If you sell online as an eBay seller or Etsy, Amazon, Bonanzle or on another venue, chances are good that you ship some of your orders out with the US Postal Service. Hopefully you know that the US Postal Service will come to your home or place of business and pick up your shipments for free. Yes, free, which is still amazing to me, but true! (They supply free Priority Mail boxes too, another idea I am in love with!)
In order to have your packages picked up, you need to schedule an online pick-up on the US Post Office website www.usps.com. For years I have been logging on each night to schedule a pick up for the next day's packages. But, thanks to a fellow eBay seller Suzanne Wells (you may know her as The eBay Coach), I now know that it is possible to schedule a reoccurring pick up! Hooray, what a huge time saver!
This means that by logging on one time to www.usps.com I was able to schedule re-occurring pickups. Because we ship daily, I scheduled a pickup for every day (Mon-Sat) for the next 3 months. 3 months is the longest amount of time the website will let you schedule out for.
When you schedule an online pick up you need to note how many parcels are being picked up. Since there is no way to know the exact amount, I used an average number for the scheduling. I checked with my local Sterling, Michigan post office to make sure this was not a problem and they assured me that it is not. The postal carrier is paid for the scheduled stop, not per package, so as long as I have it noted that it is a scheduled pick up, the carrier's records and pay are not effected. Great!
This has been such a big time saver for me, I wanted to share the tip with you. Thanks again to Suzanne Wells for sharing her knowledge. You can follow her blog at http://ebaysellingcoach.blogspot.com/.
Happy selling, and happy shipping!
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