Online pharmacies are regarded by many people as the most convenient means to get the medications or drugs they need. In the United States alone, thousands of consumers find these service websites as the fastest and the easiest way to have their prescription medications refilled. Online pharmacies greatly benefit the ones who do not have enough time to squeeze in regular pharmacy visit as well as those who are physically incapable of getting the medicines or medications they need.

Online consumers are hooked to the services offered by the hundreds of web pharmacies, for these sites not only provide the most convenient ways to get medicines, but these are the also the best means to avail of cheap yet quality medications and other medicinal supplies.

Apart from providing quality and affordable medicinal products and supplies to consumers, online pharmacies also offer a number of convenient delivery methods. The fees for the shipment service vary from one online pharmacy to another. Shipment fees may include sales tax on non-prescription medication orders from certain US states. On the other hand, there are some websites that no longer charge sales tax on non-prescription drug orders assigned to be shipped to specific US states addresses, which include US territory and the APO/ FPO.

What is an APO shipment?

APO basically stands for Army Post Office. This address is associated with the Army or Air Force installations. Based on the Military Postal Service Agency, an APO address are domestic mails that have military return address. These are mails that are sent to or received from military installations that are situated at the Continental United States.

For consumers who are interested to order and buy medications from online pharmacies offering APO shipping service, the following are some facts that they should understand and consider:

1. Priority mails are always the first ones to be delivered.

If a consumer decides to have his package delivered to an APO address with a surface or standard mail option, it may take awhile before his ordered medication arrives. The reason for this is that packages or mails with APO addresses under the priority mail option are always the first ones that get to be delivered and the surface mails are the least priority. Surface mail packages usually take more than two months since the mails are dispatched via a ship instead of an airplane.

2. Parcels or packages with APO address have shipment restrictions.

Since delivery packages have shipment restrictions, not all mails or parcels with APO address are accepted for delivery. Packages should not exceed the 70 pounds and 130 inches of combined girth and length parcel delivery limit. Post offices also require the sender to personally deliver the packages or mails that are to be sent to an APO address to the US Postal System.

3. Alcohol, firearms, and hazardous items are restricted.

Senders of packages with APO address are restricted to ship parcels containing hazardous contents. Zip codes covered by the APO and FPO addresses have different sets of restrictions to various kinds of shipment content.