I only heard on Tuesday & I also confirmed at the PO today, but I am surprised I can't find anything current on the boards on the subject, so perhaps not everyone is aware.  Just might save a few INR cases !  According to AP staff, too many items were going missing !!  So now if you're not home to sign, it will be back to the old carded system.

Living on acreage and with house being set well back from the road in a dead end, I had an official signed Authority in place to Safe Drop - those Authorisations are no longer valid.

What I did find amusing (in I suppose a kind of warped way), it was on Tuesday I had a small envelope from China with Tracking delivered, (one of the few where the Tracking was actually legitimate), the lady who delivered it said she had hundreds of them to deliver, I did suggest, quite possibly a build up after Chinese New Year.  Her dad who also happens to be our new postie, doesn't have time on his run to door knock and wait for signatures etc. so he now has his daughter driving around in a car doing them.

I have found it interesting in the past that while most Chinese Sellers add Tracking numbers when marking as posted, most envelopes arrive clearly marked UNTRACKED in big bold lettering.  From other threads I have read, I guess it's not just the Chinese who add fictitious Tracking numbers either - so this may now also weed out some of the dishonest sellers.

Of course, just my thoughts . . . . . . .

PS  When I was checking to see if there was a current thread, I saw quite easily why so many old threads are being resurrected, no dates show on the results that appear - I'm sure in the past a date came up as well