Commercial mail receiving agency

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Within the United States, a commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) is a private business that accepts mail from the Postal Service on behalf of third parties.^[1] A CMRA may also be colloquially known as a mail drop.^[2] A mailbox at a CMRA is called a private mailbox (PMB).^[1]

A customer of a CMRA can receive mail and other deliveries at the street address of the CMRA rather than the customer's own street address. Depending on the agreement between the customer and the CMRA, the CMRA can forward the mail to the customer or hold it for pickup.^[2]

Unlike a post office box, a CMRA operates independently of the national postal administration and is therefore able to receive courier packages or other items which are not traditional mailpieces. CMRAs typically provide ancillary services such as facsimile, copy, packaging, or courier.

A customer may wish to use the services of a CMRA for privacy. A customer in one community may contract with a CMRA in another community with a better known or more prestigious address. A business located near an international border may use a CMRA as a point of local presence to receive cross-border freight or correspondence at domestic (instead of international) rates.

A traditional advantage of a CMRA over a Post Office box was that customers could use the CMRA's street address plus a suite number as the address of their private mailbox.^[2] This masked the fact that the private mailbox was not the customer's actual residence or business address.^[2] However, Web mapping services with aerial photography allow anyone to determine that a particular street address is occupied by a shopping center and not an office building, while Google Street View allows anyone to see that a particular street address is occupied by a CMRA retail storefront and not an office.

The use of a CMRA may result in mail delivery occurring at a later time of day than it would at a Post Office box. Some CMRAs offer a virtual mailbox, or online post office, providing a means to access mail over the internet. The USPS will not process a change of address from an address at a CMRA.^[1]