When most people address their business mail, party invitations, or tax returns, they don’t consider the History of the United States Zip Code System or Zoning Improvement Plan system.
Prior to 1963 there were no ZIP codes. Mail was primarily moved around by train to all major railroad hubs. There were more than 10,000 trains carrying mail at all hours of the day around the country.
In the years leading up to 1963, casual, personal correspondence was being outstripped by an increasing volume of business mail do to the exploding industry overtaking the United States.
The older system was not able to keep up with the increasing volume of mail. It also did not take advantage of trucks and airplanes that could be used for shipping. In June 1962, a Presidential Advisory Board, made a study of the Post Office’s problems and made several recommendations including the development of a coding system.
The post office experimented with several coding systems before finally arriving at the ZIP Code system which was implemented by Postmaster General John A. Gronouski on July 1, 1963.
The zones were created to take maximum advantage not only of train routes but also airplane and truck shipping routes. The first digit in the ZIP Code designated a large geographical area of the United States, starting with zero for the Northeast to nine for the far West. The next two digits more closely referenced population centers. The last two digits indicate specific post offices or in the case of larger cities, more specific zones.
In 1983, the United States Postal Service began promoting the use of a additional 4 digit suffix code separated from the ZIP Code by a hyphen referred to as the ZIP+4 code, to refer to even more specific geographic areas.
Although, there were many other modernization issues that the post office had to work through in the years following the ZIP Code implementation, it remains one of the single most important advances in the postal system.
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