[pct-l] USPS requirements on package pickup

[m.karon at comcast.net (Marshall Karon)]

If you know you are going to be late and can get to a phone, call the post 
office. What is official may not be what the local Post Office does. They 
normally will hold the box after what you write on the label. So, if you 
write a date that is after you really expect to get there, you probably will 
be safe and they won't return the box even if it gets there way early.

At a Colorado stop that I skipped, I had to call to get my Priority Mail box 
shipped back to me more than a month after I finished the trail. I think it 
would still be there if I hadn't called.

Marshall Karon
Portland, OR
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Plotnikoff" <david@emeraldlake.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2005 11:21 AM
Subject: [pct-l] USPS requirements on package pickup


> Hello from a long-time list-lurker and section hiker.
>
> The time draws near for me to get some supply boxes in the mail. I'm very
> aware that many of the post offices are tiny operations who are 
> overwhelmed
> by hiker boxes during the season. Does anyone know the official rule on 
> how
> long they are required to hold Priority Mail packages for general delivery
> pickup before returning them? I have heard two weeks. I have seen a month
> or "up to a month" mentioned on the USPS Web site, although it was less
> than perfectly clear.
>
> The goal here -- and it'll take some logistic juggling -- is to get these
> boxes in the mail early enough so that I'm not racing them to the PO (they
> go ground only because of the alcohol) but not so early that they're
> bounced back to my home. For example: I need to get the Idyllwild box in
> the mail on 4/21 or I'll have to arrange for someone else to mail it. But
> if I'm due to hit Idyllwild for pickup on 5/6, that's cutting it real 
> close
> if they're sending boxes back after two weeks.
>
> Thanks in advance for your consideration.
>
> DP
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