Mail List Validation Procedure

xcelprint

Well-known member
We are a small digital shop doing a few small mail jobs each month but we are beginning to do more and more of this type of work. Up until now we have been taking the customer's excel spreadsheet mail list and sorting by zip code, then importing into Fusion Pro for imprinting the mail pieces. Are we missing a step? Should we be validating the mail lists in some way to make sure the list provided by the customer is accurate? Please advise, look forward to your comments.

Neal
 
We are a small digital shop doing a few small mail jobs each month but we are beginning to do more and more of this type of work. Up until now we have been taking the customer's excel spreadsheet mail list and sorting by zip code, then importing into Fusion Pro for imprinting the mail pieces. Are we missing a step? Should we be validating the mail lists in some way to make sure the list provided by the customer is accurate? Please advise, look forward to your comments.
Neal


It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. What you've outlined above is fine, as long as you are not trying to get any postage discounts (you are paying full-bore single piece first class postage).

If you want to receive a discounted postage rate, there are two major regulations with regard to the cleaning and validating of your mail list:
(1) CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System). CASS-ing your mail list standardizes your postal address, appends your zip+4, appends your Delivery Point Barcode and Check Digit (DPBC). In order to receive any type of discount (even just a non-barcoded presort discount), your mail list must be CASS certified and the CASS certificate (PS-Form 3553) must be available in case the USPS wants to see it.

(2) NCOA (National Change Of Address). In order to receive a discount on your postage, your mail file has to have been bumped up against the USPS's change of address file, within the last 6 months. This is called the "Move/Update" requirement. There are a few exceptions to this rule with regard to the format of your address block, and/or other methods of insuring current addresses, but, for the most part, NCOA-ing your file is just part of the data cleansing process.

There are many other data hygiene processes I would recommend, but, they are not "required" by the postal service, at least, not at this time: (suppress names from the DMA or your state's "Do Not Mail" list, remove deceased names, suppress prison addresses, remove duplicate names, etc.)

Now, as to putting your list in zip code order, this really does nothing as far as postal presort discounts are concerned, and, if you are paying single-piece first class postage, it doesn't matter what sequence your list is in. In order to receive postage discounts, your file must be in "postal presort" sequence (which, believe it or not, has absolutely no correlation to the numerical sequence of the zip codes). In order to do that, you must use a postal presort program or service. For instance, different post offices handle a series of zips that are not necessarily in sequence. That's because post offices work with zips that are "geographically" related to each other, not necessarily in numerical sequence.
Here in Floriduh, zips that start with "320" or "322" are handled out of Jacksonville, FL. Zips that start with "321", "327", "328", "329" or "347", are handled out of Orlando, FL. Zips "330", "331", "332", etc. are handled out of Miami, FL. See how they all jump around and intertwine?

-MailGuru
 
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