Becoming LACSLink Tolerant

Some 10 billion pieces of poorly addressed mail annually cost the U.S. Postal Service $1.8 billion to forward, return or, in many cases, dispose. The loss to the industry is twice that amount, considering lost marketing opportunities and general waste. Postmaster General John Potter's ambitious goal is to reduce Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) mail 50% by 2010. And the changes coming this summer could affect up to 2% of all mailings.

In August, the USPS starts its tough stance on UAA mail by requiring mailers to make an investment if they want to continue achieving automation discounts. This investment requires the addition of Delivery Point Validation (DPV) software and the LACS (Locatable Address Conversion System) Link tool as a part of CASS certification. (CASS is the Coding Accuracy Support System that compares names and addresses to the national database or to addresses authorized by the USPS. CASS also ensures that the correct ZIP+4 extension and delivery point barcode information have been appended.)

However, many mailers are unfamiliar with these tools and the impact they will have on their customers' lists, viewing them as pure costs rather than as opportunities to improve the value of the services they provide. The LACSLink database contains over 5.5 million address conversions introduced by municipalities. Most of these conversions result when an emergency-response system (such as 911) is implemented and the rural route addresses need to be converted to a street style format. It also contains conversions such as renaming or renumbering of existing city-style addresses, which is an ongoing process. Since the USPS will only honor delivery to the old-style address for one year, the address must be updated to the new format to ensure continued delivery.

By offering LACSLink processing as an additional address-correction service, mailers can help their customers keep data current. The updated address will be needed to make sure the right customer is targeted across multiple lists.

The other new requirement for CASS-certified software is the inclusion of DPV data. The DPV product is an encrypted database containing the 165 million delivery points serviced by USPS. Data is used to validate that an address is deliverable. Effective August 1, a ZIP+4 code will no longer be assigned if the primary number of the address cannot be confirmed as deliverable.

Here again is a key opportunity for mailers to assist customers. DPV data not only tells if an address is deliverable, it also provides crucial clues (in the form of footnotes) indicating why an address cannot be confirmed. For example, DPV can tell if an address is a match, but does not include the secondary number (e.g., an apartment or suite number). It can also tell if the primary number is missing, invalid or is a military address.