USPS Offers Free Package Pickup Service
Monday, 20 November 2006
No more waiting in line. No more valuable time away from the office or from decorating for the holidays. No fees. Four good reasons to take advantage of free package pickup offered by the US Postal Service.
With Carrier Pickup, customers can take advantage of the personal convenience and service of having packages picked up at their home, saving a trip to the Post Office. Unlike other shipping companies, there is no fee for the service.
Sending packages is quick, easy and convenient at USPS.com. Because the Internet never closes, customers can notify the Postal Service at a time that is convenient for them for the package to be picked up.
The convenience of door-to-door delivery is only a keyboard click away. Don't fight Mother Nature this holiday season. Stay inside and let the Postal Service do what it does best — pick up and deliver mail. Scheduling a free package pickup can help take some of the hassle out of the holidays this year.
"When you're ready to schedule a pick up, we'll be ready for you," said Anita Bizzotto, chief marketing officer and executive vice president. "Carrier Pickup has proven to be one of our most popular services, especially for small and home-based businesses."
Customers simply log on to usps.com/pickup to request a pickup of the package. A letter carrier will pick it up at no charge during the next day's delivery. Although requests for Carrier Pickup can be made any day of the week at any time, pickups are made Monday through Saturday, and can be scheduled as far as three months in advance.
All requests must be made by 2 a.m. CT on the day the free pickup is scheduled. The carrier simply picks up the package the next day during the regular delivery route. The customer doesn't need to be present.
Letter carriers across the country pick up about 100,000 packages every day.
There is no limit to the number of packages that can be sent using Carrier Pickup, but proper postage must be affixed. Instructions can be left online when requesting a pickup that will allow the carrier to complete the transaction.
International packages also may be sent using Carrier Pickup. The customer must be present at the pickup location to personally hand the package to the letter carrier for delivery. The proper postage and completed custom forms also are required.
Customers can address labels with postage for Express Mail or Priority Mail service online at usps.com/clicknship. Postage must be applied to the package before the scheduled pickup. Carriers leave a notification at the pickup location confirming pickup.
"Our carriers go to homes and businesses every day, making it quick, easy and convenient for customers to use our services," Bizzotto said. "Carrier Pickup is one more way of extending the Post Office to the customer's doorstep."
Since 1775, the United States Postal Service and its predecessor, the Post Office Department, have connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. An independent federal agency that visits more than 144 million homes and businesses every day, the Postal Service is the only service provider delivering to every address in the nation. It receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services.
With annual revenues of $70 billion, it is the world's leading provider of mailing and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. The US Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world's mail volume-some 212 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year-and serves ten million customers each day at its 37,000 retail locations nationwide.