Royal Mail
British postmen use this tool to get into every block of flats
A Royal Mail postman. Throughout the UK, even in the digital age, around 7.8 billion letters are still being delivered every year.
© Stefan Rousseau/ / Picture Alliance
Postmen in England have their special trick to get into apartment buildings. A London online portal explains what it’s all about.
Anyone who works as a postman in Great Britain has a job with a very long tradition. In fact, the Royal Mail company dates back to the famous King Henry VIII, who founded the postal service just over half a millennium ago – in 1516.
A company that’s been in business this long probably also equips its employees with a few tricks and tweaks to help them do their jobs effectively. The news portal “My London” revealed one of them this week. The editors answered a question that many Londoners in particular might be asking themselves: How do postmen manage to get into the countless blocks of flats in the mega-metropolis without any problems and in a reasonable amount of time in order to put the mail in the corridors in the mailboxes? After all, according to the information, around 7.8 billion letters are still delivered in the United Kingdom per year, even in the Internet age.
The answer is simple and also amazing, at least from a German point of view, since nothing comparable is unknown in this country: Royal Mail postmen are equipped with a kind of master key, as “My London” writes. The device looks less like a key and more like a bent pipe. The technical term is “Fire Brigade Drop Key” and this type of lockpick is so named because the original purpose is actually to open locked doors for firefighters in an emergency.
British postmen have special permission to use this key
Such general keys are therefore also offered primarily as equipment for firefighters on online sales sites. “In fact, anyone can buy such a key,” writes the London news portal. But in order to use it, you need special permission from the owners or landlords of all the houses where you want to use the tool.
The Royal Mail has permission to use the key, which can open both block front doors and security doors. A great responsibility for the postmen and women – because they have to make sure that no private individuals use such keys without permission. Anyone who misuses the “Fire Brigade Drop Key” must be held legally responsible, for example for trespassing.
The “Fire Brigade Drop Key” is advertised on the Internet with photos like this, it is part of fire brigade equipment and may not be used without permission.
©Screenshot / Google
Swell: “MyLondon“, “UK Business Forums” Corporate history of the Royal Mail