To use Line of Travel to obtain the maximum discount, the USPS Line of Travel Technical Guide requires you to sort your LOT-coded records in ascending order in the following sequence:
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5-digit ZIP Code
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4-byte Carrier Route Code
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4-digit Line of Travel Code
Note: This includes only the numeric portion of the LOT code. It does not include the sequence code. -
4-digit ZIP + 4 Code
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2-digit Delivery Point Barcode in ascending AND descending order depending on the Line of Travel sequence code that is appended to each record
Since sorting in ascending and descending order can be unwieldy, Line of Travel returns two types of alternate codes that can be used for sortation. Rather than sorting your output file using the 2-digit Delivery Point Barcode, you should sort it using either the alternate sequence code or the hexadecimal sequence code.
The alternate sequence code is a two-byte code used for final sortation in place of the DPC add-on. It consists of an uppercase letter followed by a digit 0 through 9. Values range from "A0" (99 descending) through "J9" (00 descending), and "K0" (00 ascending) through "T9" (99 ascending).
The hexadecimal sequence code is a single-byte code, and it also allows you to sort your file in ascending order only. The hexadecimal values range from 0 to FF ascending, then FF through 0 descending.
Both the hexadecimal and alternate sequence codes are determined from the DPC add-on and the LOT sequence code. For more information on these codes, please refer to Alternate Sequence Codes.