We all send letters in the post and give it no thought at all. We put it in a red box, and it magically appears in its intended destination a few days later. We don’t bat an eyelid, despite the fact that in time our mail passes hands through plenty of intermediaries and is kept in all sorts of different places. The journey our mail goes on is a bit mysterious, and since the launch of the postal service, a few myths have emerged. In the age of conspiracy theories, people are even questioning what is in the glue of the envelopes we use. Some of these myths caught more traction than others, but nonetheless, we hope to debunk a few of them now.
“Post office workers stole my mail”
As mentioned previously, many people will carry and pass on your mail throughout its journey. One group of people who are always involved in the process are Post Office workers. It is no surprise that they’re usually the ones to take the blame if mail disappears – they are an easy target. On the rare occasion that your mail does disappear, it will most likely be misplaced in the post room. We were reminded of the mistrust people have of postal workers when in April 2021, 39 former postmasters had their convictions of stealing money revoked. This miscarriage of justice shows that maybe we need to cut the post workers some slack. Shout out to the Post Office!
“My mail got lost in the post”
As mentioned before, if your mail disappears in the post, human error is probably to blame, or, maybe a technological fault is the cause. Either way, the reasoning is usually honest, unfortunate and purely accidental. However, there have been reports of darker forces are at work when letters disappear on their way to their intended address. Snails have been said to eat mail on occasion. While seeking refuge in post boxes or letter boxes, the shelled scourges of the postal service will munch on birthday cards and love letters alike without hesitation or regret. They will stop at nothing! Animals are often to blame when it comes to missing mail, with house pets responsible for more missing mail than their owner will ever truly know.
“There are cockroach eggs in the envelope glue”
“Don’t lick envelopes”. Have you heard the urban myth suggesting that there are creepy-crawly eggs in the glue of the envelopes we all send letters in? Frighteningly, there have been stories of people licking envelopes and piercing their tongues with a paper cut, only to find hundreds of new-born cockroaches spilling out of their infested mouths. Well you can now lick to your hearts content as we can reveal this myth is just that! It isn’t true and here’s why; cockroaches reproduce via eggs, yes, but they are contained in egg cases that can store up to 50 eggs. This case has a diameter of 9mm, making it around the size of a very large pea or even a small marble – they are hardly discrete! If the idea is still giving you the shivers, then you can always use a glue stick, damp cotton buds, or a sponge, but make sure you don’t soak your mail.
“FedEx and DHL will replace the Royal Mail”
The parcel market has boomed since the emergence of online shopping, and it is growing further thanks to the pandemic and changing consumer behaviour. No one seems to be shopping on the high street anymore. People have begun to question whether the Royal Mail will be able to compete with the likes of Amazon, DHL, FedEx, UPS, Hermes, and DPD. The truth is that the Royal Mail has a vast network that allows them to reach customers in the most isolated of communities that other couriers cannot, thanks to their 11500 branches across the UK. So, whether you live in central London or the Shetland Islands, the people of the UK always get their mail!
