Postal Explorer > Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards > 3 Business Addressing Standards > 35 Address Data Element Compression Guidelines

35 Address Data Element Compression Guidelines

The Postal Service and commercial MLOCR equipment can read a maximum of 40 characters per line within a maximum of 8 separate words per line. If either parameter is exceeded, the MLOCR ignores the entire line.

Apply the following steps if it is necessary to reduce the number of words or characters from business address data elements applied to a mailpiece. Use the order listed.

351 Removal and Deletion Restrictions

Do not remove or delete any characters or symbols from line #1 Optional Endorsement Line, line #2 Key Line Data, or line #3 POSTNET Address Block Barcode.

352 Abbreviations

Use the standard business and address word abbreviations for address data elements whenever necessary. These abbreviations can be found in Appendix G. It is recommended that you only abbreviate the last word. You should not abbreviate words when the name length meets the user's character length requirements.

353 Right-to-Left Evaluation

Evaluate each of the business address data elements in each business address line separately. Always work from the right to the left within each address line.

354 Special Characters

Remove special characters, multiple blanks, and punctuation in order as listed below.

355 Remove Certain Words

Replace or remove certain words as listed below. However, the use of standard business word abbreviations is preferred over removal of words. The following compression technique should be applied only if the standard abbreviations do not meet particular business needs.

• Replace and with space.

• Replace space & space with space.

• Replace number words with numeric symbols: first with 1ST.

• Remove etc., i.e., in care of, and et al.

• Remove words like the, of, by, for, at, also.

• Remove ATTENTION, ATTN:.

• Remove gender words like MS, MRS, MISS, MR, SIR.

• Remove title words like DR, PHD, DDS, RN.

356 Wrapping

When address information does not fit on one line, wrap the additional information on either the line above or below, as shown below. However, the use of standard business word abbreviations is preferred over line wrapping. Only wrap lines if standard abbreviations do not meet your business needs.

Line #9, Business/Firm Name, should be printed on a single line for maximum MLOCR matching. If necessary, it may be wrapped down.

When secondary delivery information, e.g., APT or SUITE, is part of the address but does not fit on the Delivery Address Line, wrap up all components of the secondary information immediately above the Delivery Address Line.

It is preferred that all City, State, and ZIP Code information be on a single line. If that is not possible, the ZIP Code, including the ZIP+4 Code, may be placed below the city/state information. However, when compressing line #11, do not remove the hyphen between the ZIP Code and the ZIP+4 add-on code.

357 Line #9 Compression

When compressing line #9, Business/Firm Name, do not alter the first and second words (leftmost), if possible, except when the first word is THE, which may be removed.

358 Standard State Name Abbreviations

When an individual state name that appears anywhere in a business address must be compressed or abbreviated because of space restrictions, use the standard State abbreviation listed in Appendix B.

Note: Use US for United States. Use USA for United States of America.

359 Repetitive Word Removal

Remove repetitive words; however, standard business word abbreviations are preferred over word removal. The compression technique in this step should be applied only if standard abbreviations do not meet your business needs.

3510 Short-Ending Substitution

Substitute short endings on words.

3511 Last Word Abbreviations

If the last word of an address line is any of those listed below, first replace the word with the standard abbreviation. If additional compression is still required, remove the word or its standard abbreviation.

Note: This step can be applied only to address lines #6, 7, 8, and 9.

3512 Vowel Removal

It is recommended that vowels not be removed if the desired address data element compression can be obtained by first using standard word abbreviations.

From the right side of the address line, beginning with the rightmost word, remove vowels as necessary on a word-by-word basis to achieve desired compression. Leave the last vowel; if the first character of a word is a vowel, do not remove that character. It is also recommended that the vowels not be removed from the leftmost words.