Mailing Mania: Tricks For Getting Your Mail There Immediately

It needs to get there tomorrow... but it's still in your hands. What do you do when you absolutely need to get a package or a document to someone physically and you've seemingly run out of time? There are some tips and tricks that seasoned mailers often use to meet their deadlines even when it seems as though all has been lost.

Call a Same Day Delivery Service

A same day courier, such as On Time Delivery Service, can often get a package to another person within a matter of minutes or hours, assuming that the package is heading within the same city. If you have something that is vitally important, this is usually the best way, as it also gives you confirmation that the package was properly delivered (and what time it was delivered). A same day delivery service usually isn't very expensive and should be available in any major metropolitan area.

Do a Post Box Search

Not all mailboxes are made equal. Whether you're trying to send your mail via USPS, UPS or FedEx, different mailboxes have different pickup dates. Your building's UPS box might pick up at 6:00 PM while the box just down the street picks up at 8:00 PM. Simply loading up a website or an app and looking for the latest possible pickup times is often one of the best ways to ensure a package gets into the mail. Most mailboxes will also tell you on the box itself whether it has had its pickup for the day.

Head to the Airport

Where does the mail go when it's sent out? To the airport, of course! There is almost always a post office (in addition to other mail services) either at or right across the street from your local airport, and this post office will have the latest possible drop off time. Packages will usually go directly from this post office to the planes that are going to be delivering the mail at the last moment. Knowing your airport post office location is often extremely useful for time-sensitive documents, such as tax returns, which need to be date-stamped at a certain time. 

Naturally, sometimes too late is just too late. There are some times when the only thing you can do -- short of just getting on a plane and dropping it off personally -- is just make some apologetic calls. But with the techniques listed above, you should usually be able to get packages where they need to go in the shortest amount of time possible.


Share