1 360 Perspective of Address Element Correction (AEC) / AEC II ® National Postal Forum May 17 th – 20 th, 2015 Angela Lawson, Manager Address Quality Programs, USPS ® Dan O’Brien, Director – Postal Strategy, TD Ameritrade

2 Agenda  What are some examples of “bad” addresses  What is a standardized address?  What are the root causes of “bad” addresses  How do you fix them? DPV ®, LACS LINK®, Suite LINK® Products AEC / AEC II ®  Summary

3 Can You Recognize A Bad Address?

4 Barbara L. Wilson 512 King Ridge Cv. Collierville TN Can You Recognize A Bad Address?

5 Defining A Quality Address As defined by USPS ® : “A quality address contains complete and correct elements that comply with USPS Address Management System standards and allows automated sortation to the intended delivery point for delivery to the specified recipient (current) without requiring the use of Delivery Force Knowledge ™ to complete.”

6 What Is A Standardized Address? A standardized address is defined as: All necessary elements correct and complete… Pre-directional Primary address number Street name Street suffix Post-directional Secondary identifier Secondary number City State ZIP + 4 ® code

7 CASS Certified Software TM LACS Link® DPV ® Suite Link® AEC / AEC II ® NCOA Link® ANK Link® ACS TM Standardize Validate Update Address Quality Foundation

8 Average Mailing List Address Quality Total Addresses Processed:1.294 Trillion Total Addresses ZIP + 4 ® Coded:1.239 Trillion95.72% Total Addresses ZIP + 4 Coded that DPV ® Confirmed: Trillion95.40% Total Addresses Processed that DPV Confirmed (Y): Trillion91.26% Total Building Addresses with a Bad or Missing Apt/Ste Number (S&D): Billion4.14% Data derived from analysis of mailer files in FY 2014

9 Address Quality Study of a National Mailing When the address was... DeliveredReturnedForwarded ZIP + 4 ® Coded:91.71%5.94%2.35% ZIP + 4 Coded and DPV ® Confirmed: 92.11%5.48%2.41% Improvement (Reduction):0.44%( 7.74% )2.55% Overall Address Quality and UAA results

10 Address Quality Study of a National Mailing When the address was... DeliveredReturnedForwarded ZIP + 4 ® Coded but missing Apt/Ste number: 60.34%31.43%8.23% ZIP + 4 Coded containing valid Apt/Ste number: 83.00%11.98%5.02% Improvement (Reduction)37.55%( 61.88% )( 39.00% ) Overall Address Quality and UAA results

11 Address Quality Study of a National Mailing When the Address Was... DeliveredReturnedForwarded Not ZIP + 4 ® Coded Due to Multiple Possible Matches (Main St or Main Ave?): 66.11%29.71%4.18% Not ZIP + 4 Coded Because Address Information Could Not Be Determined: 67.79%27.93%4.28% Increase (Reduction) Vs. ZIP + 4 Coded Only: ( 27.91% )400.17%77.87%

12 Can You Recognize A Bad Address? Barbara L. Wilson 512 King Ridge Cv. Collierville TN NIXIE /20/15 RETURN TO SENDER NO SUCH STREET UNABLE TO FORWARD

13 USPS ® Internet Address Matching System

MAIN ST ANYTOWN TN Confirmed 104 MAIN ST ANYTOWN TN Not Confirmed DPV ® Product  Extension of CASS Certified ™ Address Matching software  Extra step to attempt validation of each specific address in the file allows a user to confirm the validity of address information - right down to apartment and suite number DPV provides a “YES / NO” response to an inquiry such as:

15 DPV ® / DSF 2® Footnote Codes AAInput Address Matched to the ZIP+4 fileP1Input Address RR or HC Box number invalid A1Input Address Not Matched to the ZIP+4 fileP3Input Address PO, RR, or HC Box number invalid BBInput Address Matched to DPV (all components)RR Input Address Matched to CMRA and PMB designator present (PMB 123 or #123) CC Input Address Primary Number Matched to DPV but Secondary Number not Matched (present but invalid) R1 Input Address Matched to CMRA but PMB designator not present (PMB 123 or #123) N1 Input Address Primary Number Matched to DPV™ but Address Missing Secondary Number F1Input Address Matched to a Military Address M1Input Address Primary Number MissingG1Input Address Matched to a General Delivery Address M3Input Address Primary Number InvalidU1Input Address Matched to a Unique ZIP Code On footnotes of F1, G1 and U1 move “Y” to the DPV return code and spaces to all other flags. 15

