While traveling on your locum tenens assignments, having your mail catch up with your new locations could be a challenge. There are multiple methods through which you can get your mail in a complete and timely manner. While most things such as bills are done electronically nowadays, there are some types of snail mail that you can’t receive over the internet. So we have listed some alternative ways to make sure you get your mail.
Friends and Family
Some locums workers pay a small rent to a friend or family member to establish their tax home. For those who choose to do this, that location acts as their physical address, which can be both a cost-effective and easy way to make sure you get your mail. Your “landlord” can box up the mail and send it to you as needed. It’s an easy and straightforward way to keep your family up-to-date on where you are. This also helps to simplify things for tax purposes, since you receive mail at your tax home. While this may seem like a fantastic option, you also have to take into account that your friends and relatives might get tired of running back and forth from the post office frequently.
Post Office
The US Postal Service (USPS) offers a few programs for forwarding your mail, and they provide many options at varying price levels. The cheapest and most straightforward option is to change your address temporarily. You can use this service for as little as 15 days, and up to 6 months, with an additional 6-month extension possible. The most significant benefit to this is that it only costs $1.05 to set up online at USPS.com. The only downside is there is often a lag time between when the mail arrives at your home post office and when you receive it. And during the transition from one address to a new one, your mail could get lost.
Another viable option would be to use the Premium Forwarding Service (PFS). With this service, your mail is packaged every Wednesday and sent out via Priority Mail. The service requires you to pay an enrollment fee and $21.10 each week of service use. While this service is faster than changing your address and easily tracked with a weekly email tracking number, it is far more expensive than updating your address.
With both options, you have to make new arrangements with each new locum tenens assignment. PFS does offer options to hold mail for 1-2 weeks so that you can avoid delivery mishaps like getting your mail too late at an old address or too early at a new address.
There’s an App for that!
Just like most everything else today, there is an app for receiving mail! Virtual Mailbox (VM) is one such app. Unlike when you receive mail at a post office, your mail arrives at their facility where the envelopes are scanned and uploaded to your personal VM for viewing and managing from any smart device. With VM, you have multiple mail options, you can choose to have them open, scan, and email the contents, or for more sensitive material, they can forward it to your current address. If you receive some junk mail, you can have them toss it out without ever bothering you. Virtual mailboxes tend to be less expensive than other options because the mail is scanned and emailed and not mailed out to you. This can be a more comfortable option as you don’t have to contact them directly to update your address every time you move when on assignment.
All of these options can help give you the peace of mind that you will receive your mail regardless of your location. This can help ease some of the worries that can be connected with traveling for locum tenens assignments and allow you to enjoy the experience.
Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.
What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs
To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!