S42 S42 International Postal Address International Postal Address Components and TemplatesComponents and Templates

Mailers´ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) Mailers´ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) August 5, 2004August 5, 2004

Presenters: Ruth Jones, Mabel Grein Presenters: Ruth Jones, Mabel Grein & Joe Lubenow& Joe Lubenow

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS AGENDA

1) Background on Universal Postal Union (UPU)

2) S42 Standard

3) Why did we chose this solution?

4) The Postal Address Database

5) The Parsing of Address Elements

6) The Address Template Concept

7) Slotting Parsed Address Elements into Templates

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS AGENDA

8) OTHER

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION

Established in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) is the second oldest international organization after the International Telecommunications Union.

The UPU is the primary forum for cooperation between postal services and helps to ensure a truly universal network of up-to-date products and services.

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS WHAT IS A STANDARD

The British Standards Institute describes a The British Standards Institute describes a standard as:standard as:

"a published specification that establishes a common language, and contains a technical specification or other precise criteria and is designed to be used consistently, as a rule, a guideline, or a definition".

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS UPU STANDARDS BOARD

The UPU's Standards Board develops and maintains a growing number of technical standards and electronic data interchange (EDI) message specifications to improve the exchange of postal-related information between Posts, and promotes the compatibility of UPU and international postal initiatives.

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS POST*Code - PROJECT TEAM 2

The UPU and the Postal Operations Council charged the POST*Code Project team to develop a standard:

Provide the definition of address components

Create Postal address templates

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS KEY PARTICIPANTS

UPU POST*Code project team

Experts from all participating Posts

Experts from the industry

European CEN Technical Committee 331

UPU DMAB Address Management Project team

USPS International Address Working Group (IATWG)

IDEAlliance Address Data Interchange Specification working group

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS INTERNATIONAL ADDRESS STANDARD UPU S42

S42 Standard consists of three major concepts:

Elements

Templates

Rendition Instructions

The Standard is based upon a comprehensive list of name and address elements originally developed by the CEN

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS INTERNATIONAL ADDRESS STANDARD UPU S42

Elements:Elements:

The elements define the smallest meaningful parts of names and addresses

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS EXAMPLE: UPU ADDRESS ELEMENTS

Street Number

Street Name

Street Type

Town

ZIP Code

+ 4

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS INTERNATIONAL ADDRESS STANDARD UPU S42

Address Template:Address Template:

The template is a map of where specific address elements should occur in the delivery address to insure delivery in the most economical and automation compatible fashion for the destination post.

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS INTERNATIONAL ADDRESS STANDARD UPU S42

Rendition Instructions:Rendition Instructions:

Rendition Instructions govern "the production of addresses on an output medium such as an address label or a computer display screen.

Included in the standard is a registry of rendition instructions, which can be formatting rules for final presentation, including abbreviation and prioritization of data elements when there are constraints on available space."

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS EXAMPLE OF US RENDITION INSTRUCTIONS:

City = “Chicago” = S42 town

State = “Illinois” = S42 region

ZIP Code = “60625” = S42 Primary Postcode

ZIP Code Addendum = “3806” = S42 Secondary Postcode

State abbreviation should be used

State abbreviation should be capitalized

Two spaces recommended after State

continue…

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS EXAMPLE OF US RENDITION INSTRUCTIONS:

Hyphen needed between parts of ZIP Code

Hyphen only permitted if both parts present

Result: “Chicago IL 60625-3806”

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS INTERNATIONAL ADDRESS STANDARD UPU S42

Australia

Brazil

Chile

Finland

France

Germany

Great Britain

Japan

Morocco

Netherlands

New Zealand

Portugal

Sweden

United States of America

Venezuela

S42 S42 Published StandardPublished Standard

February 3, 2004February 3, 2004

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS WHY USE S42?

BenefitsBenefits

Address logic can be built into existing software

The use of the S42 Standard benefit foreign mail being sent out of the country as well as in bound mail from other countries.

Keep all addresses in one database, both domestic and foreign

Improve Address Quality

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S42 – INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ADDRESS NEXT STEPS FOR THE S42 SUB-GROUP

Add data from other countries

Continue the testing process

Assist other countries as requested with addressing issues

Continue to integrate the templates into software

Develop additional implementation engines

What makes a Standard effective?

First a standard must meet a need.

“It is difficult to share address information across organizations and this is especially true of international address information.”

What makes a Standard effective?

Experts in the problem area must be involved in addressing the need.

The members of the UPU standards board POST*CODE work group were appointed on the basis of their qualifications in their addressing domains. They were joined in their work by individuals with a clear link to postal and/or standards activities. Thus bringing together a sense of how the posts perceive addresses (ideally) and how external organizations view them (reality).

