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-

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.