Can You Ship FedEx or UPS to a P.O. Box?

You can't ship a package with FedEx or UPS to a P.O. Box if the P.O. Box is located in a Post Office. However, it may be possible to ship to an address that appears to be a P.O. Box if it is a Community Box Unit address, or a CBU.

What is a CBU?

The acronym "CBU" stands for "Community Box Unit" or "Cluster Box Units". For a residential community, a CBU is a collection of centrally located USPS mailboxes. Instead of mail being delivered to an individual mailbox at each house or suite, mail is delivered to a shared cluster of locked mailboxes. USPS began requiring CBUs for all new residential subdivisions and new extensions of existing ones on April 5, 2012.

Can FedEx or UPS Delivery to a CBU?

CBUs often have parcel lockers for packages, but only the USPS can access them. However, the mail collection station may have a locker system, a package room, or another physical drop location that supports FedEx and UPS deliveries. If the address represents a house in a subdivision with a roadside CBU, FedEx and UPS can usually deliver to the house door just fine.

The use of a CBU address is usually not itself a reason to block FedEx/UPS, but it can contribute to:

• address correction issues,
• residential surcharges,
• delivery exceptions
• or carrier-specific validation failures.

The critical factor is whether FedEx/UPS can physically access a delivery point at the address.

How Can I Tell if an Address is a CBU Address?

It can be difficult to tell if an address is a CBU address. Ideally, the person providing the address will also include the street address, like this:

John Smith
123 Main St, Box 12
Atlanta, GA 30303

Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for the person to instead provide:

John Smith
P.O. Box 12
Atlanta, GA 30303

In the latter case, it is nearly impossible to know that the address is a CBU address.

How Does Eniture Technology Identify CBU Addresses?

Many of Eniture Technology's products have an address type detection feature that includes a setting to suppress quotes when the address is a USPS post office box. When this setting is enabled, Eniture Technology verifies the box type using USPS-provided metadata. If the address is a USPS post office box, the e-commerce site will not receive shipping quotes for FedEx, UPS, or any of the freight integrations offered by Eniture Technology.

However, if the address is a CBU box, then shipping rates for FedEx, UPS, and any active freight integrations will be available to the e-commerce site.

If you have the setting enabled to suppress quotes when the address is a USPS post office box, and you receive an order that has a ship-to address that appears to be a P.O. Box, then most likely it is a CBU. You can elect to ship it using this address, but calling the customer to confirm the actual street address is recommended.