2014 National Postal Forum Washington DC

Gary A. Seitz

Industry Challenge - UAA

◦ What is UAA mail?

◦ How serious is it?

What are common causes of UAA?

Where to start

How do CASS & NCOA affect UAA?

◦ More than processing your files

Some Solutions

UAA mail is all mail that cannot be delivered to the name and address specified on the mailpiece, and must be forwarded, returned or properly treated as waste as authorized for the class of mail and ancillary service endorsement on the mailpiece.

Mail may be considered UAA because:

The individual, family or business has moved

The address is incomplete, incorrect or illegible

The addressee is unknown or deceased

The addressee refuses or fails to claim the mail

The necessary postage has not been paid

Undeliverable as Addressed (UAA) Mail Return mail volume is not decreasing, even though mail volume is decreasing

2012 2013

Mail Volume 160 billion 158 billion

UAA Volume 6.76 billion (4.23%)

6.78 billion (4.28%)

First Class UAA 2.54 billion 2.44 billion

Standard UAA 4.01 billion 4.13 billion

-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

2010 2011 2012 2013

Forwarded

Returned

Waste

3,700

3,800

3,900

4,000

4,100

4,200

4,300

4,400

2010 2011 2012 2013

Waste

Total UAA

Standard Class

Wasted costs ◦ Industry estimate $3 per piece in operational costs

(Postage, Print, Handling, Research, Re-Mailing) Lost / Delayed Revenue Impact to Clients ◦ Reduced Customer Satisfaction ◦ Lost Marketing Opportunities ◦ Lost Customers

100,000 addresses Over 90 days…

1.2% (1,200) will move and need COA processing .5% ( 500) will likely be UAA due to a foreign or

“no forwarding” moves 2.8% (2,800) will contain invalid or incomplete

addresses Total: 4,500 pieces may never reach their intended

audience A mailing list will deteriorate 2% in 90-days

24 of 100 mail pieces contain Address Errors

5 of 100 mail pieces are Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA)

◦ First-Class UAA Mail 3.7%

◦ Standard Class UAA Mail 5.1%

Movers 75% of UAA mail

◦ 2.6% of all First Class Mail

◦ Includes failure to update files

◦ Failure to utilize NCOA Nixie information

Vacant addresses 6% of UAA mail

Missing Secondary addresses 5% of UAA

Invalid Name & Address information

Each year, 17% of Americans move or change their mailing address

Approximately 19% of all businesses move

USPS® processes over 45 million permanent Change of Address (COA) orders each year

Data Entry of Names & Addresses

Name formats

Physical addresses – using CASS

Move Update – using NCOA

At Point of Entry!

Correct ◦ Consider implementing a solution at point of capture

◦ Work with your mail preparer to identify records that do not CASS/DPV

Complete ◦ Break into reason why

◦ Take action

Current ◦ Pre-mailing – NCOALink

◦ Post-mailing – Ancillary service endorsements & ACS

Check your database • First and Last names

• No “mixed” data fields!

• No Titles in name

• No Names in the Address

• No Company Names in the Address

• Name fields are used for postal matching

Check your database • Enough space (30 to 50)

• Secondary address information

• Proper Address elements

• Proper Abbreviations

Publication 28 Pickup a copy at the USPS booth or down load from https://www.usps.com/business/address-management-pubs.htm

CASS + DPV ◦ CASS Correct address, assigns Zip+4 ◦ DPV Validates that USPS delivers to street

number, Complete address, including secondary address information

CASS assigns error codes

Not all CASS systems are the same ◦ Parsing logic varies ◦ Coding variances from 80% to 90% on same file

Standard processes with CASS:

• SUITELINK – adds suites to business addresses

• LACS – converts rural addresses – 1-yr delivery window

Optional processes:

• VACANT – vacant in last 90-days

• APARTMENT APPEND - adds missing secondary address on residential and improves VACANT and NCOA matching

Mailers frequently fail to update their databases with this info ~ leading to increased UAA mail

• RUN-ON 145SOUTHMILLS ST

• EXTRA DIGITS/CHARACTERS 10000 EUCLID AVE

• PRE-DIRECTIONALS 17 SO WATT CT

• SUFFIX ABBREVIATION 492 JACKSON BL

• MISPLACED SECONDARY 47 A CEDAR RD

• ALPHA/NUMERICS 5!7 M0SS ST

• Utilize NCOA (National Change of Address)

• 18-month or 48-month

• Individuals, Families & Businesses that filed COA

• Tight match criteria on NAME and ADDRESS

• NIXIES = close matches

• Are you updating?

