Carrier Spotlight
As a business owner, you’re responsible for ensuring orders are shipped to customers without delays or inconveniences. However, as a person, there are situations you can’t control. Sometimes, you won’t make it to the post office before it closes. Other times, you might get held up at your business and have packages in need of shipping. The good news is, USPS offers both pickup and drop-off options to help get your packages out.
Did you know you can schedule free USPS pickups directly from your Stamps.com account? Packages shipped using Priority Mail Express®, Priority Mail®, and First Class International services can be picked up from your business or home without additional fees. If you’re using a different USPS service, don’t worry! The service is still free as long as you’re also shipping another package using one of the aforementioned services. You can schedule a USPS pickup through your Stamps.com using these steps:
Note: You don’t have to be at your business or home when your postal carrier arrives.
Note: You have until 2AM to schedule a pickup for the current day.
If you have several packages, you can create a Shipment Confirmation Acceptance Notice or SCAN form. A SCAN form creates one barcode that includes all of the information for a group of packages, so each package doesn’t have to be scanned into the system individually. SCAN forms can be printed after the labels for your daily shipments have been created and printed.
To create a USPS SCAN form:
When your postal carrier arrives, hand them the SCAN form. If you plan to drop shipments off at the local post office, you’ll hand the SCAN form to the postal worker at the counter. Speaking of, how do you find the nearest USPS location?
USPS offers a couple of drop-off options, including collection boxes and post offices. Collection boxes are containers with mail/package slots where you can drop-off mail packages. While USPS has several types of collection boxes, you’re probably most familiar with the Standard Collection Box Receptacle (Blue Box) or the blue, metal collection boxes for mail and small packages like the one below.
Look for the labels on the collection box to see when a postal carrier will retrieve packages and to determine if the collection box accepts Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express shipments. Collection boxes will also have scannable QR codes which send you to a post office locator tool. For more information on collection boxes, visit the USPS website.
Additionally, packages can be dropped off at your local post office. SCAN forms can be accepted by postal workers at the counter. However, if you have a large number of packages, you might be asked to pull around to a loading dock or to drop-off the packages at another location around the post office. You can find your closest USPS collection box or post office using their PO Locator tool.
Being a business owner still means you’re a human being. Life gets busy, but you still need to get packages to customers. Ship around your schedule with USPS pickup and drop-off options! If you’re stuck at the office or home, let USPS come to you. If you need to drop packages off while you’re out and about, find the nearest collection box or post office. For big shipment days, create and print a SCAN form to save time for your business and postal carrier alike.
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