Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards - USPS

1 June 2020iContents1 Introduction..111 Background .. 1111 Purpose .. 1112 Scope .. 1113 Additional Benefits .. 112 Overview .. 2121 Address and List Maintenance .. 2122 List Correction.. 2123 Updates.. 2124 Address Output .. 3125 Deliverability .. 313 Address Information Systems Products and Services .. 32 Postal Addressing Standards ..521 General .. 5211 Standardized Delivery Address Line and Last Line.. 5212 Format .. 5213 Secondary Address Unit Designators .. 6214 Attention Line.

2 7215 Dual Addresses .. 722 Last Line of the Address .. 8221 City Names .. 8222 Punctuation .. 8223 Spelling of City Names .. 8224 Format .. 9225 Military Addresses.. 9226 Preprinted Delivery Point Barcodes .. 923 Delivery Address Line .. 10231 Components .. 10232 Street Name .. 10233 Directionals .. 11234 Suffixes .. 13235 Numeric Street Names .. 13236 Corner Addresses .. 14237 Highways.. 14238 Military Addresses.. 14239 Department of State Addresses .. 15 Postal Addressing StandardsiiPublication 2824 Rural Route Addresses.

3 15241 Format .. 15242 Leading Zero .. 16243 Hyphens .. 16244 Designations RFD and RD .. 16245 Additional Designations .. 16246 ZIP+4 .. 1625 Highway Contract Route Addresses .. 17251 Format .. 17252 Leading Zero .. 17253 Hyphens .. 17254 Star Route Designations .. 17255 Additional Designations .. 18256 ZIP+4 .. 1826 General Delivery Addresses .. 18261 Format .. 18262 ZIP Code or ZIP+4 .. 1827 United States Postal Service Addresses .. 19271 Format .. 19272 ZIP Code or ZIP+4 .. 1928 Post Office Box Addresses.

4 19281 Format .. 19282 Leading Zero .. 20283 Designations .. 20284PO Box Street Addressing .. 20285 Private Mailbox Addresses .. 2029 Puerto Rico Addresses .. 23291 Format .. 23292 Urbanization .. 25293 Common Translations .. 25294 Spanish Directionals .. 26295 Delivery Address Line .. 273 Business Addressing Standards ..3331 General .. 33311 Joint Industry and Postal Service Standardization Efforts .. 33312 Unique Addressing Issues.. 33313 Business Address Standardization Factors .. 34314 Purpose of Standardization.

5 3532 Scope of Standardization .. 35321 Benefits .. 35322 Business-to-Business List Maintenance .. 35323 Business-to-Business List Correction.. 36 ContentsJune 2020iii324 Business-to-Business List Updates .. 36325 Business-to-Business Address Output.. 36326 Business-to-Business Deliverability .. 3733 Defining Business-to-Business Data Elements .. 3734 Line Removal Guidelines .. 39341 Sample Business Address Format .. 39342 Primary Considerations .. 40343 Address Line Removal .. 4135 Address Data Element Compression Guidelines.

6 43351 Removal and Deletion Restrictions .. 43352 Abbreviations .. 44353 Right-to-Left Evaluation .. 44354 Special Characters .. 45355 Remove Certain Words .. 46356 Wrapping .. 46357 Business/Firm Name Compression.. 47358 Standard State Name Abbreviations.. 48359 Other Considerations .. 48 Appendix A Address Formatting ..51 Appendix B Two-Letter State and Possession Abbreviations ..57 Appendix C Street Abbreviations ..61 Appendix D Unusual Addressing Situations ..75 Appendix E Address Standardization Alphanumeric/Fractional Coding.

7 77 Appendix F Address Standardization County, State, Local Highways ..81 Appendix G Business Word Abbreviations ..83 Appendix H Standard Abbreviations for Spanish-Language Addresses .. 207 Appendix I Postal Addressing Standards for Puerto Rico .. 209 Appendix J Postal Addressing Standards for the Virgin Islands .. 217 Postal Addressing StandardsivPublication 28 The following trademarks appear in this handbook and are among the many trademarks owned by the United States Postal Service :ACS , ANKLink , CASS , DPV , eLOT , FAST , Intelligent Mail , LACSLink , MASS , NCOALink , PO Box , Postal Explorer , Postal Service , RIBBS , SuiteLink , ZIP+4 , ZIP Code.

8 This is not a comprehensive list of all Postal Service 202011 Introduction11 Background111 PurposeJointly developed by the Postal Service and mailing industry, standardized address information enhances the processing and delivery of mail, reduces undeliverable-as-addressed mail, and provides mutual cost reduction opportunities through improved efficiency. The Standards include the uniform methods for matching addresses with the information in AIS products and formats for outputting addresses on mailpieces.

9 This document describes both standardized address formats and content. It outlines the guidelines that govern how address information appears in the Address Information System (AIS) products. Format describes how the various elements appear on a mailpiece or in an address record. Content describes the characters that constitute the various address objectives in compiling a universal format for maintaining information in the Address Management System (source for the AIS products) and an output format are twofold: To facilitate customer use of AIS products, in particular, the ZIP+4 and City State files, thereby maximizing matching potential.

10 To optimize the processing capability of automated equipment through improved address units are adopting these Standards , which are required by all internal processing systems and our licensees. This includes the National Change of Address (NCOA) System and Address Change Service (ACS). Mailers are encouraged to incorporate the Standards as a means to improve service and BenefitsThere are additional benefits achieved through improved address quality and a standardized address format, such as increasing the potential deliverability of mail once processed and consistency in address information stored in customer files and directories.