• NCOA Nixie codes

• Close match ~ but new address not provided

• First Class: May be forwarded or may be returned

• Standard Class: Treated as Waste

• Some sample Nixie codes returned with NCOA 04 Street address with secondary

05 New address cannot be provided

09 Highrise default

19 New Address Not Zip+4 or DPV ~ or “Temp Move”

“So what happened…?

NCOA requires an exact match ◦ NAME and ADDRESS

◦ Only Zip+4 complete addresses matched

◦ NIXIES “close” matches

Over 35% of movers never tell the USPS

ACS uses a “looser” match and mail is returned

Ron McKnight to Ronald McKnight

Ron McKnight to Ron & Mary McKnight

Ron McKnight to Ron A McKnight

Ron McKnight to Mr & Mrs Ron McKnight

Ron McKnight to Mary & Ron McKnight

Ron McKnight to Mr & Mrs McKnight

Ron McKnight to R McKnight

Ron McKnight to Ron McKnight, Jr

Ron McKnight to Ms. Ron McKnight

Betty Reed to Elizabeth Reed

Betty Reed to Betty Reed-Smith

Match ~ New Address

Match ~ New Address

Nixie – Middle Name Test

Match ~ New Address

No Match

No Match

No Match

No Match

Nixie – Gender Test

Match ~ New Address

No Match

• Used to request new address and instructions on handling UAA mail

• Proper placement on piece required

• Manual and automated notice options (ACS)

• Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) offers low cost alternatives

Why use them?

First class mail

◦ Forwarded for 12-months, and you never know it

◦ After 12-months, returned as “UAA”

◦ Valuable or confidential info: forward or return?

Standard class mail

◦ Might be forwarded, returned but usually waste

◦ You never know it

JOHN DOE

10 ELM AVE

ANYTOWN OR 97654-3218

Return Address Change

Endorsements keywords

Endorsement >

Service Requested

Ancillary Service Endorsements

Followed by…

• On-piece mailing instructions

• Same handling for all classes of mail

• Differing fees

ENDORSEMENT FIRST CLASS STANDARD MAIL

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Forwarding and Return New notice provided

Forward or Return – No charge to Fwd Address Correction fee

Forward or Return – No charge to Fwd Addr Corr or Wgt Fee

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED No Forwarding, only Return New address or UAA reason

No Charge First Class Mail price

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED No Forwarding or Return New address or UAA reason

Address Correction fee Address Correction fee

FORWARDING SERVICE REQUESTED Forwarding and Return New address only with Return

No Charge Forward no charge Return Weighted fee

ELECTRONIC SERVICE REQUESTED Service type code in IMb determines

General rules. Services and prices vary by class

AEC & AECII® Service

◦ AEC provides a crucial “last resort” approach to stubborn addresses

◦ USPS® service to help correct addresses that CASS Certified™ software cannot fix

AECII expands AEC processing

◦ Leverages Delivery Force knowledge™ for addresses that AEC cannot correct

Industry Challenge - UAA

What are common causes of UAA?

How do CASS & NCOA affect UAA?

Hidden Cost of UAA

Solutions

Address Quality

Is Essential!

Resources

USPS – Address Quality https://www.usps.com/business/address-quality-services.htm USPS – Addressing https://ribbs.usps.gov/index.cfm?page=addressing Publication 28 – USPS Addressing Standards Pick up a copy at the USPS Booth or download from

https://www.usps.com/business/address-management-pubs.htm?

Questions and Answers

Gary A Seitz Executive Vice President C.TRAC (440) 572-1000 x140 GSeitz@ctrac.com