Have you ever dreamed of knowing exactly what was going to be in your mailbox before your mail carrier arrived that day?  Wouldn’t you love to know whether or not the packages you are expecting are actually going to be delivered today (like they promised) or if they are going to be delayed? Wouldn’t it be awesome to know that UPS or the USPS were going to bring your packages right to your doorstep or your mailbox without having to pay extra for tracking information? If you answered yes to any of those questions that you are going to love USPS Informed Delivery!

No, we aren’t talking about UPS Informed Delivery or the tracking methods used by UPS (or other third-party packaging and shipping companies). Instead we are talking about the Informed Delivery service available from the United States Postal Service, one of the coolest innovations to come out of the USPS in quite a while.

Think of this as a tool to “x-ray” your mailbox even before anything gets to your box in the first place! Interested in learning a little bit more? Let’s jump right in then!

What is USPS Informed Delivery?

Created just a few years ago, Informed Delivery by the USPS totally changed the way that people found out about what was going to be delivered in their mailbox that very day (as well as what was expected to be delivered to their mailbox in the days to come). Recognizing that people around the country were wondering where their mail was, what kinds of packages they could expect, and whether or not important bills were going to be filling up their mailbox or just more junk mail, the USPS rolled out a new platform – 100% free of charge – for anyone to take advantage of.

This new platform called Informed Delivery basically takes digital scans and photographs of the mail that is going to be delivered to your address and provides you with those completely free of charge, all available 100% online on any of your favorite internet enabled devices. You can jump onto the USPS website, sign into your account, and you any of the upcoming packages or mail pieces that you are expected to have sent to your address after you have signed up for Informed Delivery – but you can check it from your phone, your tablet, or other online devices, too.

On top of that, it’s also possible to get email updates and even text message updates about the mail that is expected to hit your mailbox on a daily basis. There are a bunch of other benefits to Informed Delivery as well, benefits we are going to dig into right now!

What Are the Benefits of Informed Delivery?

The biggest and most obvious benefit of Informed Delivery from the USPS has to be the fact that you’ll never again have to wonder about what’s going to end up in your mailbox at the end of the day. We lead incredibly busy lives that are only getting busier and more stressful. The last thing we want to do is play a guessing game with our mail.

We want to know exactly what’s going to be in the box when we go to check it, whether or not it’s worth checking our mailbox or waiting until the next day, and we want to be able to do so from the comfort of our mobile devices or our computer. Informed Delivery from the USPS delivers all of that and then some! Not only do you get up to date information about what’s expected to be in your mailbox today, but you also get a digital scan of the outside of the envelope or the package itself.

This lets you know – and lets you physically see – everything that’s going to end up in your box, taking things to the next level from just tracking your packages or parcels as they move through the mail system. On top of that, you’re also going to get a digital record of all the mail that you have already received and when you receive it as part of your Informed Delivery account. Need to remember when bills started to hit your mailbox last month? Can’t remember if that important check was delivered or not a few weeks ago? Wondering where a birthday card is and if you have received it yet? All of that can be double checked, verified, and confirmed from your phone or your computer after you sign up for Informed Delivery.

You’ll also get information about packages, parcels, and mail pieces that are headed to your address via USPS in the near future, too. Usually you get about a week in advance of information, though if there are any packages with legitimate tracking information (like from a bit of online shopping, for example) you’ll find that in your Informed Delivery dashboard as well – even if it’s not expected to arrive until a week or more in the future.

How USPS Informed Delivery Works

The way that the USPS Informed Delivery system works is really simple and straightforward and requires absolutely no “heavy lifting” on your behalf. All you really have to do is visit the USPS website (USPS.com), create a 100% free account for Informed Delivery, verify your identity and your address, and then you are off to the races. Within the next couple of days (but usually the next day or two after signing up) you’ll start to get alerts about when your mail is on its way.

Every time a new piece of mail or a new package is handled by USPS designated for your address a quick snapshot (black-and-white) of the outside and the address label will be taken and then uploaded to your account. The USPS system works to match those images to delivery points and applies them to your account almost automatically, which gives you real-time information about the mail that you can expect to receive in the future.

