A Standardized address is one that is fully spelled out, abbreviated by using the Postal Service Standard abbreviations and uses the proper format for the address style.
— USPS, Publication 28
AbbrevIt
Group 1 is focused on providing its users ongoing improvements in mailing efficiency. AbbrevIt, based on USPS Pub 28 Postal Addressing Standards, provides cost reduction through reduced undeliverable-as-addressed mail and enhances mail processing and delivery. An invalid address not only prevents information from getting to customers but also increases costs through:
- Undeliverable Mail
- Mail sent at the full postal rate
- Wasted production costs for materials that are never delivered
- Duplicate production costs because the information had to be sent twice
- Unhappy customers who didn’t get the information on time.
- Lost revenue because the information was never delivered to your customer.
Available on the z/OS (MVS) IBM platform, AbbrevIt enables mailers to achieve abbreviated postal addresses while maintaining CASS compliant abbreviations. It abbreviates a postal approved address line from the USPS recommended length of 64 characters down to a smaller value, typically 20 to 30 characters.
AbbrevIt is easy as 1,2,3:
- Pass in the address string
- Indicate the size required
- AbbrevIt does the rest
Take the address of:
1879 Slippery Rock Rd
This needs to fit it into a 20-character field, but unfortunately contains 21 characters.
Truncating the address to 20 characters, will provide:
1879 Slippery Rock R
This address is now incomplete and likely won’t code with a CASS approved coding engine.
Dropping the last word of the address line is ambiguous (is it Street or Court?):
1879 Slippery Rock
AbbrevIt reduces the address to:
1879 Slippry Rck Rd
CASS approved and meets the 20 character requirement.
AbbrevIt and Mail It
It’s that easy!