The Benefits and Uses of Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes

There are roughly 600,000 carrier routes in the United States, with about half dedicated solely to physical geographical boundaries and the balance to post office boxes. These routes span 40,000 Zip Codes, which translates to about 15 carrier routes per Zip Code.¹

To manage the volume of activity that occurs in relation to the sizeable number of carrier routes, the United States Postal Service (USPS) relies on granular 9-digit Zip Code and carrier route coding to ensure that street addresses are appropriately identified and grouped for seamless mail delivery. The same USPS carrier route data serves as the basis for Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes.

What Are Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes?

Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes are a powerful way to enhance street level data by filling in any address gaps that may occur in select counties, regions, states, or even the entire United States.

Since Intelligent Carrier Route data is pulled directly from the USPS database, users are ensured of:

• Data that is up-to-date and consistent
  
• Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) certification, as designated by the USPS after careful evaluation of the data for quality, accuracy, and carrier route/address matching performance.²

Who Uses Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes?

This data is particularly valuable for those who use digital mapping and street addresses to reach out into communities for certain activities, such as census or survey taking, distribution of regional directories, and political canvassing. Also, with the rise of e-commerce and the resulting home deliveries, data accessibility and accuracy as provided by Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes takes on added importance.

Since carrier routes define specific geographic areas, businesses can also glean important insights from managing and analyzing the data to:

• Sharpen target marketing and direct mail strategies³
  
• Solidify sales territories³
  
• Better understand customer profiles and engage with prospects³

How Do Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes Benefit Me?

Intelligent Direct Carrier Route data is truly a versatile digital mapping solution. Since the data reflects actual USPS carrier routes, there’s peace of mind in knowing no addresses are missed within specified geographic areas — and it’s all within the user’s control:

• Data is hosted on user servers
  
• Carrier Route files are available in Shapefile (.shp), Geodatabase (.gdb), and TAB (.tab) for ease of use and alignment with digital maps
  
• Monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly or semi-annual or annual updates are available based on user need
  
• Coverage is available by the county, 6-county region, state, 6-state region, or the entire United States
  

As technology makes the world smaller, the use of carrier route data creates a larger reach for all types of industries. Discover how Intelligent Direct Carrier Routes can help you enhance your digital mapping and data capabilities by requesting a free sample. Click the button below to get started.

SOURCES

¹Taradel, Postal Carrier Routes: Everything You Need To Know, December 1, 2017
²PostalPro, CASS, Undated
³Spatial Insights, GbBIS Carrier Routes, Undated