In an effort to assist mailers in evaluating the quality of their address lists, effective August 1, 2001, all Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) address-matching software packages were required to provide five categories of address quality delivery point information. For several years, list processors have been providing this same information on the software output reports as footnote codes. Because of the complexity of some of the output reports, many list owners either did not know this information was provided or found it difficult to locate. Therefore, they were not aware of the number of deficiencies contained in highrise and rural/highway contract route default records and Locatable Address Conversion System (LACS) records residing in their address list.

The purpose of the new CASS requirement to provide the qualitative statistical summary information on Form 3553, Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) Summary Report, is to give list owners the ability to recognize and understand address quality deficiencies and to know the number of records that ZIP+4 code to the following levels:

– Highrise Default – Identifies the number of addresses contained within a list destined for a multi-delivery point address (apartment/suite) where the apartment/suite number is not present or is invalid.

– Highrise Exact – Identifies the number of addresses contained within a list destined for a multi-delivery point address (apartment/suite) where the apartment/suite number is present and matches a ZIP+4 range.

– Rural Route Default – Identifies the number of addresses contained within a list destined for a Rural or Highway Contract Route box number where the box number is not present or is invalid.

– Rural Route Exact – Identifies the number of addresses contained within a list destined for a Rural or Highway Contract route box number where the box number is present and matches a ZIP+4 range.

– Locatable Address Conversion System (LACS) – Identifies the number of addresses contained within a list destined for an address that has been converted from a rural or highway contract route and box-style address to a city-style address or from one city-style address to another city-style address.

This new Form 3553 information will quickly show to what extent these important address deficiencies exist in your mailing list. You can then take appropriate follow-up action to resolve these deficiencies. The following are some suggestions that will help you in this effort:

– Records coded to a Highrise or Rural Route default need to be researched to ascertain a valid apartment/suite number or a valid route box number. In many cases, the customer will need to be contacted for this information.

– Records identified as a LACS record should be sent for processing to one of the USPS licensed LACS vendors for conversion to the new address. For a list of LACS vendors go to: http://ribbs.usps.gov/files/vendors/lacsvend.txt.

For assistance in locating the specific records in your address file under each category, refer to your address-matching software documentation or contact your software vendor for assistance. For questions about this article or assistance obtaining more information about the address quality tools available from the Postal Service please contact the Customer Data Analysis department at our National Customer Support Center at 1-800-238-3150.

— National Customer Support Center