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Fun fact: there is actually no such thing as ZIP code boundaries. ZIP codes are actually based on delivery routes: your ZIP code is the post office your mail c

Fun fact: there is actually no such thing as ZIP code boundaries. ZIP codes are actually based on delivery routes: your ZIP code is the post office your mail carrier leaves from. ZIP codes will not actually respect community boundaries: if a town lies between two post offices, it is frequently more efficient for mail to be delivered by carriers from multiple post offices. Moreover, not every address in the US receives home delivery. If the post office does not have a delivery route going past your home address, you can instead get a post office box from whichever post office you find most convenient. What happens to packages addressed to those street addresses is ... complex. The "ZIP code maps" you have probably seen are actually creations of third-parties. If you ask very nicely, the Post Office will give you a list of which street addresses belong to which ZIP codes. A couple of different third party map-makers will then try to create a map based on these lists. They are not always useful or accurate.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Ok I wondered about this. Our local village has no mail delivery; everybody in town has to have a PO box. I thought Federal mail delivery was a given thing, like a right. How can the town just decide to blow it off?
- saalweachter 11y ago
  Home delivery was never quite universal. Rural Free Delivery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Free_Delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Free_Delivery) wasn't even a thing until the 1890s. Hilariously, with budget cuts, there has been more of a tendency to keep RFD while cutting home delivery in some of the smaller towns and villages, since it is easier for people in the village to get to the post office.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > I thought Federal mail delivery was a given thing, like a right. Its not. Establishing post office and post roads is a Constitutional power of the federal government, but providing postal service to every building (or even just every dwelling, or, for that matter, providing any postal service at all) is not an obligation of the Federal government, and there is no entitlement to postal service.
greggyb 11y ago
>Moreover, not every address in the US receives home delivery. If the post office does not have a delivery route going past your home address, you can instead get a post office box from whichever post office you find most convenient. What happens to packages addressed to those street addresses is ... complex. Emphasis mine. Would you care to expand? I'm interested in complex things.
- saalweachter 11y ago
  In general, the US Post Office will attempt to deliver any unambiguously addressed parcel. Some of the things that can happen if you address a parcel to a non-delivery address include: * delivery to a PO Box owned by the addressee * delivery to the physically closest post office to that address * delivery to the routing facility serving that address This is especially a problem when a confused business demands street addresses instead of PO box numbers. Your parcel may end up somewhere you don't know about. Street addresses in the US primarily exist for the use of emergency services, to ensure that it is easy for an ambulance or fire truck to find every house. They aren't even the primary key on land in most of the country; usually, the county or state will use a separate lot number which is independent of the road system to identity land for tax or other purposes. Prior to the 9-1-1 emergency system, the post office just used "rural route # / box #" to identify rural addresses.
  - greggyb 11y ago
    Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

Ok I wondered about this. Our local village has no mail delivery; everybody in town has to have a PO box. I thought Federal mail delivery was a given thing, like a right. How can the town just decide to blow it off?

saalweachter 11y ago
Home delivery was never quite universal. Rural Free Delivery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Free_Delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Free_Delivery) wasn't even a thing until the 1890s. Hilariously, with budget cuts, there has been more of a tendency to keep RFD while cutting home delivery in some of the smaller towns and villages, since it is easier for people in the village to get to the post office.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> I thought Federal mail delivery was a given thing, like a right. Its not. Establishing post office and post roads is a Constitutional power of the federal government, but providing postal service to every building (or even just every dwelling, or, for that matter, providing any postal service at all) is not an obligation of the Federal government, and there is no entitlement to postal service.

greggyb 11y ago

>Moreover, not every address in the US receives home delivery. If the post office does not have a delivery route going past your home address, you can instead get a post office box from whichever post office you find most convenient. What happens to packages addressed to those street addresses is ... complex. Emphasis mine. Would you care to expand? I'm interested in complex things.

saalweachter 11y ago
In general, the US Post Office will attempt to deliver any unambiguously addressed parcel. Some of the things that can happen if you address a parcel to a non-delivery address include: * delivery to a PO Box owned by the addressee * delivery to the physically closest post office to that address * delivery to the routing facility serving that address This is especially a problem when a confused business demands street addresses instead of PO box numbers. Your parcel may end up somewhere you don't know about. Street addresses in the US primarily exist for the use of emergency services, to ensure that it is easy for an ambulance or fire truck to find every house. They aren't even the primary key on land in most of the country; usually, the county or state will use a separate lot number which is independent of the road system to identity land for tax or other purposes. Prior to the 9-1-1 emergency system, the post office just used "rural route # / box #" to identify rural addresses.
- greggyb 11y ago
  Interesting. Thanks for sharing.