DELIVERY POINT DATABASE THE U.S. CASE

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DELIVERY POINT DATABASETHE U.S. CASE

• Ruth Jones
• April 24, 2007

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History

• The USPS originally used city and state
  information to guide mail to its intended
  destination.
• In 1963, the USPS introduced the ZIP Code.
• A five-digit number was assigned to each delivery
  area in the country.
• Today the ZIP 4 Code and the city state is the
  foundation of the USPS delivery point database.

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Structure

• USPS address data hierarchy
• Area

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Structure

• USPS address data hierarchy
• Area
• Southwest Area

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Structure

• USPS address data hierarchy
• Area
• Southwest Area
• District

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Structure

• USPS address data hierarchy
• Area
• Southwest Area
• District
• Post Office

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Structure

• USPS address data hierarchy
• Area
• Southwest Area
• District
• Post Office
• Carrier Route

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Structure

• USPS address data hierarchy
• Area
• Southwest Area
• District
• Post Office
• Carrier Route
• Delivery Point

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Address Elements
Element Based Complies with UPU S42

• Primary number
• Pre-directional
• Street name
• Street suffix
• Post-directional

• Secondary identifier
• Secondary number
• City
• State
• ZIP 4 Code

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Delivery Elements
Each delivery point is uniquely identified

• Carrier Route
• Delivery Type
• Business
• Residential
• Record Type
• Sequence Number
• Active Delivery Point

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Address Types

• City Style
• Rural Route / Highway Contract
• Post Office Boxes
• General Delivery
• Military
• College/University
• Puerto Rico

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Benefits

• Contains all individual delivery point data
• Provides the source of all USPS automation
  directories for mail sortation
• address-related products
• delivery statistics
• Improved Operations sort mail in delivery
  sequence order for the letter carrier

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Benefits

• Capability of interfacing with other systems and
  platforms
• Mailers use products and services to create mail
  with addresses that match database
• USPS provides mailers with work share postage
  discounts for presenting mail that validates to
  the delivery point
• USPS has the ability to measure quality

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A Few Facts

• The database currently contains over 147 million
  delivery point records.
• 126 million deliveries serviced by 270,000
  delivery routes (the remainder are PO Box
  addresses).
• These records are in our 42,000 ZIP Codes and
  are delivered from 37,000 facilities nationwide.
• 8 terabytes of address data in US

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A Few Facts

• No Postal Patron information is associated with
  delivery point data
• USPS is prohibited by US law to create, sell, or
  maintain mailing lists
• The delivery point data is not available to
  anyone outside the USPS

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A Few Facts

• Products and services are derived from the
  database and only available through licensed
  service providers
• These 35 products and services generate over
  100M in revenue each year
• Local planning authorities assign addresses
• Quality is the key to the success

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Maintenance

• The information is maintained by 700 specialists
  located in field offices districts throughout the
  country.
• Maintaining the data requires a commitment to
  data quality by the delivery office.
• To ensure quality, a Quality Improvement Team was
  implemented.

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Lessons Learned

• Design the database
• For future growth
• For flexibility
• Large volume firms
• Vanity addresses
• For Country specific situations
• To prevent duplicate addresses within same
  delivery area

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Thank You! ruth.jones_at_usps.gov