Years ago I checked into this. But I decided not to go with this mainly because I was fearful that items for shipment picked up at my house could be stolen if anyone knew I was using this service and leaving there to where the carrier could grab them, and if I have to wait around for the carrier to pick up items to ship, it means that I am tied down to having to wait around. Additionally I would have to buy equipment to weigh my own packages and set up a credit card to bill to for items to ship.
So I personally just went to the post office during non peak hours and this way I could get right in and right out and I wasn't fearful of thieves as well as being stuck to waiting around for the carrier before I could leave because I'd have to hand the items to the carrier for shipment.
If going at lunch time or when everyone gets out of work then you will likely get stuck in the dreadful line. I also instead of shipping daily changed to a twice a week shipping to where Saturday and Wednesday were my days to ship customers products. Most people didnt mind the extra couple days added to the delivery time. The few that complained I apologized and pointed out the fact that my ebay auctions state the fact of the twice a week delivery. Most didnt mind the extra few days before it was delivered from the purchase date.
The USPS also has partner companies that you can ship from as well such as Staples offers customer service to ship items. This ability to ship from home though works well for people who dont mind being home and waiting for the carrier and going through the process of setting this up. A small business for example that they work from home and dont mind being there from 9 to 5 for example it works out well because there is no loss of productivity standing in line to ship. Your already there and can just stop whatever your doing to give items to carrier or leave items out on a counter for carrier and they ship.
Biggest thing is knowing what can and cant ship and what all the different fees are so that its set up for delivery properly such as proper postage, proper identification and paperwork and labeling etc so that a product with a Lithium Battery for example stays as Ground Shipping and doesn't make its way into an aircraft etc. As well as international paperwork for customs etc if anything ships to another country.
For me its so much easier just going to the post office at a non peak time and having a qualified and skilled customer service person ask the necessary questions and affix the proper labels and assign the proper postage so that its not returned die to insufficient postage etc. Only draw back for some is that some post offices have odd hours where they can be closed for 2 hours to which you thought going at 2pm would work out well to be non peak time, but the post office just opened back up and there is a flood of people needing to ship at that time etc.
