Get Mail on the Road
Whether you live on the road full time or just like to take extended road trips, you can get your mail on the road with minimal inconvenience if you plan ahead and follow proper postal and/or courier addressing procedures for the country you are traveling in. Remember that the more money you are willing to pay to get mail while traveling, the faster your package will arrive and the sooner you can get back to your journey.
Steps
- Use General Delivery mail service if you are able to stick to a pre-planned itinerary. General Delivery (also known as "Poste Restante" in Europe) is a worldwide service offered by post offices to deliver mail to itinerant individuals who have no permanent address. To get mail on the road with General Delivery, have your mail addressed with your first and last name, care of "General Delivery" (or Poste Restante), c/o the post office address. Once it arrives, the postmaster will hold your mail for at least 30 days. In America this service is free but in other countries fees might be assessed.
- Purchase a membership at a mail forwarding service, such as that offered by Escapees, a camping and RV club dedicated to fulfilling the needs of full-time RVers. For a fee, Escapees mail service will give you a Texas address to use for mail delivery. They will hold all mail that comes to you at that address until you call to have it sent to you somewhere. You can use General Delivery service for delivery, a private residence, hotel, campground or anywhere with an address. Other mail forwarding services exist in places such as UPS Stores and business service stores that offer photocopying, passports and other administrative services of this nature.
- Consider getting your mail on the road via worldwide couriers, like UPS or FedEx. This can be expensive, but it's faster than most mail solutions and it's available worldwide. You'll need to know the address of the UPS or FedEx store where you want your mail. To save money, have as much mail as possible delivered in one envelope to this location. Once it arrives, they will hold your package of mail until you pick it up. The advantage to using these companies is they are open later than the post office and oftentimes on weekends.
- Ask a friend or family member to collect and hold your mail, then have them send it to you when you know your itinerary. Again, you can utilize General Delivery service when choosing this option. To make it easier for your friend or family member to help you, have your mail sent to their address and provide them with postage money and large envelopes before you depart on your journey. Once you have a significant bundle of mail collected and know your upcoming address, your friend or family member can send it in one package.
Tips
- When using General Delivery, have your mail delivered to the smallest post office you can find. Call ahead to let them know mail will be arriving in your name. Using a smaller post office reduces the chance of your mail getting lost in a larger facility. You can also use General Delivery for overnight packages delivered by the post office.
- Prior to departure, do your best to minimize mail you will receive by removing your name from catalog mailing lists. Another way to reduce unnecessary mail is to enroll in electronic payment options for any bills you regularly receive.
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