Guide
USPS carrier routes, explained.
EDDM is built on USPS carrier routes — but most business owners have never been asked to think in carrier-route units before. Here's how routes work, how big they are, and how to pick the right ones for a campaign.
What a carrier route actually is
A carrier route is the entire delivery loop one USPS letter carrier covers in a single shift. The mix of stops varies — some routes are dense urban apartment buildings, some are sprawling residential neighborhoods, some are mixed residential and commercial. Each route has a unique route ID (like "C001" or "R045") within its ZIP code.
How many households on a typical route
Most US carrier routes contain 400–600 active delivery points. Dense urban routes can run 800–1,000+. Rural routes can run as few as 150–300. When sizing an EDDM campaign, plan on roughly 500 households per route as a working average and validate with the USPS tool before ordering.
How to find and pick routes
USPS offers a free tool at eddm.usps.com. Enter a ZIP, address, or radius and the tool maps every carrier route in the area with household counts, residential vs business breakdown, and median age/income overlays. You can pick routes one by one or by filter, export the route list, and use it for your EDDM order.
If you're running a Crazy Mailman campaign, we do the route selection during the quote step — pulling the household counts, mapping them against your service radius, and recommending the route set that fits your goals and budget.
Smart route selection tips
For most local services, start with carrier routes inside a 1–3 mile radius of your business and expand from there based on response. Skip dense apartment-heavy routes if your buyer is a homeowner. Layer in adjacent routes over consecutive drops rather than covering the whole city at once — most businesses get better ROI from frequency in a tight area than from one-time blanket coverage.
Frequently asked questions
What is a USPS carrier route?+
A carrier route is the set of delivery addresses one USPS letter carrier covers in a single trip. Most carrier routes contain 400–600 households, though urban and rural routes vary widely.
How do I find the carrier routes near my business?+
USPS provides a free EDDM tool (eddm.usps.com) where you can search by ZIP, address, or radius and see every carrier route with household counts and demographic overlays. We can also pull these for you during campaign planning.
Can I pick exact carrier routes for an EDDM campaign?+
Yes — that's the whole point of EDDM. You select specific routes by neighborhood, radius from your business, household income tier, or any other available demographic filter, and your mailer goes to every active address on those routes.
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