16 LACS Link® LACS Link is a process that converts addresses that are changed by local governments  Rural route to street style conversion  Renumbering changes  Street name changes Delivery point remains the same and the residents have not moved, but the address has been changed. Old StyleNew Style RR 5 Box Apple Drive 471 Main St1471 Main St 987 Edgewater Dr987 Waterways Blvd

17 Suite Link®  Improves address assignments to business addresses by adding known secondary (suite) numbers  Provided a business name and an associated ZIP + 4 ® coded address matches to a high-rise default, the Suite Link process will return the appropriate suite number when available

18 AEC Service What can AEC do for addresses that commercially-available CASS Certified ™ software doesn’t do?  Expands standard and non-standard abbreviations to their full spelling  Corrects a full spelling to abbreviations or initials  Corrects misspellings, fractional primary number variations and road designator spellings  Connects two components to form one or separates one component into two

19 AEC Service What is AEC and how can it help me?  Address Element Correction (AEC) is a service offered by USPS ® that attempts to assign a ZIP + 4 ® code to addresses that fail standardization using traditional CASS Certified ™ address matching software  AEC uses sophisticated address hygiene algorithms developed by USPS that go beyond typical capability of commercial address-matching software  Processing with AEC logic typically improves the ZIP + 4 coding of uncoded addresses by an average of 38%

20 AEC Service AEC focuses on the following addressing issues  Incomplete address Incorrect street name Missing or incorrect directional Missing or incorrect suffix Rural-style address conversion to city-style address  Incorrect city name or ZIP ® Code

21 AEC Service — Examples 4546 B-10 EL CAMINO REAL PMB #375 LOS ALTOS CA EL CAMINO REAL STE B10 PMB #375 LOS ALTOS CA INPUT OUTPUT Return Code = SS (Exact Match) How Code = v (moved secondary to right of address)

22 AEC Service — Examples ROPE FERRY RD/RT.155 MILLSTONE POWER STA WATERFORD CT ROPE FERRY RD WATERFORD CT INPUT OUTPUT Return Code = SS (Exact Match) How Code = BX (parsed each element of street name to match street file)

23 AEC II ® Service AEC II is an enhancement to the AEC program  Addresses that remain uncoded after AEC processing are compared against the AEC II historical file that looks for previous resolutions of the same name and address  Addresses that remain uncoded after AEC and AEC historical file comparison are sent to the responsible delivery unit for resolution Average: 85% resolution rate Average: 51% correction rate

24 AEC II ® Service How does the local delivery unit fix the address?  AEC II leverages Delivery Force Knowledge™ to correct “bad” addresses in mailer files  Carriers typically know their customer’s address and can identify correction necessary  Address corrected to a valid delivery point with ZIP + 4 ® code appended  Indicator provided to identify when the address cannot be corrected

25 AEC II ® Service

26 AEC II ® Service What if the address I have is actually a correct address but it still doesn’t match the USPS ® data?  Address will be returned marked “correct-as-shown” without charge  Where the mailing address is a PO Box instead of a street address, record returned marked with “PO Box Indicator” without charge PO Box address not provided due to privacy

27 AEC II ® Service — Examples JONES PET SHOP 3770 VIA CAMPENA S OCEANSIDE CA JONES PET SHOP 3770 VISTA CAMPANA S UNIT 2 OCEANSIDE CA INPUT OUTPUT

28 AEC II ® Service — Examples BROOKLYN’S SCHOOL OF DANCE 13421ARRIER AVE APT 204 ONEIDA TOWERS 1 ONEIDA NY BROOKLYN’S SCHOOL OF DANCE 226 FARRIER AVE APT 204 ONEIDA NY INPUT OUTPUT

29 AEC II ® Service — Examples PRUITT FINANCIAL SOUTH 2500 EAST VERNAL UT PRUITT FINANCIAL 2718 S 2500 E VERNAL UT INPUT OUTPUT

30 AEC II ® Service — Examples MILTON FLORIST 3258 HIDEWAY LANE MIDDLEBURG FL MILTON FLORIST 3852 HIDEAWAY LN MIDDLEBURG FL INPUT OUTPUT

31 AEC II ® Service — Examples MEAD LAWN AND GARDEN 5814 SR6W JASPER FL MEAD LAWN AND GARDEN 5814 STATE ROAD 6 W JASPER FL INPUT OUTPUT

