Big Changes Affecting Package Delivery at Louisiana P.O. Boxes

You've probably seen them driving around the streets of your town. They drive all over Lafayette, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and just about every city, town, village, and even the incorporated areas of Louisiana. They are the men and women who bring us the mail from the United States Postal Service and their counterparts in the Pullman Brown delivery vehicles from United Parcel Service. 

And while it might look as if those two entities are competitors they do have a certain synergy when it comes to getting the items you order online to your doorstep. Or, at least they used to have a certain synergy. UPS, United Parcel Service has ended a contract with the USPS, the United States Postal Service, and that will have a significant affect on how people who get their mail via a Post Office Box will get packages.

You see the USPS is the only carrier that is permitted to deliver mail to post office boxes, Army posts, and Navy Fleets. Previously a package sent through UPS to a Post Office Box would involve a handoff for the final delivery to the Postal Service. This was done through the UPS SurePost feature. That is no longer available for P.O. Box customers because of the change in agreement.

What this means for P.O. Box Customers in Louisiana is this. In order to receive a shipment from UPS you will have to provide a specific shipping address. It must be a physical location as shipping to a PO Box is no longer allowed.

If you don't have a valid street address the best option for package delivery according to UPS is to have your parcels shipped to a UPS Store. Those facilities can hold your parcels securely until you can drop by and pick them up in person.

Meanwhile if you attempt to send a package to a P.O. Box without a physical address or to a military address through UPS that shipment will be refused and returned to the sender.