|
Postal Explorer > Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards > 3 Business Addressing Standards
This chapter defines standardized formats for business addresses to be used
on mailpieces. This standardization effort was originally initiated by the Direct
Mail Association (DMA) Business-to-Business Users' Group in late 1987 and
included the involvement of other DMA segments groups who provide
business-to-business list services. The Postal Service's Address
Management Office and National Customer Support Center (NCSC) have
worked closely with these groups to pinpoint problem areas and develop
recommended solutions. Members of the Graphic Communications
Association (GCA) have also provided strong support for the development of
these business-to-business addressing standards.
As awareness of business-to-business addressing issues became more
widespread, a broader scope of industry participation was facilitated by the
establishment of a special ad hoc Business-to-Business Addressing
Subcommittee of the Mailers' Technical Advisory Committee in the fall of
1989.
Numerous joint working meetings were held to thoroughly define
standardization needs and develop the components of the recommended
addressing guidelines outlined in this section. It should be noted that this
effort intentionally dovetailed with the earlier joint industry and Postal Service
program that established the general addressing standards. Industry and
USPS joint work groups will continue to be created to provide the information
necessary to achieve the highest level of address quality possible.
For consumer and residential addresses, a complete and correct address
consists of three basic lines of information: Customer or Recipient Line,
Delivery Address Line, and Last Line (City State ZIP). Depending on the
address type, other address data elements could include apartment or suite
numbers, Post Office Box addresses, and a complete rural/highway contract
route address (with route and box numbers).
Significantly, in terms of content, business-to-business mailers have much
more to worry about with various permutations of firm names, the use of
prestige addresses, and auxiliary company and personnel data, e.g., titles,
personal/professional, and department or division. Consequently for the
business-to-business mailer, the scope of standardization and list
maintenance and correction becomes much more complex.
By establishing preferred format or data element location guidelines, defined
character lengths, standard abbreviations, and a progression of compression
steps, a process has been created that now enables mailers to uniformly
condense business address components to any practical length, depending
on the purpose and the need to abbreviate the data. The use of standardized
abbreviations and logical compression steps is intended to facilitate the
computer-based merge/purge process, Postal Service multi-line optical
character readers (MLOCR) and industry address matching services
including ZIP+4 and NCOA.
The mailer has full discretion in the use of standard abbreviations and
compression guidelines to optimize computer data storage and output to a
mailpiece. There is no intent to mandate the use of these abbreviations or
guidelines if the mailer prefers the full spelling.
Address standardization has the potential to improve many phases of the
business-to-business mail process - from merge/purge to delivery. The
following are specific problem areas these standards can address.
It is hard to identify and eliminate duplicate addresses when address data is
presented in varying formats, i.e., when abbreviation and compression tactics
are applied randomly or multiple data element combinations are used.
Businesses often prefer to use "prestige" or "vanity" addresses and
occasionally use multiple versions of their firm name, depending on their
market needs. They also apply differing abbreviation and compression
tactics. As a result, match rates against Postal Service address improvement
products, i.e., NCOA, Address Change Service (ACS), and ZIP+4, are low.
Because of inconsistencies in business address formats, business addresses
often do not match against ZIP+4 data used to produce a barcode.
Business-to-business mailers find it harder to take full advantage of new
automation and barcoding discounts.
Inconsistent addressing tactics or missing address elements due to varying
compression methods often result in non-deliverable mail. Delivery of mail
within an organization may also be impaired if internal mailstops are not part
of the address. In this context mailstop refers to a unique routing code used
by a company for internal mail delivery. It does not include the traditional
information, such as Accounts Payable Branch, or Attn To:. Example:
Mailstop ABC 456.
The purpose of standard abbreviations and compression guidelines is to
provide a uniform reference when there is a need to condense address data.
The standards contain the following components: an address format model
indicating preferred address data element locations, a progression of optional
line compression steps, and a table of standard abbreviations for the most
commonly used business words. These tools are designed to meet the
following objectives:
a. Improve computer matching of business address data in the
merge/purge process and enhance the application of Postal Service
address improvements.
b. Facilitate proper address compression for data transfers and differing
output presentations, e.g., for Postal Service delivery vs. inside letter
personalization or Cheshire labeling vs. ink jet printing.
|
USPS
Home | Postal Explorer Home
