STD-4B+ security upgrade kit for their existing mailbox products. While not able to fully bring the security up to the new STD-4C standards, these upgrade kits will enhance the security of the existing STD-4B box by hardening the arrow lock master door; typically the most vulnerable portion of older mailboxes.
The good news is that the STD-4C rules which govern design layout and installation are the same for both inside and outside applications. That means it applies to any centralized, wall-mounted mailboxes…whether located inside an office or condo high-rise, or within a new single-family subdivision as an outdoor centralized mailbox kiosk.
But be sure and remember that 4C mailboxes are much larger than their predecessor mailboxes to accommodate today’s mail size — taking nearly three times the space of any previous wall-mounted designs. So, don’t forget to include adequate space for not only the mailboxes themselves – but for sufficient maneuvering space around the mailboxes for customer mail retrieval and USPS mail loading as well.
New 4C mailboxes and cluster box units are commonly referred to as centralized mail delivery equipment – which can be in the form of any “clustered” type mailbox – including free-standing, pedestal-mounted cluster box unit (CBU), or other cluster mailboxes mounted in a wall, kiosk, or shelter.
We’ll talk more about centralized mail delivery and its benefits next week. Until that time, have a great week!
Emerging Mailbox Trends
Even though mailboxes may be considered a small ticket item, they do play an integral part in the community and are something every resident will touch. Therefore in honor of National Community Planning Month, I thought it was worthwhile to highlight this necessity item and the importance in planning early for the emerging trends in centralized mail delivery equipment (plus I love history!)
Mail delivery can be traced back to its system founder and first Postmaster, Benjamin Franklin. Since that time, the amount of new mail delivery points have steadily increased from year to year to its present estimate of 1.2 million NEW delivery points a year.
Part of the change in mail delivery can be traced to the changes in transportation over the years (horseback, dog sled, train, car, plane, etc). And, as delivery territories have grown, so has the need for more efficient delivery techniques. For instance, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, letter carriers knocked on the door and waited patiently for someone to answer. Efficiency experts estimated that each carrier lost an hour and a half each day just waiting for patrons to come to the door. (Something we can hardly imagine today!)
To gain back those precious hours, in 1923 the Post Office Department mandated that every household have a mailbox or letter slot to receive mail. By the 1930, as a convenience to customers living on the margins of a city, letter carriers began delivering to customers with “suitable boxes at the curb line.” Multiple receptacles appeared, but with no regulation.
In the ensuing decades American suburbanization, which exploded in the 1950s, brought an increase in curbside mailboxes. The Post Office Department first introduced curbside cluster boxes in 1967. Then, by 2001, the US Postal Service (USPS) was approving locking mailbox designs to help customers protect their mail. Neighborhood Delivery Collection Box Units (NDCBUs) were the predecessor to today’s cluster box units and had multiple compartments for the centralized delivery of mail to the residents of a building or an entire neighborhood – instead of door-to-door or curbside delivery. These NDCBUs morphed into the “E” series cluster box units (CBU).
New cluster box unit (CBU) specifications were then developed in 2005 and became the standard for ALL manufacturers. Only manufacturers who are approved by the USPS may produce the new “F” series CBU. The USPS began to officially license this new standard in 2007 – which continues today. Now manufacturers must be approved AND licensed in order to manufacture the four types of CBU.
Because the newer USPS compliant mailboxes are much larger than their predecessor mailboxes, it is vital that adequate space for the mailboxes themselves – as well as sufficient maneuvering space around the mailboxes for customer mail retrieval and USPS mail loading – be provided. It is now critical to address the outdoor ‘common space’ that this new centralized mail delivery equipment will require and hence the importance of community planning.
There are more to mailboxes than you might think; something we will continue to look at every week. Until then, keep sending your favorite mailbox story as we begin to build our Top Ten list!
Have a great week.
