When someone writes a thank-you note to a family member, they usually don’t have to spend a huge amount of time puzzling over addressing the envelope. They understand, of course, that it is important to get each letter and number in the address correct, or the envelope may end up returned to them as undeliverable, wasting both time and postage. But as long as they have the right address to begin with, it’s a relatively easy task to get that piece of mail on its way.

As you might expect, things get exponentially more complicated when an organization needs to mail hundreds or thousands of pieces of mail at the same time. If it’s possible to get a letter or a number wrong while addressing a single envelope, just imagine how many mistakes are possible with thousands of different addresses! This is a serious consideration for a company that offers print and mailing services for clients with large address lists, and there are specialized tools available to make sure that mailing projects are as accurate as possible.

Communication With USPS

Most of the tools that a print and distribution provider like Spectra uses to check and correct addresses involve communication with the US Postal Service. In addition to delivering mail, the Postal Service also keeps accurate, official records of which addresses belong to which buildings. That data changes more often than you might expect! 

Spectra uses a system created by Pitney Bowes, the leading technology provider in the mail industry. This system communicates with the USPS, checking the mailing list that the Spectra team submits against the official address database of the Postal Service.

Types of Address Correction

Delivery Point Verification (DPV) is a check to see whether each address on a list is a valid, recognized address with the Postal Service. It doesn’t identify what person or business is located at that address, so it is not used to check all aspects of a mailing list. In other words, it won’t tell you whether John Doe lives at 111 A Street, but it will tell you whether 111 A Street is a recognized address and can receive mail. If an address has been entered incorrectly, such as a wrong digit or a misspelled street name, DPV will identify it as an invalid address that needs to be corrected.

DPV also identifies the validity or invalidity of suite and apartment numbers. For buildings with multiple units, DPV can flag when an address contains a valid street address but an invalid suite number; for instance, if it is addressed to a business in Suite E when there are only four suites in the building, A through D. 

In order to help the team correct these issues, DPV attaches a footnote to each entry it flags. The footnote indicates what type of error is found so that a worker can concentrate on correcting the right item.

Keeping Up With Changing Addresses

The address system in the United States developed over time, and for much of its history it has been far from uniform! Rural areas in particular tended to follow different formats than urban areas, and in the modern era those differences can create trouble for companies that want to reach thousands of people in both urban and rural areas.

LACSLink is a system that updates address lists in coordination with the changes that the USPS makes on an ongoing basis to unify and standardize addresses in all areas of the country. This is slightly different from correcting addresses that were entered incorrectly in the first place.  Instead, it verifies addresses that may have been entered correctly, but have since been updated to a new format or changed entirely.

Other Types of Address Verification

A very common element of address list checking is duplicate identification, or “dupe ID.” An address is found on a list more than once, for any number of reasons. There may be multiple people living at the same address with different names; a list may add a new member who has moved into a house already on the list under a previous owner’s name; or an incorrect address may have been corrected and turned into a duplicate of an existing address on the same list. Removing these duplicates ensures that you don’t spend unnecessary funds by mailing two or more pieces to the same house.

Other tools that help to streamline the mailing process include ZIP + 4, which adds an extension to the original five-digit ZIP code to help the USPS organize mail more efficiently. Enhanced Line of Travel, or eLOT, is another tool that print and mailing services use to sort mail for more efficient delivery.

One Source For Your Mailing Needs

If all of this information about address verification has you feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry! All of this and much more is included in Spectra’s print and mail services. With decades of experience processing address lists and conducting mail campaigns for organizations of all types, Spectra is your source for whatever type of direct mail you need.

Our longstanding relationship with the USPS and other national shipping companies allows us to offer special discounts and benefits that are unavailable to organizations that do mailing in-house. Bulk rates, commingling, and other advanced strategies help save our clients money on every mail campaign. 

We are also qualified to help government agencies, financial firms, healthcare institutions, and other clients that need to send sensitive materials through the mail. Our facility is SOC II Type 2 certified and 100% HIPAA compliant, so you know that personally identifiable information, medical details, and other private data remain secure during your project.

Contact us to learn more about our print and distribution systems, and to find out how we can help you manage your mail campaigns more accurately, affordably, and quickly than ever before.