Most of the time people request daily alerts about the Informed Delivery updates that have been made to their account, with a lot of these emails going out in the early morning hours. This lets you know before your day starts what kind of mail you can expect to hit your mailbox – which, in turn, helps you know whether or not you need to check your mail as a priority or if you can grab your mail when it’s most convenient.

What Kind of Mail Gets Scanned?

It is important to understand, though, that not every single piece of mail that’s going to be sent to your address is going to get scanned, photographed, or uploaded as an image to your Informed Delivery account. While it’s true that the overwhelming majority of pieces are definitely going to get this treatment (and that’s a big part of what makes this service so special), not everything is going to make it into this system.

Mail pieces that are eligible for Informed Delivery photographs and scans include, but are not limited to:

• Any piece of mail scanned by automated USPS technology
• All pieces of mail that are physically handled and scanned by USPS workers
• All flat and flat rate packages and parcels handled by the USPS
• Most of your larger postcards and letters
• All of your newspapers, flyers, magazines, and something similar

As far as pieces that are eligible to be scanned by the Informed Delivery technology are concerned, you’ll still get a notification that there are things to be delivered to your mailbox. You just won’t get that visual image of exactly what those mail pieces are.

Instead a placeholder image will be provided in your dashboard, letting you know that mail pieces that could not be scanned are going to be delivered that day. Even though this means you won’t get 100% scanning or photos of the mail that you are expecting on a day-to-day basis from USPS it is still very much a worthwhile service to take advantage of.

How Much Does Informed Delivery Cost?

The best part of Informed Delivery from the USPS is that it isn’t going to cost you a penny to sign up for or use! That’s right, you are reading that correctly. Every single person that has a physical mailing address in the United States of America (whether that’s a mailbox, PO Box, or street address, it makes no difference) is entitled to take advantage of the Informed Delivery mail photograph and scanning service totally free of charge.

This goes hand-in-hand with your ability to use the Postal Service for free (you don’t have to spend any money to receive mail at your address, unless you’re using a PO Box). Companies like UPS, FedEx, DHL, and others often charge a premium for tracking information – but you get an even better delivery confirmation service totally free the second that you sign up for this account.

Not only that, but you also get instant notifications about the mail that you can expect that day, digital tracking of all the mail that you have received after you have signed up for Informed Delivery, and alerts about the kind of mail you can expect to get in the coming week, too.

How Do I Sign Up for USPS Informed Delivery?

Signing up for USPS Informed Delivery is super simple and straightforward. All you really have to do is jump on the USPS website (USPS.com) and navigate to the CREATE AN ACCOUNT section of the site. This is going to walk you through the step by step process of creating a free account on the USPS website. From there you’re going to be able to navigate to the Informed Delivery section of the platform.

Now you’ll have to sign up for a free Informed Delivery account, verify your address and identity information to confirm that you are in fact you say you are and that your checking the mail daily for an address that you are actually affiliated with. After that you can kick back, relax, and wait a day or two until the USPS starts sending you updates and alerts about the mail that they have photographed or scanned for you.

US Global Mail – Even Better Than Informed Delivery from the USPS

While the Informed Delivery system from USPS is fantastic – and free – it cannot hold a candle to the more modern mailing solution available from US Global Mail.

With informed delivery, you get mail previews of the mail coming in the next day. You cannot access the actual mail in your envelope digitally. US Global Mail on the other hand, allows you to request a mail scan, so that you can view the interior contents of your envelope digitally. After creating an account with US Global Mail you get to take advantage of their automated mail scanning system.

This solution takes Informed Delivery to the next level, not only guaranteeing that you get scans and photographs of all of your packages, parcels, and envelopes (unlike with the USPS) but also providing you with updates about those pieces of mail in real time.

Unlike the USPS Informed Delivery service where you have to wait until the morning of to get notification about the mail you can expect in your mailbox, US Global Mail provides you with live, constantly updated details about every package, every parcel, and every envelope that they receive on your behalf when they receive it.

Combine that with the mail forwarding, mail holding, and package receiving services that they provide (most or whole range of other options and services that make US Global Mail so special) and it’s not hard to see why thousands of people rely on this company every day to make their lives a little more efficient.

For more information about how US Global Mail can change the way that you receive packages, parcels, and envelopes from here on out – providing you with a much more modern solution for mail reception – check out their website today.

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