Okeechobee FL — On Saturday, August 28, the Okeechobee Post Office will be make history. At 10 am, Postmaster Mark Pinson will introduce the Automated Postal Center (or APC) to customers in the Post Office lobby at 1000 Hwy 70 East in Okeechobee.

“We appreciate our customers and want to provide another option for conducting their postal transactions with us,” said Pinson. “On Saturday, we’ll demonstrate that the APC is customer friendly and provides quick, easy, convenient access to our services.”

Just as an ATM is a virtual stand-alone bank, the APC is a virtual stand-alone Post Office. But unlike the ATM, there’s no transaction fee. The APC provides access to postal services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Using a credit or debit card, transactions are conducted in English or Spanish. The APC handles 80 percent of the same transactions customers may conduct at the Post Office retail counter. Customers may:

• Purchase postage for Express Mail, Priority Mail, First-Class Mail, and Parcel Post.
• Weigh and determine the rate for envelopes and packages up to 70 pounds.
• Buy sheets of stamps.
• Locate a ZIP Code.
• Add insurance, Delivery Confirmation service, Certified Mail, or Return Receipt.
• Make a Post Office Box rental payment.

A touch screen guides customers through transactions with a series of prompts. There’s a built-in scale to weigh packages and a SmartMat to measure them. (Weight and size help determine the proper amount of postage.) Customers also input the destination and how quickly the package should arrive to calculate postage. With the address label and postage secured on the package, it can be placed inside the parcel collection box next to the APC.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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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/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.