32 AEC II ® Service — Examples DIAMOND CONSULTING 105 PARKER DR CHALESTON WV DIAMOND CONSULTING RR 8 BOX 330 CHARLESTON WV INPUT OUTPUT

33 AEC Confidence Option  Included in AEC/AEC II ® file processing to assist in minimizing the analysis of AEC returned corrections  Used to return only AEC corrections where AEC enhanced computer logic indicates a high confidence in the returned correction  Records usually result in a DPV ® confirmation at a primary address level (dependent on the CASS ™ software used and the frequency of its USPS ® data source)  All records that do not have the highest level of confidence, as determined through our logic, will be sent through AEC II ® service (at customer’s request) for resolution based on Delivery Force Knowledge ™.

34 AEC Processing Results  The returned address will contain: The standardized delivery address if resolved; if unresolved the data fields will be blank. Delivery addresses are parsed into individual address elements. For Rural Routes addresses, the term “RR #” will appear in the Street Name field, the word “Box” will appear in the Suffix field, and the box number will appear in the Primary Number field. For PO Box addresses, the words “PO Box” will appear in the Street Name field, and the box number will be listed in the Primary Number field.  The original, unaltered record as submitted.

35 AEC II ® Service What are the Costs for AEC and AEC II Processing?  AEC processing costs $21 per thousand records (required for AEC II processing)  AEC II processing costs 32¢ per resolution Nothing if resolved using historical file Nothing if submitted address is correct Nothing if address is returned indicated as PO Box mailing address

36 AEC II ® Service How can I estimate my return on investment using USPS ® AEC/AEC II ® services?

37 Requesting AEC/AEC II ® Processing  Request form and payment can be submitted in one of two ways: AEC/AEC II Processing Request Form — accompanies each file submitted for processing. Payment is accepted by credit card or USPS ® CAPS account. AEC/AEC II Processing Request for Vendors Form — submitted once and is applicable for each file submitted thereafter. Vendors are required to have a CAPS account and to include a header record as the first record in their file (discussed later).  CAPS allows mailers to conduct business with CAPS Service Center Reps electronically. To obtain a CAPS account visit caps.usps.gov or call (650) caps.usps.gov

38 AEC Return Codes

39 Electronic File Transmission Procedures File Submission  The EPF Upload Manager allows AEC users to upload their address list files for processing.

40 Electronic File Transmission Procedures AEC Return File  Processed files will be available for download via the Electronic Product Fulfillment (EPF) website.  As files are processed and loaded to EPF, an notification will be sent informing users of available file(s).

41 Electronic File Transmission Procedures AEC Web ACCESS  An AEC web access account is needed in order to access the EPF web site.  To obtain an AEC Web Access Request Form, visit  Complete the form and return via the contact information provided at the bottom of the form.  Upon receipt of your request, a representative from the AEC Department will contact you via phone with an ID and password for your files.

42 Tools and Resources  AEC and AEC II ® Calculator  AEC and AEC II User Guide  For everything you wanted to know about AEC and AEC II, but were afraid to ask in public...

43 AEC Header Record Layout

44 AEC Input File Layout

45 Summary  USPS ® provides an extensive suite of existing address quality products and services.  The quality of your address data directly affects the deliverability of your mail!  It’s important to continuously monitor and validate the quality and accuracy of your address information.  The USPS is committed to ongoing address hygiene improvements to enhance the value of mail.

46 Questions??

47 For More Information ribbs.usps.gov National Customer Support Center

48 Monday Colleges and University Addressing: Issues and Opportunities Jim Wilson / Richard Boudrero – Beginner – Period 7, 11 am Keeping It Simple: ACS™ Services – It’s All in the Service Type ID Kai Fisher – Intermediate – Period 7, 11 am Growing a Great Address Quality Foundation Ed Wanta / Wanda Senne –Beginner – Period 9, 2:45 pm Your Software is Talking, Are You Listening? Angela Lawson / Chris Lien – Intermediate – Period 10, 4 pm Sunday Demystifying UAA – Where did it come from? How can we fix it? Jim Wilson / Gary Seitz – Beginner – Period 6, 4 pm USPS ® Co-Presentations Schedule Tuesday Leveraging the NCSC RIBBS Site – Understanding What’s Available to You Ed Wanta – Delivery Solutions Theater, 1:30 pm Wednesday 360 o Perspective of Address Element Correction (AEC)/AEC II ® Angela Lawson / Dan O’Brien – All Levels – Period 16, 8 am