Quick answer: open the free USPS EDDM mapping tool, search your address or ZIP, and pick whole carrier routes from the map or the table. The part most people skip: every route row shows average household income, household size, and an age-range percentage, all from U.S. Census data. Sorting routes by those columns instead of eyeballing the map is the difference between mailing a neighborhood and mailing the right neighborhood.
Last updated: June 2026. Tool behavior from the official USPS EDDM User Guide.
What a Carrier Route Actually Is
A carrier route is the set of addresses one letter carrier covers in a day, usually a few hundred deliveries, identified by ZIP plus a route code (like 77002-C012). EDDM sells by the route: you take every active address on a route or none of it. The tool won't split one, which is why picking the right routes matters more than picking a lot of them. (If that all-or-nothing rule is a dealbreaker, read the targeting limits chapter; a mailing list may fit you better.)
Reading the Route Table Like a Pro
Search any address, city, or ZIP in the tool and every nearby route appears on the map and in a sortable table. Each row shows:
| Column | What it tells you | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Residential / Business / Total | How many of each delivery type the route holds | Skip routes loaded with businesses if you sell to homeowners |
| Age | The percentage of the route matching an age range you set (default 25 to 44, fully adjustable) | Set it to match your customer: 25 to 44 for family restaurants, 60+ for medical and estate services |
| Size | Average household size | 2.5+ people suggests families: think pediatric dentists, tutoring, pizza |
| Income | Average household income | Match the offer: a $200 service call plays differently on a $45k route than a $130k route |
| Cost | Estimated postage for that route | Watch the running total in the order summary as you click |
The demographic columns come from U.S. Census reports, and every column sorts high-to-low or low-to-high. That sort button is the single most underused feature in the tool: sort by income, set your age band, and the best-fit routes float to the top.
The Filters Worth Setting Every Time
- Route type: City routes (USPS carrier delivery), Rural/Highway routes, or PO Box sections. Most campaigns run City and Rural and skip PO Boxes, since box sections carry no demographic identity.
- Delivery type: "Business & Residential" or "Residential only," which filters the table to routes counted by home deliveries. If skipping businesses entirely matters to you, that's a BMEU addressing option; the Retail vs. BMEU chapter explains the difference.
- Radius: searching a street address adds a radius slider in quarter-mile steps. Routes outside the circle disappear, which keeps a "5 minutes from the shop" campaign honest.
A Simple Route-Picking Strategy That Works
- Start at your front door. Search your business address, not your ZIP. Customers come from drive-time, not postal geography.
- Define your customer in two numbers. An age band and an income floor. Set the Age column to the band; sort by Income.
- Check household size against the offer. Family offer, bigger households; downsizing or senior services, smaller ones.
- Trim business-heavy routes unless you actually want office traffic. The Residential and Business columns make this a ten-second check.
- Mind the math in the order summary. Total deliveries times the postage rate updates as you click; it keeps enthusiasm and budget in the same room. Remember EDDM Retail allows up to 5,000 pieces per ZIP per day.
- Save the order. The tool lets you save and nickname route selections, so a winning map is one click to repeat. (More on cadence in the frequency chapter.)
Don't want to do the route homework? Send us your address and your best customer's profile, and we'll pull the routes, the counts, and an itemized postage estimate at no charge. Postage is a pass-through at Catdi Printing: you pay exactly what USPS charges. Start with the free postage calculator or an EDDM quote.
Three Route Mistakes We See Constantly
- Picking by map shape instead of data. A route that "looks close" can be a poor income or age fit. The table beats the map.
- Ignoring the business counts. Hundreds of pieces land in office mailrooms while you thought you were reaching kitchens.
- Mailing every route once instead of the best routes repeatedly. Spreading one budget across 20 routes one time almost always loses to mailing the 7 best routes three times.
Carrier Route FAQ
Can I pick individual streets or households?
No. Routes are all-or-nothing, and that's the core EDDM trade-off. Street-level or household-level selection means a targeted mailing list; we cover the cutoff in the targeting limits chapter.
How accurate are the tool's demographics?
They're route-level averages built from U.S. Census reports: solid for comparing routes against each other, not a promise about any single household.
How many addresses are on a typical route?
Commonly a few hundred deliveries, but it varies widely; dense urban routes can run smaller and rural routes larger. The Total column shows the exact count for every route.
Can I target around a competitor instead of my own shop?
Yes. The tool searches any address, so mapping routes around a competitor, a new location, or a job site works exactly the same way.
Does picking more routes lower the postage rate?
No. EDDM Retail postage is flat per piece (current USPS rate: $0.247), so route choice changes who you reach, not what each piece costs.
Get Your Routes Picked by People Who Do This Daily
We've mapped EDDM routes for restaurants, roofers, dentists, and political campaigns across Houston and beyond, and the route homework is part of every job, not an upsell. Request an EDDM quote, see our full EDDM service, or call (713) 882-4629 and tell us who you're trying to reach.