DPV verifies that a mailing address actually exists and can be delivered by the
USPS. Mailing addresses will not be validated if they cannot be matched against
a USPS DPV file. An address record will not match if address elements i.e. house
number, apartment number, street directional, or misspelled street names are incorrect
or missing, and they cannot subsequently be corrected by CASS software.
Industry experts forecast as much as a 2% reduction in the amount of mail that will
no longer qualify for automation discounts. These new CASS requirements coupled
with increasing postage rates will be a double whammy that could cost large volume
mailers millions of dollars per year.
In addition, a portion of UAA mail is due to missing or incomplete address elements
that CASS software has been unable to standardize, and missing apartment numbers
in high-rise buildings. Those items combined with the DPV reduction results in approximately
7% of typical files that may become undeliverable.
Anchor Software offers the following solutions that help reduce UAA mail and, in
turn, helps to preserve postage discounts:
MegaCoder: Anchor’s MaxCASS USPS Certified solution uses
Anchor’s proprietary matching engine, AnchorCoder, and can be optionally enhanced
by adding the ability to also use the USPS AMS CASS engine. This 2-engine alternative
is called MegaCoder, which has been in use by mailers since 2005. MegaCoder generally
provides an address coding lift of 0.5% – 1.0% when compared to a single engine
run. The easy to use MaxCASS GUI allows the user to simply click on a radio button
to activate one or both of the CASS engines.
Address Enhancement Processing (AEP): This proprietary Anchor Software
solution uses an extensive database of names and addresses to correct the addresses
that do not standardize within either or both of the address coding engines. This
includes records with addresses in high-rise buildings without secondary addresses
(apartment numbers). Using proprietary matching techniques and programming logic,
records that have not been CASS certified (including not being confirmed with DPV)
are passed against the AEP database. This option is invoked via the MaxCASS GUI.
Then, information that may be available (i.e. first name, last name, middle name,
primary address, secondary address, etc) is used to correct the addresses. After
the corrections are made, the resulting file match is processed again in either
or both CASS engines. This file can be treated separately or reprocessed with the
original file that did CASS certify without using AEP. Using this alternative could
subsequently result in CASS certifying an additional 1% – 3% of the entire
file.
Depending upon the unique attributes of each file, by using MegaCoder and AEP, 1.5%
- 4.0% of the entire file or up to approximately 60% of what may have been UAA mail
could be eliminated. On a 1MM record file, that’s an additional 42,000 pieces
that may qualify for automation postage discounts and provide a near-guarantee that
they will be delivered to the correct recipient.
Large mailers have three alternatives; 1) don’t mail the non-coded records,
2) mail the non-coded records at a higher postage rate, or 3) purchase Anchor’s
software or services solution as described above and only mail those that can be
corrected.
Deciding not to mail the 7% of the file seems like an easy answer. The downside
is the loss of business from not mailing to those potential customers.
Choosing to mail the pieces is costly. At an average “in the mail” cost
of $.50 each, the cost of mailing 70,000 non-coded records of a 1MM record file
is $35,000, and most of those mail pieces would likely fail to be delivered. Thus,
contributing to the USPS UAA problem!
The advantages of MegaCoder and AEP seem obvious especially when you consider the
additional responses and potential business that may be realized by getting as much
as 4.0% more mailing pieces (in the case of the 1MM record file = 42,000 pieces)
delivered properly.
The diagram illustrates the job flow of the MegaCoder and AEP.