USPS Shipping while working full-time

[alpenglow_wares]

I'm curious as to how people who work full time, as I do, deal with shipping stuff out fast and dealing with the post office hours.  I'm just getting set up to sell within a few weeks, and have been looking at threads and videos about shipping.  I want to use USPS, but there are these problems:
* PO hours are 9-5:30.  I work 8-5 with a 35-minute commute.  There's no way I can get to the PO during their working hours, on any weekday.
* Even if I could get to the post office, I don't think I want to stand in line anyway, amidst COVID-19.
* I know about scheduling pickups.  But most of my stuff won't fit in my mailbox.  Does your mail delivery person pick up from the porch?  Which leads into the next concern:  I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable about regularly leaving a bunch of valuable stuff in boxes on my porch.  Seems like I'd be making myself a great target for porch pirates.

So what does a busy person with a full-time job do?  I'd like to get some input on this from people that are in a similar situation.

[wastingtime101]

Yes, USPS will pick up from your porch. You can get one of those package boxes/benches so the packages are hidden from public view. Or you can speak with your mail carrier to see if there's an agreed upon location they might pick up - like by the garage door?

If you're not comfortable leaving packages out for pickup then your only option is to bring them to the post office. If you can't get there during normal operating hours M-F then you can drop them off once a week on Saturday and use an extended handling time on your orders.

Can you ship them from work? Some workplaces (office buildings, etc) have mail rooms where you can leave outgoing packages.

[alpenglow_wares]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, the porch is pretty much the only place that would work for them to pick up (other than the mailbox, of course).  I hadn't thought of a bench or storage box to hide the packages.  They're pretty expensive, though, at least for something that would provide a reasonable level of security and convenience (BenchSentry is like $449!).

I can't ship from work, so that's not an option either.

Guess I'll have to use a long handling time.  I feel like then I'll have a tough time competing with people who can ship the same item faster.  But my options are limited.  OR, would it be feasible to do shorter handling times, like doing shipment in 2 days, and schedule pickups to happen every day (even if there might be nothing to pick up on a particular day)?  That way, I could get home and pack the stuff and leave it for pickup the next day.  But I don't know if you can schedule USPS to check for a pickup every day even when there might not be anything to pick up.  I don't want to get flagged by them for scheduling false pickups.

There must be thousands of people with my same logistical situation.  I just wonder if sales are hurt because of the handling time.

[alpenglow_wares]

On another note, is there a way to resize my avatar (logo) for just the purposes of this forum -- leaving it in its original size for my seller page?  It looks like the eBay forum just took the logo I'd uploaded for my seller account and then cropped it into a small circle -- which looks bad.  I noticed that your avatar is sized correctly, but I can't find any way to resize, or maybe just upload a different-sized avatar strictly for this forum.

[alcoforever]

My post office has a parcel drop in the lobby which is open 24/7.  I print my labels thru ebay and just put the parcels in the drop box.   In the event I have a parcel too big for the drop box, I go around to the back and leave the parcel  in one of the bins on the loading dock.

[oldtownrhoda]

I work full time in the corporate world, and until Covid-19, I worked at the office most days (now of course, I'm working from home). My routine was I would package up my items at night, load them into my car in the morning, and take to the post office on my lunch hour. I did 2 day handling, so I did not have to go every day.

Now that I am working from home during the crisis until the end of May, I can do 1 day handling. I bring all of my packages to the PO myself (PO is 5 minutes from my home).

It can be a juggling act, for sure. Some days, I don't want to pack and ship and night, but I enjoy the sense of completion. And of course, if you give 2 or 3 day handling, then you can better manage it.

[alpenglow_wares]

Alcoforever, I considered the drop box at the post office, but then read other things on the Net that were telling me not to do that, because "you always want to make sure to have them scan your items when you take them to the PO."

OK, I can see the reason you'd want that insurance, so it doesn't just get put somewhere and then scanned whenever they get to it.  But it makes things pretty darned inconvenient for a guy that works long hours at his regular job.

[alpenglow_wares]

Oldtownrhoda, I think I might try that.  Sometimes it's hard to even take a proper lunch break where I work, and I end up eating at my desk (when I'm there -- I'm working from home at least until the end of next week).  But that definitely can be an option.

[alcoforever]

I suppose I'm lucky because my PO always scanned the items whether I put them in the drop box or on the loading dock.   The lines in my PO are usually 20 minutes or so long and you don't know which clerk you are going to get.  Speedy Cindy was the world's slowest clerk, Tess was super fast and Paul somewhere in the middle.   Sometimes there was a 4th clerk with average speed.

Haven't shipped anything since the lockdown began so my experience may be out of date.

[wastingtime101]

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@alpenglow_wares wrote:

Unfortunately, the porch is pretty much the only place that would work for them to pick up (other than the mailbox, of course).  I hadn't thought of a bench or storage box to hide the packages.  They're pretty expensive, though, at least for something that would provide a reasonable level of security and convenience (BenchSentry is like $449!).

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I was thinking something more along the lines of this or this or this. You don't need the high end lock boxes, just something that will conceal the packages from plain view.

@alpenglow_wares wrote:

On another note, is there a way to resize my avatar (logo) for just the purposes of this forum -- leaving it in its original size for my seller page?  It looks like the eBay forum just took the logo I'd uploaded for my seller account and then cropped it into a small circle -- which looks bad.  I noticed that your avatar is sized correctly, but I can't find any way to resize, or maybe just upload a different-sized avatar strictly for this forum.

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The avatar on this forum is the one that's displayed on your feedback page. The problem is that it's a rectangle so it doesn't translate well. Here's a modified square version:

 Save that image and upload it through your profile page. Sign out of the forum and sign out of eBay. When you log back in the image should be refreshed.

[alpenglow_wares]

Ha, "Speedy Cindy."  I know what you mean about there being wild differences sometimes in the clerks' speed.  At my regular supermarket, there's this guy who was lightning-fast checker.  His fingers were a blur on the register keypad.  That was in the pre-touchscreen days.  The touchscreen took away the tactile feel of physical buttons, and it slowed him down drastically.  And he hates that, because he took pride in being super quick.

Anyway, thanks, everyone, for the suggestions.  I think that gives me enough to at least figure out what my initial strategy is going to be.  Anxious to get on with this!

[alpenglow_wares]

Wastingtime101, thanks for the links and thanks for the logo resize.  I'll see how that works.

[alpenglow_wares]

Success! Thanks.

[parkersparrow]

I was going to suggest going on your lunch hour as well. Does a mail carrier ever stop by your workplace to deliver mail? If so maybe you can ask them to take your packages?

[alpenglow_wares]

I'll probably have to just go to the nearest PO on my lunch hour when I can.  I won't be able to add my eBay stuff to my company's mail pick-up -- I just know that that idea won't fly with them.