The ZIP Code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The letters ZIP , a backronym for Zone Improvement Plan , are properly written in capital letters and were chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the code in the postal address. The basic format consists of five numerical digits. An extended ZIP + 4 code includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four more digits that determine a more precise location than the ZIP Code alone. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark (a type of trademark) by the U.S. Postal Service, but its registration has since expired.
Background
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD) implemented postal zones for large cities in 1943. For example:
The "16" is the number of the postal zone within the city.
By the early 1960s a more general system was needed, and on July 1, 1963, non-mandatory ZIP codes were announced for the whole country. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP code. He submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon for only the first three digits of the ZIP code, which describe the sectional center facility, or SCF, also called "sec center." An SCF is a central mail processing facility with those 3 digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first 3 digits in their ZIP codes. The mail is sorted according to the final 2 digits of the ZIP code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public (though the building may include a post office open to the public), and most of the workers are employed to work night shift. Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. In the cases of large cities, the last two digits coincided with the older postal zone number, thus:
In 1967, these were made mandatory for second- and third-class bulk mailers, and the system was soon adopted generally. The United States Post Office used a cartoon character, Mr. ZIP, to promote use of the ZIP code. He was often depicted with a legend such as "USE ZIP CODE" in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of, booklet panes of stamps. Curiously enough, the only time the Postal Service issued a stamp promoting the ZIP code, in 1974, Mr. ZIP was not depicted.
ZIP + 4
In 1983, the U.S. Postal Service began using an expanded ZIP code system called "ZIP + 4", often called "plus-four codes", "add-on codes" or "add ons." The Postal Service has a "Find a ZIP Code" feature on its website, which provides an address format that is most compatible with its optical character recognition (OCR) scanners.
A ZIP + 4 code uses the basic five-digit code plus four additional digits to identify a geographic segment within the five-digit delivery area, such as a city block, a group of apartments, an individual high-volume receiver of mail or any other unit that could use an extra identifier to aid in efficient mail sorting and delivery. Initial attempts to promote universal use of the new format met with public resistance, and today the plus-four code is not required. In general, mail is read by a multiline optical character reader (MLOCR) that almost instantly determines the correct ZIP + 4 code from the address and—along with the even more specific delivery point—sprays a Postnet barcode on the face of the mailpiece that corresponds to 11 digits.
For post-office boxes, the general (but not invariable) rule is that each box has its own ZIP + 4 code. The add-on code is often one of the following: the last four digits of the box number (e.g., PO Box 58001, Washington DC 20037-8001), zero plus the last three digits of the box number (e.g., PO Box 12344, Chicago IL 60612-0344), or, if the box number consists of fewer than four digits, enough zeros prepended to the front of the box number to produce a four-digit number (e.g., PO Box 52, Garrett Park MD 20896-0052). However, there is no uniform rule, so the ZIP + 4 code must be looked up individually for each box.
It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster (to which requests for pictorial cancellations are usually addressed), 9999 for general delivery and other high-numbered add-on codes for business reply mail. For a unique ZIP code (explained below), the add-on code is typically 0001.
Postal bar code
The ZIP code is often translated into a barcode called Postnet that is printed on the mailpiece to make it easier for automated machines to sort. Unlike most barcode symbologies, Postnet uses long and short bars, not thin and thick bars. The barcode can be printed by the person who sends the mail (some word-processing programs such as WordPerfect and Microsoft Word include the feature), or the post office will put one on when it processes the piece. The post office generally uses OCR technology, though a human may have to read the address if absolutely necessary. (The automated machinery has the tendency to paste the coding over the bottom half-inch of postcards, often obliterating the signature. Postcard printers have begun blocking a section off where the barcode will be placed.)
People who send bulk mail can get a discount on postage if they have printed the barcode themselves. This requires more than just a simple font; mailing lists must be standardized with up-to-date CASS certified software that adds and verifies a full, correct ZIP + 4 code and an additional two digits representing the exact delivery point. Furthermore, mail must be sorted in a specific scheme and be accompanied by documentation verifying this. These steps are usually done with PAVE-certified software that also prints the barcoded address labels and barcoded sack or tray tags.
This means that every single mailable point in the country has its own 12-digit number (at least in theory). The delivery-point digits (the 10th and 11th digits) are calculated based on the primary or secondary number of the address. The USPS publishes the rules for calculating the delivery point in a document called the CASS Technical Guide. The last digit is always a check digit, which is obtained by summing all 5, 9 or 11 digits, taking the residue modulo 10 of this sum (i.e., the remainder after dividing by 10) and finally subtracting this from 10. (Thus, the check digit for 10001-0001 00 would be 7, since 1+1+1=3, 3≡3(mod 10) and 10–3=7.) An application needs only to print something like
/100010001007/in the 12-point Postnet font to create a valid barcode. The slashes "/" are translated into start/stop characters (one long bar), and each digit is translated into a sequence of two long bars and three short bars.On business-reply mail, the FIM code primarily indicates the orientation (facing) of the mailpiece, since there is generally not a stamp or postage meter imprint containing fluorescent ink (which is usually used by the facing machine to orient mail.) Additionally, FIM codes A and C indicate that a Postnet bar code is present, allowing this mail to bypass the MOCR and go straight to a barcode scanning machine. For that reason, even though courtesy reply mail and metered reply mail are mailed with a stamp or a postage-meter imprint, they typically carry an FIM code, namely FIM A, to indicate that the Postnet bar code is present. The FIM D barcode is used for computer-generated indicia from online postage meters.
Structure and allocation
By geography
Main article: ZIP code prefixesZIP codes are numbered with the first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states, the second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a large city) and the fourth and fifth digits representing a group of delivery addresses within that region. The main town in a region (if applicable) often gets the first ZIP codes for that region; afterward, the numerical order often follows the alphabetical order. Because ZIP codes are intended for efficient postal delivery, there are unusual cases where a ZIP Code crosses state boundaries, such as a military facility spanning multiple states or remote areas of one state most easily serviced from an adjacent state (q.v.).
Generally, the first three digits designate a sectional center facility, the mail-sorting and -distribution center for an area. A sectional center facility may have more than one three-digit code assigned to it. For example, the Northern Virginia sectional center facility in Merrifield is assigned codes 220, 221, 222 and 223. In some cases, a sectional center facility may serve an area in an adjacent state, usually due to the lack of an appropriate location for a center in that region. For example, 739 in Oklahoma i
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