Passports – The Postal Service, in partnership with U.S. State Department Passport Services, makes it easy and convenient to apply for a passport. Postal Service employees accept more than 70 percent of first-time applications. Over 5,000 USPS facilities provide fee-based acceptance of first-time applications for a U.S. passport book or passport card. Over 4,500 facilities provide both passport acceptance and photo services (for a fee). Total passport revenue for FY2016 from both applications and photos was in excess of $199 million, an increase of 13.6 percent over the previous year.
A near-term goal is to improve contribution from passports by increasing efficiency, growing the number of applications accepted and improving service to meet State Department requirements. In particular, the emphasis will be to improve the percentage of passport mailings processed through automation and consolidate passport facilities. The Postal Service has implemented passport acceptance centers in larger cities to provide passport services in a separate area or location, focusing on customer service and convenience.
Post Office Box Service – At 8,400 Post Office locations, we offer competitive PO Box service, which offers enhancements similar to services offered by our competitors and at comparable prices. More than 1.1 million customers have signed up for the following services:
When choosing a new competitive PO Box, customers could participate in the “Baker’s Dozen” — 13 months of service for a 12-month payment — and a deposit is not required for the first two keys. Many locations also offer expanded lobby access hours and earlier times when mail will be available for pickup.
PO Boxes offer the convenience of online billing and payment. Federal agencies now can link and pay for all boxes and caller services through their Official Mail Accounting System accounts.
