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Customers can avoid waiting in line longer at post office finance windows if they complete an online customs declaration using the U.S. Postal Service website when presenting parcels and packages for mailing at the Air Force Post Office. Customers have several options available to them when completing required customs declarations using the USPS website, USPS.com.
Option 1: Customers can chose the USPS “Click-N-Ship” feature to establish an account, complete their customs declaration and pay for their mailing using one of several USPS approved credit cards. Customers who choose this option will receive a discounted commercial base price versus the standard retail price.
Option 2: Patrons can also print a customs declaration on the USPS website without establishing an account and then pay at the postal finance window when presenting their parcels and packages for mailing.
In addition, APOs will soon offer customers the option to use a customer work station at the APO for going online and completing a customs declaration before presenting mail pieces at the postal finance window.
Patrons who do not present articles for mailing with an online declaration can mail their packages using the hard copy customs declaration, but it will take longer for mail clerks to process the transaction. When parcels are presented for mailing without an online customs declaration, mail clerks will be required to manually enter each item listed on the declaration in the point of sale equipment that they use to complete the transaction. This will result in longer customer waiting times and longer lines at the post office finance windows.
As an incentive for customers who arrive at the post office with online, pre-printed U.S. customs declarations, many U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa post offices plan to have a separate, expedited mail acceptance window available for customer use.
The USPS as well as postal administrations worldwide must implement new Global Trade Compliance requirements that will result in changes in how mail must be processed and dispatched. For the U.S., changes will give USPS, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol more visibility to what is arriving into the U.S. and from where.
Official government mailings are currently not affected by new mandated requirements.
For additional information on how to complete a customs declaration form online, visit the USPS website at:
https://cns.usps.com/labelInformation.shtml.
