By Sal & Rebecca, The Tin Can Travelers – We use affiliate links. When you click an affiliate link, we may receive a small compensation at no cost to you.
Whether it’s bills, financial documents, legal documents, tax returns, magazine subscriptions or greeting cards, everyone receives mail! Living a mobile lifestyle, however, can make receiving it on a consistent basis a bit challenging. Changing online accounts to paperless is a start, but this alone won’t completely serve a full-time RVer’s needs. So, below are some of the different mail solutions you can use to help ensure you never miss a piece of mail again.
Mail Service
MyRVmail, Traveling Mail Box, Escapees Mail Service and several other mail services provide the greatest convenience of all mail solutions for full-time RVers. For an annual fee, plus a postage allowance, you can have your own personal address. This address may even serve as a legal physical address for tax and DMV purposes. For an additional fee, features like previewing envelopes and scanning contents may also be offered. We have used My RV Mail for almost a year now and are very happy with this mail solution. We’re able to view the fronts of envelopes online and have the contents scanned and uploaded for review. We have our junk mail shredded and frequently request items of interest to be mailed to our current location, wherever that may be.
But having a mailing service doesn’t mean you won’t need to, or choose to, incorporate the below options as well. Also, a mailing service may not be in your budget. If this is the case, you’ll need to know your options.
Friends & Family
The most common mail solution for full-time RVers is family or friends. These volunteers, willingly or unwillingly ;-), hold on to forwarded mail sent to their addresses. This solution requires them to collect your mail, sort it, and then package and forwarded it to you. If you go this route, you may find yourself checking in frequently to inquire about any important or time sensitive correspondence. We used this mail solution during our first year of full-timing, but later acquired a mailing service. We simply received too much mail and felt it was a burden on our family.
PO Box
Many post offices provide post office (PO) boxes for rent in various sizes and rental durations. Six months and one-year duration periods are standard. This mail solution provides an official mailing address while visiting an area for an extended amount of time. Rent the smallest box available. A slip for larger packages will be left in your box if delivered. We’ve used this solution for extended work-camping gigs and received a refund for the months we didn’t use. Something to keep in mind: UPS, FedEX and several other companies will not deliver to a PO box. To avoid package delivery delays or returns, inquire if delivery to a PO box is possible prior to purchasing anything online.
Campground Address
Most campgrounds have physical addresses at which they receive regular mail, UPS and FedEX packages. Guests camping at these grounds may be able to use the campground’s address to have mail and packages delivered. We used this mail solution many times as guests in campgrounds, but we recommend inquiring with management first before doing so. Although most campgrounds have an address, not all will allow guests to receive mail and packages.
Additionally, the manner in which your mail or package is held for you is something that should be considered. For instance, some campgrounds will hold the items at the office, but others will simply place it outside your RV door. Depending on what you’re having delivered, sitting outside your RV door until you return may not be ideal.
General Delivery
Mail sent via the United States Postal Service to a specific post office and held for the addressee is called General Delivery. Prior to RVing full-time, we hadn’t heard of or used this mail solution. To receive mail by general delivery, it must have the addressee’s name on the package followed by “General Delivery” and then the city/state/zip. In cities that have more than one post office, we recommend calling ahead to get specific information on how to have your mail addressed. The post office holds general delivery mail for no more than 30 days. And just like a PO Box, UPS, FedEX and several other companies will not deliver via general delivery. Anything mailed USPS is fine. We’ve used this mail solution several times while work camping in California with outstanding results.
In this day and age of technology, we still can’t escape the use of physical letter mail. But with several mail solutions at the full-time RVer’s disposal, they can continue to live their nomadic lifestyle with little to no inconveniences.
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Until next time…
