PS Form 4245, the USPS Carrier’s Statement, is a preprinted envelope that a rural carrier uses to return excess money to a customer after a doorstep transaction and to record what happened on the envelope itself.1United States Postal Service. Publication 223 – Directives and Forms Catalog
What the Form Is
The Postal Service catalogs Form 4245 as “an envelope used for collecting, sorting, transmitting, and recording data.”1United States Postal Service. Publication 223 – Directives and Forms Catalog In practice it is both a container and a receipt. The carrier writes the transaction details on the outside, places the overpayment inside, seals it, and gives it back to the customer.
Form 4245 works alongside PS Form 1096, the standard Cash Receipt. Handbook PO-603, which governs rural carrier duties, tells carriers to “return to the customer any excess money collected” using PS Form 4245.2United States Postal Service. Handbook PO-603 Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities – Section 341.61b Form 1096 documents the original collection; Form 4245 documents the refund.
When a Carrier Uses It
The typical trigger is insured mail or a collect-on-delivery (COD) item. A customer hands over cash at the mailbox to cover postage and fees, and the actual charge comes in lower than what the customer paid. Rather than keep the difference or ask the customer to sort it out at the post office, the carrier completes Form 4245 on the spot and returns the money.
These overpayments happen because rural carriers routinely accept payment for services with variable costs. Insurance fees depend on declared value, and a customer handing over cash for a COD item may not know the exact amount owed. The envelope creates a paper trail that protects both sides: the carrier can show the money went back, and the customer has a written record of what was refunded and why.
How to Complete It
The form is straightforward. The carrier fills in the customer’s name, the date, the amount being returned, and a brief explanation of the transaction, usually noting the amount collected, the actual charges, and the resulting overpayment. Because the form is the envelope, the cash or coins go inside before it is sealed and delivered.
Complete the form the same day the overpayment happens. Holding a customer’s money and returning it later creates exactly the accountability gap the form is designed to prevent. If the correct postage or fee is not clear at the mailbox, the better practice is to verify with the delivery unit before collecting, rather than taking an estimate and refunding the difference afterward.
Where to Get One
Rural carriers get Form 4245 from their station supervisor or postmaster, who keeps standard forms in stock. The form is listed in USPS Publication 223, the official Directives and Forms Catalog, so it can be ordered through internal supply channels.1United States Postal Service. Publication 223 – Directives and Forms Catalog Smaller offices that do not keep the form on the shelf should request a batch before one is needed; improvising a refund without the proper envelope undermines the documentation the Postal Service requires.
Not a Route Evaluation Form
Form 4245 is sometimes confused online with a rural route evaluation document. It is not one. Rural route evaluations run through a different set of forms entirely, including PS Form 4239 (Count of Mail), PS Form 4241 (Rural Delivery Statistics Report), PS Form 4241-A (Rural Route Evaluation), and PS Form 4003 (Official Rural Route Description).3United States Postal Service. Handbook PO-603 Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities – Section 535 Disputes over an RRECS evaluation go through the Evaluation Dispute Form under the Rural Route Evaluation Dispute Process, not through the Carrier’s Statement envelope.