Avoid Airline Hassles

Send Packages Ahead

Fort Myers / Cape Coral, Fl. — Are you planning a trip over the holidays and want to take Christmas or other packages with you? This can be a difficult task as the Transportation Security Administration requires packages to be unwrapped; your gifts also may not meet requirements for either checking or carry-on baggage. Remember the 3-1-1 rule: no liquids more than 3 ounces; in one one-quart ziplock bag; and one bag per person.

A simple solution is to send your gifts ahead using the U.S. Postal Service. Your gifts will be waiting for you at your destination! Priority Mail boxes in two sizes allow you to send everything you can put in the box (regardless of weight) to any destination for $8.95 per box! Your Priority Mail box should arrive in three days. For further ease, you can use Click-n-Ship on www.usps.com to print your shipping label and postage and arrange for your mail carrier to pick up the box on a specified day. This will save you standing in line at a Post Office!

If you still want to take the box to the Post Office, you can use the Automated Postal Center to obtain your postage. These are open 24/7 at the Cape Coral Central, Cape Coral South and Page Field Post Offices. And, for further convenience, the Mobile Retail Unit will be on the road every Wednesday and Thursday stationed on Wednesdays at the Gateway 7-11 on Gateway Blvd from 10 am to noon and CVS on the corner of Daniels Parkway and Fiddlesticks Blvd from 2 to 4 pm. The mobile will be at Walgreens in Cape Coral on the corner of Chiquita Blvd and Cape Coral Pkwy from noon to 4 pm every Thursday.

There are 15 private business locations in Fort Myers and Cape Coral serving as contracted postal units to provide postal goods and services at postal service prices. To find the contract postal unit closest to you call 1-800-ASK-USPS or check on the website at www.usps.com.

Remember that any box sent through the Postal Service cannot contain flammable contents and you cannot reuse boxes that once contained a flammable substance.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/news.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.