Unique Mailing Standards for Queens, NY

Queens, one of the five boroughs of New York City, is known for being the home of LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, Citi Field (home of the New York Mets), the Unisphere, and its ethnically diverse community. Did you know that Queens Borough also used to have its own unique mailing standards?

Back in the 1920s, when Queens  was a collection of scattered rural settlements, each with its own little mailing grid, a master grid was applied to the entire area. This created a unique mailing system, in which mail sent to Queens street addresses needed a dash between the nearest cross street on a building’s block and the house number (for example, “139-30 Example Crescent”) and “18-05 XXXXth Street”).

However, while the traditional system of cross-street number, hyphen, and house number may still be well known to many mailers, the USPS has eliminated this requirement. This is part of an ongoing process of streamlining and standardizing the delivery of your mail.

When using the Stamps.com software, you no longer have to worry about including the dash after the cross-street number in a Queens postal address to ensure delivery. The Stamps.com software is fully compliant regarding Queens addresses and will automatically check and cleanse each address by accessing the powerful Address Matching System (AMS).

Therefore, rest assured that changes the Stamps.com software makes are correct and compliant.  You’ll see changes such as:

139-30 EXAMPLE CRESCENT

To:

13930 EXAMPLE CRES

AND:

18-05 XXXXTH STREET

To:

1805 XXXXTH ST

Using ZIP Codes

The dash (-) in the address line is no longer the crucial, required component of the address. While Queens has many distinctive neighborhoods, it is also not necessary to include the specific neighborhood names (e.g. “Rego Park”) in the mailing addresses. The critical and required pieces of information are the ZIP Code and the ZIP+4, which are scanned by the USPS.  Queens, the largest of the New York City boroughs, is actually served by four USPS postal zones.

The good news is that Stamps.com will check the ZIP Code and the ZIP+4 when you enter an address in the delivery address box. Whether you’re sending mail to Flushing, Ozone Park, Rockaway Beach, Jackson Heights or Corona, Stamps.com’s powerful software ensures that your mail will get to its intended recipient in Queens.