Private Mail Bag

A private mail bag, locked bag or caller service is a term for a special form of postal delivery in some countries, usually a government department or large private company, which receive large volumes of mail. Private mail bag addresses are often used in countries in Africa where there may be no street delivery service.

Examples and variants

Like PO Box addresses, private mail bag addresses omit the name of the building and street, and include only the number allocated to the user.[1]

Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited
Private Mail Bag 6
Campbellfield Vic 3061
AUSTRALIA[2]

In some cases, a private mail bag may not have a number:

University of Sierra Leone
Private Mail Bag
Freetown
SIERRA LEONE[3]

It differs from PO box delivery in that whereas the holder of a PO box has to go to the post office in order to collect mail, the mail sent to a private bag is dispatched to the holder by a mail contractor.

Private Bag

In other countries, particularly South Africa, New Zealand and Fiji, the term private bag is used.

University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
AUCKLAND 1142[4]

In Fiji the usage is similar to New Zealand

FSC Limited
Private Mail Bag,
Lautoka
Fiji[5]

In South Africa, the private bag number may also contain letters.

Department of Home Affairs
Private Bag X114
PRETORIA 0001[6]

Locked Bag and Caller Service

In Australia, there are also locked bag addresses:

Special Broadcasting Service
Locked Bag 028
Crows Nest NSW 1585[7]

In Singapore, the term locked bag service is used:

Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Robinson Road Post Office
Locked Bag Service 10
Singapore 908186[8]

These are similar to a private mail bag, but the holder must collect the mail at the post office, like a PO box.

In the United States, this service is called caller service.[9] However, mail to a caller number is, with limited exceptions, addressed as though the caller number were a physical PO box,[9] as seen in the following example:

Commissioner for Patents
PO Box 1450
Alexandria VA 22313-1450[10]
gollark: `uninstall` is the real one.
gollark: Oh, that's a lie.
gollark: What? It works now. It didn't work properly before.
gollark: HOLD Ctrl+T.
gollark: It works for me.

See also

Notes
  1. "Locked bags". Australia Post. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  2. Ford Australia - Contact Us
  3. Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I: Grains, Board on Science and Technology for International Development, Office of International Affairs, Policy and Global Affairs, National Research Council, National Academies Press, 1996, page 342
  4. Contact the University of Auckland, University of Auckland
  5. , Fiji_Sugar_Corporation
  6. Department of Home Affairs Headquarters
  7. Contact : SBS Corporate
  8. Payment Services | The Straits Times Classified Archived 2016-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Domestic Mail Manual, Recipient Services, Caller Service
  10. Mailing and Hand Carry Addresses for the United States Patent and Trademark Office
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