The USPS has established guidelines for what it calls quality addressing. Quality addressing ensures standardized addresses to help the USPS provide timely mail delivery. This goal becomes even more critical as mailers attempt to qualify for postal discounts based on ZIP Codes, ZIP + 4 Codes, and others. A standardized address is an address that has been matched against the U.S. Postal Database and formatted based on USPS addressing conventions.
A U.S. address can be a street address, a rural route address, a highway contract address, a P.O. box address, or a private mailbox address.
A street address contains these elements:
|
4235 |
N |
MAIN |
ST |
NW |
APT |
100 |
|
House Number |
Leading Directional |
Street Name |
Suffix |
Trailing Directional |
Apartment Label |
Apartment Number |
A rural route, highway contract, or P.O. box address has these elements:
|
RR |
123 |
BOX |
19 |
|
Rural Route or Highway Contract Type |
Rural Route or Highway Contract Number |
Rural Route, Highway Contract, or PO Box Number |
A private mailbox address contains these additional elements:
|
PMB |
345 |
|
Private Mailbox Type |
Private Mailbox Number |
Address elements and city/state/ZIP Code information combine to make address lines. These lines are defined as shown below.
|
Address Line |
Address Line Type |
|
ATTN: TECHNICAL SUPPORT |
Attention Line |
For complete information on U.S. address standards, see the U.S. Postal Service® (USPS®) publication Postal Addressing Standards, USPS Publication 28, available on the USPS website.