Postal Service to offer file of U.S. addresses

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec 1, 1991 by Karen Burka

Whether you predict it will be "worthless," as one service-bureau exec does, or have a "tremendous impact on list hygiene," as another argues, the soon-to-be-released USPS Delivery Sequence File (DSF) is the buzz among the service-bureau set.

According to Ron Gordon from the USPS National Address Information Center, DSF will include every deliverable address in the United States-estimated at 110 million. The addresses, which will not include names, were identified by the carriers themselves in walk-sequence order over the past two years.

Gordon claims that mailers who run their lists against DSF will be able to verify the accuracy of every address in their mailings and identify "nixies" -bad addresses, undeliverables and temporary movers of 60 days or more. The USPS will not supply correct addresses for those identified as undeliverable, but will tag each record with a footnote stating the reason for the non-match-such as "missing apartment number" or out-of-range house number."

High volume necessary

But at least two service-bureau executives say that the file's size and probable cost will make it useful to only a handful of mailers.

"There are only about 10 to 15 mailers who have the volume and address saturation to make this file valuable," says one.

DSF will be available from licensees on magnetic tape before the end of the year. The cost is yet to be determined. The file will be updated quarterly, but Gordon says that will increase to monthly as program glitches are ironed out.

USPS extends ZIP 4 deadline to March

The USPS has good news for mailers seeking to qualify for ZIP 4 automation discounts. The November 1 deadline for mailers to obtain their own individual CASS certification on their list-processing software in order to qualify for the discounted rate has been extended to March 1, 1992. CASS, or Coding Accuracy Support System, is the USPS process that measures the quality of address-matching software.

The extension means that any mailer who has been using vendor-supplied software may continue to do so while seeking individual CASS-certification-so long as the software has been CASS-certified within the past six months.