LAFAYETTE, LA. (The Daily Advertiser) – The U.S. Postal Service is changing the number of collection boxes in the Lafayette area.

This week, residents have noticed tape or plastic coverings over several boxes in Lafayette neighborhoods, as well as some in surrounding parishes.

Twana Barber, strategic communications specialist for the U.S. Postal Service, said changing the number or location of such boxes is not unique to the area.

“Public feedback on specific boxes is measured by the number of envelopes or density of mail in blue collection boxes,” Barber said via email. “The drastic change in Americans’ mailing habits has shifted the need for blue collection boxes and prompted the Postal Service to be more strategic in its placement of these boxes across the country. We are supported by stamp and mail services dollars and not tax dollars.”

Specific details, such as the number and location of boxes being removed locally, were not immediately available.

According to a September 2016 report from the Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General, the Postal Service has generally eliminated boxes that receive fewer than 25 pieces of mail per day, and added boxes in other locations.

Barber said single piece first-class mail – the most common type in collection boxes – shrunk from 45.9 billion pieces in 2005 to 19.4 billion last year.

The number of blue collection boxes was 345,000 in 2005 and 148,250 last year, she said.

To find the blue collection box nearest to you, visit mailboxmap.com.