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Home > About USPS & News > Forms & Publications > Postal Periodicals and Publications > Publications > Publication 8A - Address Change Service - Traditional > Address Change Service (ACS): An Intelligent Solution > What is Address Change Service?
ACS is an automated electronic enhancement to our traditional manual
process for providing address corrections to mailers. It is not a replacement
for the manual process; instead, it allows the opportunity for a reduction in
the volume of manual address correction notifications provided. Therefore,
ACS reduces both Postal Service and mailer costs for this activity.
The mail forwarding process begins when (1) a Postal Service customer
moves and files a change of address order, or (2) a customer's letter carrier
discovers that the customer no longer receives mail at a particular address
and no change of address has been filed. In the latter instance, the carrier
will file a PS Form 3575-Z on behalf of the customer, indicating that the
customer moved and left no forwarding address. If this is a customer whose
Post Office™ box is closed, a Postal Service clerk will file PS Form 3575-Z on
behalf of the customer. The delivery unit sends PS Form 3575-Z to the
Computerized Forwarding System (CFS) unit, where it is entered into a
database.
When a carrier receives a mailpiece and it is UAA at the old address due to
customer relocation, the mailpiece (depending on its mail class and
endorsements) is sent by the Postal Service employee to the CFS unit
responsible for forwarding mail destined to that old address. An attempt is
then made to match the name and address to a change of address (COA) on
file at the CFS unit. If a match is attained from the CFS database and the
mailpiece bears an active ACS participant code, the opportunity exists for an
electronic notification to be generated. Otherwise, the COA notification is
provided manually. Depending on its mail class and endorsements, the
mailpiece is forwarded, discarded, or returned to sender.
The following situations will normally result in hardcopy address corrections:
• Portion of nation not covered by the CFS network.
• COA order not on file.
• COA order expired. (This occurs after the 12-month forwarding period
has ended.)
• Single delivery points (e.g., colleges, universities, nursing homes,
prisons, third-party mail receivers, etc.).
• After the 12-month forwarding period, Standard Mail® and Package
Services mailpieces that bear the endorsement Address Service
Requested are returned manually with the reason for nondelivery.
• Address Service Requested Option 2 mailpieces returned manually
(see DMM 507.1.5.1 for details).
Approximately 100 CFS units nationwide serve the majority of the United
States and generate ACS fulfillment notifications. It should be noted,
however, that some areas of the country and smaller Post Offices lie outside
the geographic reach of the CFS network, and only manual address
correction notifications are generated by the delivery units serving these
areas.
Electronic ACS fulfillment notifications generated by the CFS units are
transmitted daily to the National Customer Support Center (NCSC) in
Memphis, Tennessee, where they are consolidated and provided to
ACS-participating mailers.
The primary objective of ACS is to provide as much COA information as
possible electronically. However, ACS may also capture and provide a portion
of a mailer's nixie notifications electronically.
If an ACS mailpiece with an approved keyline algorithm is printed on it
qualifies as a nixie, the mailer can receive the nixie notification electronically,
along with the reason for nondelivery. Traditionally, this type of notification
has been manually provided directly from the local delivery unit. When an
ACS nixie is submitted by a Postal Service delivery unit to a CFS site, an
electronic notification can be returned to the mailer.
In addition to the ACS participant code, the mailer must use both the ACS
keyline and an appropriate mailpiece endorsement to receive ACS nixie
notifications.
Note: Although optional for COA information, preapproved keyline
algorithms are required if the mailer wants to receive electronic ACS
nixie notifications. Also, each keyline must end with a check digit
correctly calculated using the Postal Service standard for check
digit computation.
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