Courier Service

Courier Service

In addition to the regular interoffice mail delivery provided by HUMS, we also provide a variety of courier services.  For departments which occasionally require the transportation of time-sensitive or confidential materials, HUMS can provide on-call, desk-to-desk, signature confirmation delivery of documents and parcels.  In addition, we work with departments to design daily or weekly courier routes which best fit their needs.  We can offer a simple daily point-to-point delivery, or a complex schedule of deliveries around Boston which takes advantage of our large fleet of delivery vehicles and our web-based tracking system.  For more information about designing a courier program, please contact us.

In an effort to help customers and HUMS better track our on call courier service, we have implemented an online request form.

The form can be found here: https://apps2.campusservices.harvard.edu/courier

The online form is very similar to the old pdf form with a few exceptions.

  • You will be asked to log in with your Harvard Key
  • You will be asked for the earliest available pickup date and time, as well as your desired delivery time.
  • You will be asked to enter billing code or UOS Project information. Once you enter a billing code it will be available from a drop down menu for future use.
  • If you know your UOS Project number you are able to enter that as well.  (Contact HUMS@harvard.edu with questions.)
  • When you submit a request it will be approved by our administrative staff. You will receive email notification that your request has been approved
  • At that point you will be able to print a shipping “label” just as you printed a pdf to affix to the items to be couriered.
  • Tracking numbers will be created for all jobs which will allow you to see the time that it is picked up as well as the time that it is delivered and the last name of the person who signed for it.
  • Our handheld scanners update wirelessly every 5 minutes allowing close to real time updates on your courier deliveries.
  • The new online form will also allow you to see past courier requests and allow you to copy or recreate them.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions at 617-496-6245 or HUMS@harvard.edu

The courier service has two general categories of pricing, a per job (or per delivery address) rate and a per hour rate.  The per job rate applies to smaller parcels, and the hourly rates applies to larger moving jobs.  For smaller items, it costs $10 to deliver within the Harvard/Allston campus, and $20 between the Harvard/Allston campus and, with some limitations, the rest of Boston.  It is also $20 for courier deliveries within the rest of Boston.  These rates are doubled for short notice or late afternoon jobs, though there is some flexibility there, so let us know what you have and we will work with you as much as we can.

For larger moving jobs, we charge $55/hr regardless of the destination, however these are priced on a case-by-case basis and destinations outside the metro-Boston area or deliveries that will require additional staff may incur additional charges.

It is always best to give us as much notice as possible to help ensure that we can make the deliveries at your preferred time.  Please contact HUMS with any questions at hums@harvard.edu.