Do all US addresses have a second group of numbers in the code or just a few? If the former, why do most people appear to think it is not worth using?
Kind regards
Timothy
Do all US addresses have a second group of numbers in the code or just a few? If the former, why do most people appear to think it is not worth using?
Kind regards
Timothy
All do
Mostly because we are old and have memorized the original zip for so long we forget about the +4
They are not required yet and we would have to look it up
The first 6 is State and City (sometimes also neighborhood )
The +4 are some sort of sorting code. Not sure if it's blocks or routes
Last edited by Silverbreeze; January 26th, 2015 at 08:10 AM.
Tom
@silverbreeze
---
Forgive any ignorance on my part.
Any stupidity is my brain not being malleable enough to understand
===
Open to anyone writing me. Will do my best to reply quickly
====
Tomasz S Suchecki
77 Meadowpark Ave North
Stamford CT 06905-2221
United States of America
akapulko2020 (January 28th, 2015), jbb (June 20th, 2016)
writingrav (January 26th, 2015)
I'm in my 40s. I can't remember that many numbers.
Since you don't actually need it, I think many folks figure "why bother?" Maybe if I had an issue with mail being delivered, I'd be motivated to add it.
jbb (June 20th, 2016)
I'm not sure what the +four stand for but I and all my neighbors share the same extended zip code.
Bet you all have the same mail person Jar
Which is why I think it's truck route numbers
Tom
@silverbreeze
---
Forgive any ignorance on my part.
Any stupidity is my brain not being malleable enough to understand
===
Open to anyone writing me. Will do my best to reply quickly
====
Tomasz S Suchecki
77 Meadowpark Ave North
Stamford CT 06905-2221
United States of America
I live in a small farm town and all the houses have their own unique +4. I found this on zip-codes.com:
The first five digits identify the area of the country and the delivery office to which the mail is directed. ZIP Codes start with a zero (0) in the northeast and gradually get higher as you move west. ZIP Codes in the far west start with a nine (9).
The sixth and seventh digits point to a delivery sector, which may be several blocks, a group of streets, a group of Post Office boxes, several office buildings, a single high-rise office building, a large apartment building or a small geographic area.
The last two digits represent a delivery segment, which might be one floor of an office building, a side of a street, specific departments in an office, or specific Post Office boxes.
That's interesting but all our mail gets delivered to communal boxes around the development. But the last two digits do vary based on which side of the street the house is located even though the mail delivery for several street and half of each odd and even grouping get delivered to the same communal box. It looks like the code does somewhat point to where the house is located but not to where the mail gets delivered.
I can remember my zip + 4 (and my phone number . . . and address . . . and social security number), but it's all the OTHER data bric-a-brac that I forget -- computer user names and passwords -- and even more so if the data system requires me to CHANGE that password every year to something completely different (and with or without letters, numbers, capitals, or unique characters, and of so-many-characters-in-length). By the time I've memorized the old, I have to think of something new, and by THAT time, I'm completely befoggled. (I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.) After all, one only ever has one, and only one, birthday. It's not a date that's on casters, that can be randomly changed for security purposes.
THANK HEAVENS that snail mail is friendlier and more egalitarian, and that the post office doesn't require me to key in some outrageously long password before I'm allowed to adhere a stamp to the upper right corner of an envelope.
Hawk (June 20th, 2016), ThriveToScribe (October 19th, 2015)
mailartist, you are definitely not alone with your password woes. Here is the best description I have how on the issue.
allanorn (January 27th, 2015), Bogon07 (February 3rd, 2015), Crazyorange (January 26th, 2015), Hawk (June 20th, 2016), Lady Onogaro (January 26th, 2015), Mister5 (November 5th, 2016), Sailor Kenshin (July 23rd, 2015), Silverbreeze (January 26th, 2015), ThriveToScribe (October 19th, 2015)
That's great, Mark. It made me laugh.
Lady Onogaro
"Be yourself--everybody else is already taken." --Oscar Wilde
I was thinking of starting a new thread, but I'll just put it here:
Since Charlie put the link to the zip+4 finder I have it bookmarked on my computer and I'm looking up every+4 number for all my correspondence. After writing my own return address 3 or 4 times I had mine memorized. I don't remember anyone else's 5 digit zip without looking so that part is easy. I just thought that as people with a big stake in the postal service perhaps we should take the lead in helping it work more efficiently. What say you all?
To continue to diminish the place of the handwritten in our lives is to diminish, in a small but real way, our humanity. Philip Hensher
Dunno ergo sum
mrcharlie (February 3rd, 2015), ThriveToScribe (October 19th, 2015), Type40 (February 3rd, 2015), VertOlive (July 22nd, 2015), ypsilanti (February 4th, 2015)
sinistral hypergraphica - a slurry of ink
"Nothing means less than zero"
Since I use a post box my last four are the last four numbers of my post office box. Which makes it simple to remember.
InCoWri 2018, Letter Writers Alliance Member, Postable link: www.postable.com/bradharris, postcrossing
I've been superstitious about always using the extra four digits in my return address and have suspected I've got some nominal OCD. For some reason, not even the Police or the School District show our house on their maps since part of the property belongs to a golf club.
Now that I've read this, I feel I'm being a little more logical in using it...
"Nolo esse salus sine vobis ...” —St. Augustine
If I remember correctly, when you are doing a big mailing to lots of addresses you get a better rate if you use the extra digits and sort everything numerically.
I take the presence of the extra digits as a clue that I am receiving a mass mailing. (Unless the address is hand written in fountain pen ink.)
The 9 digit ZIP came along when I was a child, & I have always been in the habit of using it.
I live in an apartment building with only 10 units, and we have 5 different 9 digit zip codes in just our building. You could put my nine digit zip on an envelope with no other address and it would get to me.
Last edited by nospam666; October 13th, 2015 at 02:42 PM.
I can tell where I'm not wanted.
Someday that'll be on my tombstone.
Robert (October 13th, 2015)
We have a post office box in a small town. Our +4 is our box number. That is easy to remember but we still don't use it. Actually, you can address a letter to me using only my first name, city, and state and I will get it.
Bookmarks