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Shipping/Receiving and U.S. Postal Service

PPD-0214

The purpose of this document is to provide the basic procedures for handling U.S. Postal Service mail and packages shipped/received at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS).   

The Mail Room/Shipping and Receiving (MR/S&R) Office is open from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm and closed for lunch from noon to 1:00 pm.  Any change in the regular hours of operation will be posted via e-mail to the entire campus.  The MR/S&R staff will assign mailboxes, provide keys and sort mail to the various departmental mail boxes.  Departmental designees will be responsible for mail pickup and distribution across campus. 

There are three basic types of mail:

  1. Campus mail – Exchanged between the York River Campus, Eastern Shore Campus (ESL), Topping and the William & Mary (W&M) campuses.
  2. U.S. Mail – all mail received or sent from any VIMS’s campus through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
  3. Courier Service Mail and Package/Freight Delivery – letter-sized packages and larger, sent by private courier services such as United Parcel Service (UPS), Federal Express (FedEx) and via freight services.

Campus Mail

  1. Campus mail bound for W&M is generally picked up on Tuesday and Thursdays, in the morning, to be delivered to the W&M campus mailroom the same day. Mail should be brought to the MR/S&R by 9:00 am on those days.  If timing is critical, campus mail to W&M should be mailed first class.
  2. Campus mail to the ESL and Topping will be mailed once/week.
  3. Campus mail will be sorted as it is received.

U.S. Postal Service Mail

  1. The staff of the MR/S&R will meter official business mail which either must be in an official VIMS envelope or packaged with a VIMS mailing label. The name of the sender should appear with the return address, as well as the Banner index number for billing.  It must be properly characterized regarding the presence of liquid, fragile, perishable or potentially hazardous content.
  2. All outgoing mail for USPS should be received by 9:00 am for processing. The US Postal Service mail carrier comes once per day to deliver incoming mail and to collect outgoing mail, usually between 10:30 am and 2:00 pm.  Any mail received after the mail carrier leaves will be processed and postmarked the next business day.
  3. Special US Postal Services are available through MR/S&R including certified, insured, express delivery and tracking confirmation.
  4. USPS mail is generally delivered to VIMS mailboxes by 3:00 pm. Delivery the first day after a holiday may be later.
  5. Individuals with large volumes of mail should communicate with the staff of the MR/S&R well in advance of the expected mailing date. The organizational unit sending the large mailings will be responsible for the cost of postage and for all processing. 
  6. No personal mail will be sent or received.

Courier Service Mail

  1. UPS and FedEx mail should be in the MR/S&R for processing by 8:30 am for a morning pickup. UPS and FedEx deliveries and pickups are made on various schedules.
  2. Outgoing for FedEx Express US Air Bill must be received no later than 11:30 am daily.
  3. FedEx is the only option for shipping anything containing dry ice, chemicals, lithium batteries, flammable liquids or solids, as well as anything potentially explosive, poisonous or corrosive. The shipper must provide the proper shipping name/description of the hazardous item.
  4. UPS has a drop box in Watermen’s Hall for very small parcels or flat envelopes. Larger parcels must be processed through MR/S&R.
  5. MR/S&R should be notified regarding expected delivery of any large equipment/packages, particularly those requiring a forklift. MR/S&R should be provided with delivery location and contact number(s) for recipient and backup contact.
  6. PCO, DO, EP, or Z numbers should be part of all shipping label information. The staff in MR/S&R will send out a daily e-mail with delivery notifications associated with the PCO/DO/EP/Z numbers as well as those which arrive unidentified.
  7. MR/S&R should be notified of any ETF or VIMS orders over $5K prior to delivery in order to be tagged appropriately and efficiently.
  8. No personal mail or packages should be shipped to arrive in the MR/S&R nor any personal mail or packages should be dropped off for shipping.

During the check-in process (PPD-1015), all persons, faculty, staff, student, volunteer, or extended term visitor, new to VIMS shall contact staff in the MR/S&R to determine how that person’s mail should be routed.  Additionally, whenever there is a change in duty station such that there would be a change in mail routing, the affected person should contact the staff of the MR/S&R to initiate the routing change.  The site to which an individual’s mail will be distributed will be determined by the individual’s supervisor and will be a site in reasonable proximity to the individual’s duty station.

As part of the check-out process (PPD-1016), when a person leaves the campus community, MR/S&R receives on a monthly basis from Human Resources the forwarding address.  VIMS will not forward mail for more than one month after an individual has left campus.  Persons leaving should notify journals and other parties who regularly send them mail of the change in address.