How to Fill Out USPS Form 4232: Rural Customer Delivery Instructions

USPS Form 4232, the Rural Customer Delivery Instructions card, is a free one-page form you fill out to tell your rural carrier who receives mail at your address and where to leave parcels that don’t fit in the box. You mark one parcel-handling choice at the top, list every person who gets mail at the address on the numbered lines, complete the address and phone block, then sign, date, and return it to your carrier. Filling it out is voluntary, but skipping it means the post office may not honor your parcel delivery preference.¹

What the Form Controls

The card has two working sections. The top half sets your instruction for parcels that are too large for the mailbox and don’t require a signature. The bottom half is the household roster the carrier uses to match incoming mail to a real person at your address.¹ Rural carriers keep these cards in their route book, either in an alphabetical card index or a loose-leaf binder.²

Getting a Blank Card

Ask your rural carrier. Carriers routinely drop blank copies in mailboxes when they start a new route or notice a box has no card on file, and Handbook PO-603 tells them to gather customer names by leaving a Form 4232 in each box.² You can also pick one up at the counter of your local post office or print one from about.usps.com/forms/ps4232.pdf.

Filling In Your Parcel Delivery Preference

Check one of four options at the top of the form:

Leave outside the mailbox. The carrier sets the parcel near your box.
Leave on the porch of residence. This is only available if your home is within half a mile of the carrier’s route.
Leave in other location. Write the specific spot in the space provided.
Leave no parcels. Anything oversized comes back to the post office for pickup or redelivery.

If you pick “other location,” be specific. “Behind the screen door” or “inside the detached garage on the left side” gives the carrier something to act on; “somewhere safe” does not. Two limits apply no matter what you choose. Parcels won’t be left in uncovered locations during bad weather, and once you authorize a designated spot, USPS and the carrier are not responsible for loss or damage there.¹

Listing Everyone Who Gets Mail

The bottom half has ten numbered lines. The form’s instructions say to enter the name of each person who may receive mail at the address, including children and any employees.¹ Write the full name of every household member: spouse, children, roommates, live-in relatives, and employees if you run a business from the property. Use the names as they appear on incoming mail. If an adult child uses a married name different from yours, list it separately so the carrier recognizes it. Leaving someone off doesn’t block their mail, but it makes misdelivery or return-to-sender errors more likely when a substitute carrier who doesn’t know the route is covering. If more than ten people receive mail at the address, ask your carrier for an additional card.

Address, Signature, and Date

Complete the identifying fields: last name, first name, and middle initial; box number, route number, house number, street name, and apartment number; post office city, state, and ZIP+4; and a telephone number with area code. The ZIP+4 appears on most mail you already receive if you aren’t sure of the last four digits.

Sign and date the card at the bottom. The date establishes when your delivery preferences take effect. Use dark ink so the card stays legible after months of handling in the route book.

Turning It In

Place the finished card in your mailbox and raise the flag so the carrier collects it. You can also hand it directly to the carrier or drop it at the post office counter. Once the carrier has it, the card goes into the route roster and starts controlling how your oversized parcels are handled.²

What Happens If You Don’t Return the Card

Filling out Form 4232 is voluntary under the Privacy Act. Your mail still gets delivered if you skip it, but USPS notes it “may be unable to honor your parcel delivery preference,” which in practice means oversized packages go back to the post office rather than to your door.¹ When a customer doesn’t return the card, the carrier enters the last name and address based on observed mail and notes that the form was not completed by the customer.²

Updating After Household Changes

The card isn’t a one-time filing. When someone moves in, a child leaves for college, or a roommate moves out, ask the carrier for a fresh Form 4232 and submit an updated version. Current names matter most when a substitute carrier covers the route, since they work from the written roster rather than personal familiarity.

Someone leaving the address should also file a change-of-address request on PS Form 3575. Once that is processed, the carrier pulls the old Form 4232 from the roster.²

If a household member passes away, USPS handles their mail through a separate process. Forwarding a deceased person’s mail to a different address requires an in-person visit to the post office with proof that you’re the appointed executor or administrator; a death certificate alone is not enough.³ After that forwarding is in place, submit an updated Form 4232 that removes the deceased person’s name from your roster.

How USPS Treats the Information

The information on Form 4232 is covered by the Privacy Act. USPS collects it under 39 U.S.C. 401, 403, and 404, and the privacy notice on the form states the information will be used as instructions for delivering parcels to each person at your residence. USPS says it does not disclose the information to third parties without your consent except in limited circumstances: to facilitate the mail transaction, to respond to a congressional inquiry made on your behalf, to a USPS auditor, to law enforcement as required by law, or to service providers helping USPS fulfill delivery.¹

1
United States Postal Service. PS Form 4232 – Rural Customer Delivery Instructions
2
United States Postal Service. Handbook PO-603 – Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities
3
United States Postal Service. Mail Addressed to the Deceased