E-Customs

From Military.com:

“Military Post Offices to Stop Accepting Handwritten Customs Forms”

The U.S. Postal Service will officially stop accepting handwritten customs declaration forms on international packages beginning March 6, but the change will come to military installations' mail a bit later, an Army news release said last month. Items mailed through Military Post Offices to international, non-U.S. addresses will be exempt from the computerized customs form requirement pending software updates expected to be completed "during the month of March," it said. "Customers should be prepared to start using the new forms as early as mid-March," Bill Hilsher, U.S. Army Europe chief of postal plans and policy, said in a statement. Customs forms, including PS Forms 2976, 2976-A and 2976-B, are used by foreign authorities to clear mail and, if necessary, assess duty and taxes, when accepting a package into their country. Incorrect forms can result in the wrong taxes being levied. After the change, postal customers will have to use PS Form 2976-R, "USPS Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note," or fill out a worksheet that postal clerks will use to input their information into an electronic system. Officials warned postal customers that, once the change is implemented on bases, it could lengthen waiting times at the post office. "We ask for customers' patience and understanding if the policy change causes longer wait times at the counters," Chuck Sharpe, IMCOM-Europe postal operations branch program manager, said in a statement. "We will continue to do everything we can to support their needs as we implement this new policy." USPS announced that it would accept only computer-generated forms earlier this year. It warned that, after March 6, any packages with a handwritten customs declaration form would be returned to the sender, unless covered by the short-term military exemption.

^ I randomly came across this information. The US Post Office did an awful job of making this announcement public in a timely manner. It seems pretty dumb to make the customer do all the work. If we wanted to type everything, pay and print online ourselves – including Customs Forms – we could have done that for several years now. The USPS website isn’t very good and yet they are making us use it now for everything. I guess that means we won’t be needing all the Postal employees anymore so they will most likely lose their jobs. I can’t see a soldier in a warzone finding the time to go online and fill everything out. It’s not like they are busy protecting our lives and making sure they aren’t killed too (oh wait they are.) ^

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/03/02/military-post-offices-stop-accepting-handwritten-customs-forms.html