By Kristen Davidson
The United States Postal Service is changing the way people send packages.
Beginning Aug. 4, Utahns don''t have to go to the post office anymore. Free package pickup services are available for home and business use. Postal customers can order the pickup service online for free, and their regular postal carrier will pickup the package.
Ken McArthur, district manager for the Postal Service in Utah, said postal customers can use the service at home or at their business.
'It''s convenient; it saves time, and best of all, it''s free,' McArthur said. 'Click-N-Ship combined with carrier pickup makes it easier to do business with us.'
Click-N-Ship is the predecessor to the carrier pickup. It involved the online printing of labels for packages at home. Click-N-Ship was started two years ago. Now the service has grown to free pickup, under the program Carrier Pickup.
Brenda Ryans, of the Postal Service public affairs, said this service is not well known.
'It is not a new service,' Ryans said. 'The online post office always provided the home and business pickup service, but the service isn''t widely known.'
To fully utilize the pickup service, the postal customer must affix the postage and have everything ready for the mail carrier. The postal customer doesn''t need to be at home when the mail carrier comes, because there are options to let the carrier know where the package is located. The service is not an express service. The carrier comes at their regular delivery time.
The Postal Service said it''s changing its way of shipping to save time for customers. Sending a package can take a lot of time and energy - from taking the package to the post office, standing in a long line, filling out paperwork and weighing the package. Now, the customer can print a package label with no wait, put it on the package with no hassles and set it out at their convenience for the regular mail carrier to pickup.
'The online site is a sort of one-stop shopping for customers who don''t like to go to the post office for whatever reason,' Ryans said. 'This way they can purchase stuff online, stamp packages themselves and then ship it at home.'
The carrier pickup service follows the same requirements of shipping packages from the post office. Packages must be properly secured, labeled and ready for shipping.
Although this service is running in Utah, it is not yet available nationwide.
According to the Postal Service Web site, customers should visit www.usps.com to ensure their ZIP code area is served.
The service is limited to Express Mail or Priority Mail packages. Postal customers can also use this service for packages sent internationally.