Tips for mailing SSA stereo folios

FREE Delivery Confirmation

Don't stand in line anymore!

The USPS web site now offers a service called "Click-N-Ship." With this service you can prepare a bar-coded shipping label online, pay for the postage cost via credit card, attach the mailing label, and mail the package as a *metered* package that can be mailed *without* standing in line at the post office. I used this service this week to mail a PSA slide folio, and it worked well. (I already had the ability to send metered packages and not stand in line, but the service I use for RMM has monthly fees associated with it, and would not be appropriate for most folio members. Click-N-Ship requires registration, but is free of any additional costs.)

The Click-N-Ship service can only be used for Express and Priority Mail packages. Parcel post and media mail rate shipments cannot be sent with the Click-N-Ship service.

When you use Click-N-Ship, you get Delivery Confirmation included for no additional cost!

If you don't see a link to Click-N-Ship on the main USPS page, try this direct link: www.cns.usps.com/go

CAVEAT: According to the Click-N-ship FAQ:

You can use a Hewlett Packard LaserJet or compatible laser printer. Our scanning equipment is not capable of reliably reading labels generated using InkJet or dot matrix printers.

Susceptibility of the printed label to water damage would be an issue with inkjet labels. Although the To: and From: text parts of the label can be covered with tape for protection, the bar codes are *not* allowed to be covered with tape. If you don't have access to a laser printer, tests should be conducted before sending a folio with an inkjet-printed label. And be sure to protect the text portions of the label with clear tape so the information doesn't "melt" on a rainy day.

Once a package has the correct metered postage label, it can be turned over to the USPS in whatever manner is most convenient for you. If you have a traditional full-size mail box, you can put it there with the rest of your outgoing mail. If the package will fit in a blue mail drop box, it can go there. If you see a postal employee delivering mail, you can hand it to him. The "bring to a retail counter" requirement applies only to *stamped* (not metered) packages over 16 ounces. (Note that this rule has been around for many years; it has nothing to do with 9/11.)

If none of the above works for your situation, and lines are a problem at your nearest post office, ask them where commercial shippers can drop off metered packages without standing in line. At a large post office the dropoff location may be a loading dock. In the medium-sized one near me, there is a designated area at the end of the long retail counter for package dropoff. In a small post office, they may just say to skip the line and hand it to any clerk. Pointing out through gestures or words that the package is "ready to go" should help avoid confusion until the clerks are used to seeing you bring in packages this way.