The SSA Security Records Branch (SRB) should receive a monthly shipment of SS-5s from
every office that processes SS-5s by the 15th of the month following the shipment
month. Beginning July 2008, all SSA offices (including those located outside the continental
United States) should use FedEx. The only offices exempt from this requirement are
offices not serviced by FedEx. If FedEx does not service your office, use another
commercial carrier.
Beginning October 2008, SSA electronically tracks SS-5 shipments from each office
to the SRB using the SS-5 Shipment Tracking application (for additional information, see RM 10215.065, OCO Instructions for Shipping Forms SS-5 to the SSA Security Records Branch).
The tracking application automatically generates late shipment and non-shipment alerts
to the shipping office, which may indicate that a potential mass loss of Personally
Identifiable Information (PII) occurred. When the shipping office receives these alerts
or the SRB notifies the office that the SRB did not receive the shipment, that office
should initiate a search for the shipment following the procedures in this section.