• The UK's Royal Mail is trialing new postboxes with larger parcel hatches for secondhand sellers.
• The postboxes have solar panels and barcode scanners to provide proof of posting through an app.
• Royal Mail is grappling with losses and rising competition in parcel deliveries.

Britain's Royal Mail is giving some of its iconic red postboxes a 21st-century upgrade to better serve secondhand sellers.

The UK postal service is testing five solar-powered postboxes with a hatch that accepts parcels too big for a normal slot.

The panels power a barcode reader that customers can use to scan parcels and avoid queues at a post office.

Proof of posting is available through an app, which Royal Mail said in a press release was aimed at making casual selling faster and more frictionless.

The move follows a surge in sales on secondhand marketplaces and more shoppers returning online purchases.

Emma Gilthorpe, Royal Mail's CEO, said: "In an era where letter volumes continue to decline, and parcels are booming, we are giving our iconic postboxes a new lease of life on street corners across the nation."

Royal Mail still dominates the market for letters, but faces rising competition for parcels from companies including DHL, UPS and Amazon Logistics.

It has also faced issues including missed delivery targets, strikes, fines, and posted a loss of about $448 million for 2023-24 financial year.

Royal Mail said thousands of postboxes could be adapted to the latest design if the trial is a success. There are about 115,000 postboxes across the UK sited within half a mile of 98% of addresses.

• Musk said Amtrak is "embarrassing" while speaking virtually at a Morgan Stanley conference.
• He said America "should try to privatize everything we possibly can," including Amtrak and the USPS.
• Trump has flirted with privatizing the USPS in recent months.

On Wednesday, Elon Musk said that both the Post Office and Amtrak should be privatized, calling the state of passenger rail in the US "embarrassing."

Speaking virtually at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, Musk said the government "should try to privatize everything we possibly can," according to audio reviewed by Business Insider.

"I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak, for example," he said.

He praised China's trains, saying other countries' passenger rail systems are "way better" than America's.

"If you're coming from another country, please don't use our national rail," he said. "It's going to leave you with a very bad impression of America."

While Musk did not elaborate on why the USPS should be privatized, President Donald Trump has previously floated privatizing the organization, saying in late February that commerce secretary Howard Lutnick "will be looking" at the organization.

Musk acknowledged during his remarks that privatizing either Amtrak or the USPS would likely require congressional approval, and didn't expand on any steps to move forward with his vision.

Though Musk is not officially in charge of the White House DOGE office — that title goes to little-known data whiz Amy Gleason — he is seen as its de facto leader. Trump has repeatedly said Musk is in charge of the group, including during his joint address to Congress Tuesday night.

"I have created the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, perhaps you've heard of it, which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight," Trump said Tuesday. His remarks immediately were flagged as part of an on-going lawsuit involving DOGE.

Musk didn't claim a leadership position at DOGE when speaking at the Morgan Stanley conference. He referred to himself as "tech support, believe it or not."

Representatives for DOGE and the White House did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.

• Donald Trump's executive orders could stop cheap shipping for e-commerce orders direct from China.
• That would be bad news for Temu and Shein.
• The biggest question: What will happen to the $2.74 mousepad I ordered from Temu last week?!

A few days ago, I noticed I needed a new mousepad. The cloth covering was starting to peel away from the rubber. So I went to Temu — more on that in a minute.

Mousepads are some of those things that — in theory — you should never buy; they just come into your life like cheap umbrellas or Mason jars.

But due to decades of repetitive motion from typing, my weary wrists need the kind of mousepad with the ergonomic padded blob at the end, not the plain, flat ones you accumulate for free.

So, spend my own money I must.

Now, I personally have conflicted feelings about shopping on Temu, but a mousepad is kind of a perfect Temu item: quality doesn't really matter, and a $3 one is the same as a $10 one — at least to the human eye. As a price-sensitive shopper, I went for it.

I found a plain, gray mousepad with a wrist rest on Temu for $2.74 and ordered it.

Well, it wasn't quite that simple — Temu requires a $15 minimum for an order to ship, so I threw in a few other items — a squishy elbow rest pad, a new phone case, some hair scrunchies.

Then, disaster struck. Shortly after my order was placed, President Trump declared an end to the "de minimis" exemption. There's still some discussion as to exactly what his executive order will mean, but de minimis is the law that allows orders under $800 to ship directly from China to US customers without encountering duty and tax. It's a big part of how Temu and Shein have operated in the US so successfully.

Then, things went apocalyptic for my mousepad: Tuesday evening, the USPS stopped taking inbound parcels from China to the US. By Wednesday morning, the USPS had reversed that decision, resuming service.

What all of this means for Temu and similar sellers like Shein isn't exactly clear, but let's just assume it's not good. (Temu didn't respond to a request for comment.)

Still, both e-commerce platforms have advanced beyond only shipping direct from mainland China, and now many of their sellers have warehouses in the US to ship orders domestically.

On the homepage of Temu, the top promoted section is for "local warehouse stores" — sellers from warehouses in the US.

Shein's website has a less prominent tab for "QuickShip" items that ship from the US, which isn't visible at all on its mobile app.

While relations with one of our largest trade partners are up in the air, I have great news about my mousepad (which I'm sure you were worried about).

My Temu order appears to be still moving along in processing to be shipped.