Solutions Print Marketing Mailing Lists

Carrier Route Mapping Boundary

Gain Location Intelligence About Your Audience
  • Glossary
  • Carrier Route

Countless marketers now rely on location intelligence to improve campaigns through mapping data, which precisely matches their goods and services to the appropriate geographic audience. Postal boundary mapping products enable today’s efficient marketers to target their direct mail campaigns to their trade area, allowing them to see a visual representation of the ZIP Code and Carrier Route geographic boundaries they plan to mail.

As the compiler of the most complete national resident and business list available in the marketplace today (the Valassis Enhanced National Database), only Valassis Lists produces a Carrier Route Boundary product based on the most up-to-date and comprehensive postal address data available.

Valassis partners with TomTom, a leading global provider of digital maps and dynamic content for navigation and location-based solutions, to create our custom Carrier Route and ZIP code boundary product. These boundaries are a cartographic representation of the United States Postal Service (USPS)® carrier routes and deliver the most current information available, including changes, additions and deletions as determined by the USPS®. This product is a powerful tool to define areas for direct mail planning and for defining target market areas.

The Most Accurate Carrier Route Data Available

Carrier Route Boundary products are only as accurate as the data they rely on. Valassis utilizes its proprietary postal data, with 99.99% of all the addresses the Post Office delivers to, combined with the TomTom street data to create this innovative boundary product. Coupled with over 50 years of direct mail targeting and boundary data experience, the Valassis Carrier Route Boundary product creates visually appealing maps that clearly define ZIP and Carrier Route boundaries for clients to utilize.

With postal mailing costs on the rise, companies that target at a sub-ZIP code level are able to realize the lowest postage costs available today. And in today’s competitive world, it is more important than ever to make sure you mail efficiently, saving money on list rental costs, printing, and postage.

Perhaps the most impressive testament of the product’s quality is Valassis’ own use of the data for their Save Direct Mail. And as the largest customer of the USPS®, Valassis knows the importance targeting plays in mailing accurately and efficiently.

While other companies rely on generic data available from the US Postal Service which is often outdated and incorrect, only Valassis uses its own mailing database to create boundary maps. As Debra Donohue, the Valassis Director of Integrated Media Optimization notes, “I don’t think other companies eat their own cooking when it comes to postal boundary data.”

Flexible Mapping Options

Whether you would like to run the software in-house through your own Geographic Information System (GIS) or have our data technicians provide mapping services, Valassis postal boundary maps help keep your market in focus.

Product Specifications

  • Complete coverage of all geography managed by Valassis Lists, including both residential and business routes nationwide
  • IP and Carrier Route Boundaries, Voids and Landmarks included*
  • Updated Monthly*
  • Postal Movement incorporated on a first-to-market basis (added & deleted routes, changes between routes)
  • Files available in mif/mid or SHP formats for install
  • Ability to use one of our authorized resellers for map ready formats

Four Layers of Data Available

  • ZIP Boundary
  • Carrier Route (CR) Boundary
  • Updated Monthly*
  • Voids
  • Landmarks

*All except for Landmarks are updated monthly. Landmarks are updated quarterly.