When you live fulltime in an RV, there are a few questions that people tend to ask:  How do you make money?  How much does it cost to live in an RV?  How do you get your mail?  I bet you all want to know how much it costs, and how do we make money, but unfortunately I am not answering those questions today.  I will however tell you how we get our mail.

We are residents of Montana, and we have a mail forwarding service in our home town of Kalispell that we use as our address.  This is the address that we use for our bank accounts, vehicle registrations and anything that requires a physical address.  The service costs us $99 a year and they scan our mail when they receive it, and send us a notification letting us know we have new mail.  We then log into their website and can view the scans of the mail.  We tell them whether we want it shredded or saved in our box.  When we need something forwarded to us like checks, credit cards, or vehicle renewals, we give them an address for a place ahead of us to have it sent out. There is an additional charge when we have our mail shipped out to us, that depends on the size and weight of the package.

Where do we get stuff shipped to us on the road? 

Our first option is usually a RV park or campground we will be at.  Sometimes that can be tricky as we don’t typically stay places longer than a week or 2.  So we try to have these items shipped ahead of us to make sure we have plenty of time to receive it.  Different RV parks and campgrounds all have different policies on receiving mail.  We are members of Thousand Trails and the policies are very different from location to location.  Some parks will gladly accept any and all mail or packages, some will only accept UPS and FedEx.  Some charge a couple bucks, some don’t charge anything.  You should always call ahead and ask before having anything shipped to a RV park.  Some parks you can even put your site number (if you know it) and they will delivery right to your door!

If we are going to be someplace, and the Campground will not accept mail, General Delivery to the local post office would be our second option usually.  Again, you need to call the specific post office and ask before having anything sent there.  Many times it’s said General Delivery is available on the USPS website, and then you call, and they do not.  General Delivery works especially well with Amazon if you want to take advantage of Amazon Prime, you just address like this:

John Doe

PO Box

General Delivery

Phoenix, AZ  12345

Not all Amazon items can be shipped to Post Offices and there is no rhyme or reason to it so be prepared to find alternative methods.  Another thing we have used quite a bit for Amazon is their lockers.  Amazon has “lockers” placed at retail locations that you can have items (smaller items) shipped to.  When we were in the Seattle area last year, there were lockers at almost every Safeway in the area.  When it arrives, you get emailed a code that you use to unlock the locker and claim your items.  You can even do returns through the lockers. 

Family and friends houses are a good option if you are nearby.  We try to include family and friends on our travel routes, so if it works out, we usually try to take advantage of that when we can.

Shipping stores are another great option.  This would be retail outlets like USPS Postal Annex’s, UPS stores, FedEx stores and other private shipping store locations.  These usually charge a fee, but are full service shipping centers.  If you are in an area, just google shipping services and can find locations around you.  I would always call before having something shipped to one unless their website is specific enough.

When we were in Albuquerque we were looking for a place to have our solar panels shipped to.  I knew they would be shipped FedEx Ground, so I called the local FedEx distribution center to see if I could have them shipped there, and just pick them up at that location.  I was told that due to a recent partnership with Walgreens, to use one at the nearest address to the center.  I was skeptical, so I called the Walgreens, and sure enough they would accept the packages.  It didn’t cost anything to have my packages sent there, and the staff  was super friendly!  I made it a point to make a purchase every time I went to pick up packages and would not hesitate to do it again. Check out what FedEx has to say: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/onsite/walgreens-package-pickup.html

So, as you can see, there are tons of options out there for getting your mail on the road.  A good rule of thumb is to make sure you give yourself enough time.  I have had to cancel/return orders, have stuff forwarded if we left before mail arrived and help friends by grabbing their mail for them.