PACKAGE ENVY: Five Ways to Receive Mail & Packages on the Road (and four are free!)

Modern American nomads have life pretty good.

Thanks to modern technology and a blooming RV and Campervan culture, over a million of us currently live, work and thrive without being tethered to a traditional home. There is, however, one pesky necessity that can stop even the heartiest nomad in her tracks: how to receive mail and packages while constantly moving.

Sure, lots of traditional mail can now be received in digital form, but there are still times we need to receive a physical package. Whether you need a small legal document or an e-shopping haul, you don’t need to become a logistics mastermind to receive deliveries without breaking the bank.

Here are Five Ways to Receive Packages on the Road – and four of them are free!

1. AMAZON LOCKER.  Amazon can be a great resource to find almost any item you need, but figuring out how to receive your delivery can be tricky. Amazon uses a variety of local and national delivery services to get their products to doorsteps all over the country, but what do you do when you don’t have a door? Enter Amazon locker.

Amazon lockers are secure, self-serve kiosks located in public places across the country, so wherever your journey takes you, there will likely be a locker on your route. There are over 2,800 lockers in 70 metropolitan areas and that number is growing.

It’s easy; think of an Amazon locker like a big yellow gym locker that stores your package until you walk up and enter the code Amazon sends you. The door to the locker pops open and you can grab your package in a snap and keep on trucking.

Lockers can be found mostly in convenience stores and supermarkets in more populated areas across the country and can be accessed anytime that business is open (unless the locker is located outside). To find an Amazon Locker location, click here.

The Good Parts:

• Anyone who orders an Amazon product can pick up that item at a locker (yes, even if you don’t have Amazon Prime!)
• The lockers are totally free and secure
• Your pick-up code will be sent via email and can also be found in your Amazon account under “track my shipment”
• If you can’t pick up your package for any reason, your package will be automatically returned to Amazon for a refund after three days.
• You can also use the lockers to make Amazon returns!

The Fine Print:

• The lockers are mostly located in densely populated areas, so stock up while you are visiting a city
• Lockers can hold relatively big boxes, but there is a size limit: a maximum size of 19 x 12 x 14 inches

2. UPS CUSTOMER CENTER. If you need to receive a UPS package on the road, having it delivered to a UPS Customer Center is an excellent option. We’ve all seen UPS franchise stores in strip-malls, but (if you don’t want to incur a fee) you have another UPS option: The UPS Customer Center.

Unlike franchise stores, UPS Customer Centers are corporate-run service centers that will hold your package for pick-up. If you want to receive a UPS package, just look ahead in your travels and find a city or town you’ll be visiting and follow these steps to find a Customer Center:

Click here

Select “see all options”

Select “location type”

Then UPS Customer Center.

Address your package like this:

YOUR NAME
HOLD FOR PICKUP
THE UPS CENTER ADDRESS

The Good Parts:

• UPS will hold the package free of charge for five days
• It’s free

The Fine Print:

• Hold for Pickup service is not available for Saturday delivery shipments and pickup times must otherwise fall within normal business hours

3. FedEx Ground Service Center or Partner Location. Just like UPS, FedEx also has corporate locations that will hold your packages free of charge, but as a lovely bonus, they also partner with other businesses like Walgreens and Safeway so you have a variety of convenient locations where your package can be held.

To find a FedEx Ground Center in a city you’ll be visiting:

Click here

In the search bar select “more”

Select the box that reads “hold at location”

A list of pick-up locations will pop up. Choose the one that works for you, then address your delivery like this:

YOUR NAME
HOLD FOR PICKUP
THE FEDEX OR PARTNER LOCATION ADDRESS

The Good Parts:

• Packages can be picked up at both FedEx Ground locations and partner locations, which added together give us over 11,000 locations from which to choose.
• FedEx will hold your package free of charge for 7 days.
• It’s free.

The Fine Print:

• If you miss your package and don’t want it to be returned, you must pay $5.55 and up to have the package forwarded to another location.

4. USPS General Delivery. The good old United States Postal Service can be a great conduit for nomad packages! Even without a sticks and bricks house, the postal service has a cool, little known service called “General Delivery.”

Most local Post Office locations do not provide this service and there are some specific rules, but once you understand the process, using USPS General Delivery is easy.

General Delivery is not the same thing as Mail Forwarding, which can require a fee. It’s a service meant to provide a delivery location for people (like nomads) who don’t have a permanent address.

Here’s the trick to success when using USPS General Delivery: understand that only the main, hub Post Office in the town you are visiting will likely provide this service and that the way you are required to format your delivery address might seem a little funky.

Per USPS, here’s what a properly formatted General Delivery address looks like (and, yes, they want it spelled out In caps):

JOHN DOE
GENERAL DELIVERY
ANYTOWN, NY 12345-9999

Note that there is no street address! Instead, there are two things that distinguish this address:

The term GENERAL DELIVERY

And the last four digits 9999

This format is what tells the Postal Service that you want them to accept your package and hold it for you to pick-up.

There are two ways to find the USPS location that handles General Delivery in any area you might visit.

The first, is to call 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777) and request “Customer Service.” 
The second is to go to the “Look Up a ZIP Code” section on the www.usps.com home page.

Then:

Type “General Delivery” in the address line of the Zip Code Look-up Tool, followed by the City and State, and click “Find.”

The General Delivery location’s ZIP Code will be provided.

The Good Parts:

• USPS is everywhere
• It allows you to pick-up your USPS mail or packages in your “current community” for up to 30 days
• If you use priority mail, you can have your package forwarded one time to a different address at no cost
• It’s free

The Fine Print:

• Few Post Offices provide this service; you must go to the right location to pick-up your item
• Some Post Office locations will charge for General Delivery (like RV heavy communities in Arizona that create a rush of customers in the Winter for which seasonal staff must be hired)
• Be prepared to wait: Typically your package must be retrieved in a giant warehouse

5. LOCAL MAILING SERVICES. In my book, BE A NOMAD CHANGE YOUR LIFE: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO LIVING FULL-TIME IN A VAN OR RV, I have a whole chapter dedicated to mailing services like Escapees and Good Sam. For some nomads, paying a nominal fee for these permanent mail acceptance locations is great, but keep in mind that you might incur a charge for having that mail forwarded to your current location

If you don’t want to hassle with maneuvering through the four options above, paying a local mailing service to accept and hold your package is always an option. Remember those UPS and FedEx franchise stores I mentioned above? Those local, independently owned locations will almost always provide this service.

When traveling to a new town, just Google “mailing services near me” and a list of local options will pop-up, both big and small. Read the reviews carefully and call to verify the charge; in my experience, most of these shops charge from $5 to $15 to hold your package, depending on size.

So, go forth intrepid traveler and do not fear! You can still receive mail and packages of all kinds, no matter where your travels take you.

Now that you know how to receive packages, check out my MUST HAVE NOMADIC GEAR recommendations here.

 

 

 

 

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