This month the US Postal Service announced and began a massive reorganization of its mail delivery system. Once complete, as many as 85 thousand carrier routes (the local areas covered by individual letter carriers each day) will be affected. Every postal district is expected to be touched, impacting an estimated 50 million individual addresses.
Why Is This Reorganization Necessary?
Mail volume has decreased. The number of pieces handled in fiscal year 2008 was down 4.5% from that handled in 2007. And mail volume has dropped even more dramatically since the Postal Service’s fiscal year ended on September 30th, as the global economic slowdown has taken greater effect. Driving this decrease are budget conscious businesses, which have been sending fewer mail pieces to better targeted groups. Longer-term, increased reliance on email has also depressed mail volume in recent years. The final result: over capacity in some areas, and delivery inefficiencies.
When Will It Be Complete?
A pledge of cooperation from the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) union has ensured that this restructuring will be swift. All on the ground changes are expected to be complete by the end of February 2009. Many carrier routes will be consolidated. The number of letter carriers, which has already been reduced through efforts to entice early retirement coupled with a hiring freeze, will continue to decline.
How Will This Impact Maponics Postal Data?
Licensees of Maponics carrier route boundaries and ZIP Code boundaries receive quarterly updates, to ensure them access to the most current and accurate data on the market. The early second quarter 1.9.2 release (in April 2009) of this postal data will include most of the wide-sweeping mail route changes outlined above.
Maponics specializes in location-based data and information for businesses, including neighborhood, ZIP Code and carrier route boundaries. Local search, real estate, mobile, social media and marketing firms rely on Maponics to power hyper-local interactive search, mapping, and ad targeting platforms, as well as internal mapping and reports, including D&B, infoUSA, Dominion Enterprises (eNeighborhoods and Homes.com), Pitney Bowes/MapInfo, Zvents, Smarter Agent, HelloMetro, Roost, CitySquares and many others. The Maponics Online Store, powered by Maponics data, is the only place USPS.com refers to for postal maps. The Company is located in Norwich, Vermont and can be contacted at 800.762.5158 or by emailing info (at) maponics.com .