Let your postal worker do the walking......

IF any of you remember the old commercial... (that now seems so outdated with the advent of the Internet).. that goes somewhat like this....

Let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages.

(Doesn't the jingle come right back to you?)

Well, a new tip for you all over-busy, travel-weary, book sellers this buying season. Let your postal worker do the walking right to your door to pick up your daily mail!

Yes, tis true, you do not have to fly out the door at 10 to 5 everyday just in time to catch the sliding folding door close before you. You can sit back at ease and have your waiting mail on the door step and USPS will pick them up. Too good to believe? It works great!

A few criteria, though. You must order the pick up the night before (before midnight central time, I believe) and the pick up must contain one (or more) Priority or Express packages. You may include any other packages that you have ready at the time-first class, media mail, but for the pick up to be free, it must contain one of the above priority or express shipment speeds.

That's it. It works great and I do love it for those days when my car is in the shop or it is such a rainy season or I'm just tired of running out everyday.

The only draw back I can see is this. The postal worker does not drop off her pick up load until she returns to the post office after her day is done and so the shipment may not go out as soon in the day as you might want. I sometimes get my first class mail to my post office by 2:30 to catch the first class truck going out. I suspect, but have not confirmed this, that the mail that I may have gotten there by 2:30 would then go out by 5:30 instead. Not much of a delay but nevertheless a small one to consider if you are already late for some reason.

I plan on using this pick up service a lot more this coming winter season and may even upgrade a book to priority daily to qualify for the pick up. Once you get into the habit of using this service it might become addictive! Try it, you might like it, and let your fingers do the walking to the USPS site and have tomorrow's mailing picked up at your door.