Main Types of USPS Drop-off Locations
If you’ve just discovered that you can print shipping labels yourself, you may be wondering where you are supposed to take your prepared and prepaid USPS packages so that they can be shipped. The United States Postal Service has several types of drop-off locations, and we suggest that you take a closer look at each of them.
Post Offices and Village Post Offices
Post Offices provide the full range of postal services that the USPS has to offer; there are more than 34,000 of them across the country, so it will be easy to find one near you. Unlike regular Post Offices located in standalone buildings, Village Post Offices are located in areas within existing organizations or businesses and offer a limited selection of postal services or products. This being said, both types of Post Offices can be used to drop off prepaid packages.
You don’t have to stand in line to hand your package to a USPS employee; each post office has a designated area for prepaid package drop-off. However, you should keep in mind that Post Offices have service hours.
Collection Boxes
Most people associate collection boxes with the easily recognizable USPS Blue Boxes (freestanding street boxes painted blue with the USPS logo), but there are several more types of USPS collection boxes, such as specially marked white boxes for Priority Mail Express items, mail chutes in tall buildings, drop-off slots in building lobbies, and more. Each collection box has a label with collection times specified on it so you’ll know when your package is going to be collected (the day you drop it off or the next business day).
National Retailers and Contract Postal Units
National Retailers and Contract Postal Units (CPUs) provide postal services and products at regular USPS prices in spaces not owned or leased by the USPS such as supermarkets, grocery stores, and other existing businesses. There’s a difference between the two, but you don’t really need to be concerned about it: either type will work as a drop-off location for your prepaid packages just fine. What you need to be concerned about is their business hours.
Self-Service Kiosks
Self-service kiosks offer many of the services you can receive at a Post Office counter, including shipping prepared and prepaid packages. They are typically located in Post Office lobbies (and available after hours, which is quite convenient) and sometimes in shopping malls.
gopost Units
gopost units consist of automated lockers accompanied by a user screen. They were conceived as a convenient way to ship and receive packages. gopost units are placed in convenient locations such as transportation hubs, shopping malls or gas stations, and are available 24/7. However, they have a few downsides: you’ll need to sign up for gopost in order to drop off your packages (it’s a completely different process from signing up for USPS.com) and there are certain restrictions and limitations regarding packages.
The easiest way to locate the closest and most convenient USPS drop-off location is to use the USPS locator tool: https://tools.usps.com/find-location.htm. To find a location, you need to type your city and state or ZIP Code (or give the tool access to your geolocation), choose a location type and radius (which can range from 1 mile to 100 miles), and click the Search button. The USPS website will return a list of suitable locations with working hours (or last collection hours for Collection Boxes), as well as a map with all the locations.
In addition to the drop-off locations listed above, there are a couple more drop-off options. For example, you can simply leave your prepaid package inside your mailbox for your mail carrier to pick it up. If your package is expensive or doesn’t fit fully inside the mailbox, or if you want the USPS to collect multiple packages, it would be better to schedule a free package pickup.
Scheduling a package pickup with the USPS is easy: you need to fill out an online form at https://tools.usps.com/schedule-pickup-steps.htm and follow the prompts (it’s even easier if you do it while logged in to your USPS.com account). You don’t need to be personally present for pickup if you are shipping prepaid domestic packages; leaving them in a specified safe location will be enough.