‘Mr Zip’ and the Zip Code Database

With ever-increasing pieces of mail to sort and deliver nearly a century ago, the United States Postal Service sought out a solution to bring some order to the process. They began requiring a two-digit number between city and state on the address line of letters and packages, which was a temporary fix; but the amount of mail kept expanding. Five-digit codes were introduced within twenty years and made mandatory four years later: the first three digits send each piece of mail to a central sorting facility, where it is sorted according to the last two digits and sent to the appropriate post office for delivery.

But there were problems, chief among them getting millions of letter-writers to actually write that string of numbers. Enter Mr. Zip, accompanied by Ethel Merman performing ‘Zip-a-dee-doo-dah’ and giving a friendly message to one and all. Surprisingly effective, achieving a 95% success rate, the cartoon Zip inspired and reminded the masses to use a zip code when mailing. It goes to show you the influence of a marketing campaign in such a simple format for everyone to understand and take pleasure in.

Now, picture yourself trying to manage an ever-growing amount of mail and routing it correctly to millions of frequently-changing addresses every day. A new need - current, correct addresses available now - arose. The first zip code directories were local, pencil-and-paper, affairs, ineffective, but the best thing available.

All that changed with the advent and growth of computers, until today there are vast amounts of data gathered in zip code databases nationally, internationally, for city and state levels and as part of every business or corporation. We can’t communicate without the location information they contain.

The national online zip code database constantly adds, updates, and verifies zip information for every person or business at every location in the country. Canada has a comparable setup; other countries have varying coverage. International corporations have them. To name just a sample, many businesses, hospitals, and educational institutes develop and use zip code directories.

The online processing of zip code data allows the system to fill in missing information on addresses, add new address information, and identify non-deliverable addresses, among other things. This first-time accurate delivery gets mail to the right place more quickly and saves millions of dollars each and every year in the process.

There are zip code maps of all sorts, zip code ‘finder’ software, zip code directories, and online zip code search engines. We’ve come a long way from the Pony Express rider riding hard to deliver his cargo!