Carrier Route Boundaries

A carrier route is the portion of a 5-digit ZIP Code that is served by a mail carrier. The number of addresses within a carrier route varies depending on density. Rural carrier routes have fewer addresses. Urban areas with apartment and office buildings have more.

Using sophisticated algorithms that strictly interpret monthly data feeds from the US Postal Service, Maponics Carrier Route Boundaries align with streets and ZIP Code boundaries. It’s a process that requires terabytes of meticulous data processing. Accuracy and currency requires consistent updating.

According to the USPS, 10% of all carrier routes change every month. Falling behind on changes reduces the effectiveness of target marketing, direct mail, and prospect location efforts that are developed with carrier route data.

There is no such thing as a carrier route that crosses into two or more ZIP Codes. Any map that includes carrier routes that cross ZIP Code boundaries is not accurate.

With hundreds of thousands of carrier routes in the US, creating accurate datasets requires tremendous resources. Many vendors take short cuts. They might give single address point carrier routes non-existent carrier route boundaries – like a building footprint – because that’s easier than dealing with the USPS distinction between carrier routes that should be represented as a point and those that should be represented as a polygon.

Maponics does not cut corners. Our strict data creation methodology and multi-step quality control process ensure that polygonal and point carrier routes are captured with precision. Carrier route boundaries are typically aligned with streets within a 10 meter horizontal accuracy.

Maponics carrier route GIS data covers the entire United States.

No. Carrier route maps are not made with polygons but with collections of deliverable addresses. Boundaries have to be created using those address clusters and given latitude and longitude coordinates. This is an extensive process that falls outside the mission of the USPS. In fact, USPS.com refers visitors looking for Carrier Route maps to Maponics.

When mail is pre-sorted by carrier route, it is much cheaper and easier for the USPS to move it through the delivery system.