It’s amazing in today’s digital world that mail is still such a difficult logistic to sort out once you become a full time traveler. But… no matter how many thousands of emails flood our inbox each day, we still have a need for snail mail. We’ve tried just about every mail service as full time RVers, and this blog covers that question of how to get mail without an address.
Like I said above, we’ve tried many methods, each with a various level of success. Here are the best ways to get mail without having a home base address:
1. USPS General Delivery
The USPS offers general delivery as a service to people without a permanent address. You’re able to ship mail and packages to a local post office via general delivery. That post office will hold your mail for up to 30 days.
We use general delivery for packages or letters that we need in a timely manner and where we’ll be on location for a while. Your address will look like this:
NAME
GENERAL DELIVERY
CITY STATE ZIP
In the name field, make sure it’s the name that matches your name on your ID. They do require ID to pick up your mail!
There is usually only one post office in each city that accepts general delivery, so make sure to Google the local USPS for the correct general delivery location. Simply search “General Delivery address for CITY, STATE”.
We’ve successfully used general delivery multiple times, and it’s super easy! It helps to know what you’re receiving since packages and letters are stored in different areas of the post office.
2. Virtual mailbox service
This is the most common way to receive mail as a full time RVer. There are dozens of mail programs that you can pay for to receive mail on your behalf.
You’d change your shipping and billing addresses to one provided to you by the mail service. They receive your mail and send you scanned copies. Once you see the mail you receive, you can ask them to shred it or forward it to you at a physical address.
Each company varies in how it charges. Some have a cap on how many pieces of mail they’ll scan each month before charging you extra. Other companies only charge per piece of mail regardless of how many you receive. And some only charge extra when shipping the mail to you.
It’s important to carefully read the terms and conditions of the service you’re signing up for to understand the charging set up.While this works for most RVers, we haven’t found it to be that great for us personally. After having a virtual mail service for a year, we switched to a UPS box.
Side note: we have only heard negative feedback for iPostal. MyRVMail, Escapees, and earth class mail have all received good feedback from our audience!
3. Amazon pickup/locker
Amazon has lockers and pickup locations throughout the country where you can receive your Amazon orders. There is a difference between lockers and pickup spots – lockers can be accessed at any time and pickup locations are only open when the business is actually open. Make sure to check ahead of time if you’ll be picking up early or late at night.
The great thing about Amazon orders is that they have super fast shipping if you have Prime, so you won’t be waiting around for general delivery. The bad thing is that not all Amazon orders can be shipped to an Amazon locker. Items that are too big or regulated in some way (like bear spray) will have to be shipped elsewhere.
All you do is select the closest locker at checkout instead of inputting your physical address.
4. UPS personal mailbox
A UPS Mailbox is similar to a PO box in that you can pick up your mail at a designated UPS location using a key. But, it’s different from a PO Box in that you have a physical address, can receive mail from all carriers (non-USPS carriers can’t deliver to PO Boxes), and they will ship your mail to any other UPS store in the country.
Your address would look something like this:
FIRST AND LAST NAME
PMB###
7904 E Chaparral Rd Ste A110
Scottsdale, AZ
This option is typically more expensive than a virtual mail service (and prices vary by location), but it is easier to receive forwarded mail securely. They will hold your mail longer than a post office. This is also a great option if you have a business that receives mail (which is a huge reason why it’s our preferred option).
Feel free to send us fun things from our Amazon wish list – they’ll get automatically shipped to our UPS box!
5. PO box
A PO box is a good option for security, cost, and physical mail. However, it’s really only a viable option if you tend to stay in the same location.
You could give a friend or family member a key to your PO box to help you out with mail forwarding, but I wouldn’t recommend this as an option for people who travel far from a home base.
6. Friends & family
Friends and family are one of the most common mail receivers for important deliveries. It’s fun visiting people along your route (aka moochdocking), and they are usually more than happy to receive a package or two on your behalf.
ALWAYS ask before using your friend or family member’s address when receiving packages. Some people don’t actually receive mail to their house. They might be out of town or have some other reason to not receive your mail.
If you have someone (often parents or adult kids) that is ok allowing you to use their address as your permanent address, this is a great solution to solve many logistical concerns of being a full time traveler.
You can use their address as your voter registration, mailing address, and vehicle registration. Despite having a very large family, we did not go with a friend/family address as our permanent address. Our family members tend to move and travel too much to be reliable recipients of mail (side note… since we started full time life on the road my parents have bought and sold about 5 houses, so this was the right choice).
Out of respect for them and privacy for us, we receive all our mail through a UPS box.
7. Hold at carrier facilities
USPS General Delivery does not work if you’re receiving packages from FedEx or UPS. If we are in a different location and want to receive a specific item (this often happens with brand deals we get through content creation), I ask how they ship. If the answer is FedEx or UPS, I contact the local carrier and ask if they’ll hold the item. They always do and it usually arrives really quickly because they don’t need to send out a vehicle to your address.
8 .RV parks
Many RV parks that have long-term residents also have mailboxes for each site where you can receive mail. When using a service like UPS mailbox or an RV mail provider, you can have your mail forwarded to one of these RV parks and plan to stay until your mail arrives.
You can also use this as your mailing address if you’re at a park long term. Most RV parks list this as an amenity if it’s available.
You can also get deliveries like Amazon, GrubHub, UberEats, etc. delivered directly to your RV at RV parks. All you need to do is put the RV park as your address and put in the notes that they should deliver to spot #XYZ. We’ve done this, and it works great! If you’re expecting an important package, you might want to let the front desk know just in case the delivery driver doesn’t read the notes.
Mail seems like an overwhelming task when you first start life as a full time traveler, but it really tends to work itself out. Once you change most of your bills to electronic delivery, there are only so many pieces of mail you actually get unexpectedly. If you receive your mail a different way, please let us know in the comments how you get mail without an address!
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