What makes a Standard effective?

A standard must be known to exist

The unfortunate truth is that many standards never see the light of day. They exist in a half world where those in the know may use them but distribution is often limited.

This practice of exclusion allows some companies a clear business advantage and allows others to capitalize by building expensive software solutions only the truly large corporations can afford.

Why did we choose this solution?

We chose parsed address elements because of the way the world posts tend to maintain their address information. It was a good way to solve the issues around address quality, integrity and rendition. It also offered solutions to the problem of how to store multinational addresses in one database.

USPS Data - Street Record

USPS Data - Firm Record

USPS Data - General Delivery

USPS Data - PO Box Record

USPS Data - RR and HC

USPS Data - Military

Common Definitions

Addressee, the final recipient of the mail.

Constructs, combinations of address elements that can form a line of an address.

Mailee, commonly referred to as “Care of” or “attention” information.

NLT - Natural Language Template a common way of expressing the components and order of address elements

PATDL – Postal Address Template Description Language.

Parsing Address Elements

The parsing of addresses into elements can be done manually. However, it is easier when handling large volumes of addresses to secure parsed elements as part of the address matching process that is already required for mailing discounts. All CASS certified matching engines are required to parse address lines into address elements.

Templates

The template is a map of where specific address elements should occur in the delivery address to insure delivery in the most economical and automation compatible fashion for the destination post.

Template Constructs

The USPS Publication 28 example of address line order and content served as the example for the ordering of the isolated elements into the address lines or constructs .

The First Level Identifiers

10 Addressee specification segment

11 Mailee specification segment

12 Recipient despatching information segment

13 Delivery point specification segment, excluding delivery point location construct

14 Delivery point location construct

Second Level Identifiers 00 organisation name 01 legal status 02 organisational unit 03 function 04 addressee role descriptor 05 form of address 06 given name 07 surname prefix 08 surname 09 name qualifier 10 qualification 11 mailee role descriptor 12 defining authority 13 postcode 14 country

15 region 16 town 17 district 19 delivery service type 20 delivery service indicator 21 thoroughfare name 22 thoroughfare type 23 thoroughfare qualifier 24 street number or plot 30 floor 31 door 32 supplementary delivery point data 33 supplementary despatch data 34 proximate town 35 delivery service qualifier

Street Address Template

LINE/CONSTRUCTMailstopAddresseeMaileeTitleDepartment/DivisionOrganizationUrbanizationRR/Military Address orPO Box Address orStreet AddressCity/State/ZIP

CONTAINS12.3310.11, 10.05,10.06-1,10.06-2, 10.06-3, 10.08, 10.09, 10.1011.11, 11.05,11.06-1,11.06-2, 11.06-3, 11.08, 11.09, 11.1010.04, 10.03 OR 11.11, 11.0310.0210.0013.1714.21, 13.19, 13.2013.19, 13.2014.24, 14.23-1, 14.21, 14.22, 14.23-2, 14.31-1, 14.31-213.16, 13.15, 13.13-1, 13.13-2

Street Example

LINE/CONSTRUCT

Addressee

Urbanization

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

CONTAINS

10.05 10.06-1 10.06-2 10.08SENOR JUAN CASTELLANOS ROGRIGUEZ

13.17URB SAN JOAQUIN

14.24 14.2138 CALLE A RODRIGUEZ

13.16 13.15 13.13-1 13.13-2ADJUNTA PR 00601-2302

Firm/Street Example

LINE/CONSTRUCT

Addressee

Title

Organization

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

CONTAINS

10.06-1 10.06-2 10.08CHARLES G GRISSOM

10.04MANAGER OF EDUCATION

10.01MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER

14.24 14.23-1 14.21 14.23-22005 N 900 E

13.16 13.15 13.13-1 13.13-2PROVO UT 84604-1763

General Delivery Example

LINE/CONSTRUCT

Organization

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

CONTAINS

10.01HEMPSTEAD COUNTY

14.21GENERAL DELIVERY

13.16 13.15 13.13-1 13.13-2WASHINGTON AR 71862-9999

PO BOX Example

LINE/CONSTRUCT

Addressee

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

CONTAINS

10.06-1 10.06-2 10.08BILLY BOB JONES

13.19 13.20 PO BOX S

13.16 13.19 13.13-1 13.13-2PROVO UT 84603-0320

RR AND HC ExamplesLINE/CONSTRUCT

Addressee

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

LINE/CONSTRUCT

Addressee

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

CONTAINS

10.05 10.06-1 10.08MS PRISCILLA PRUNELY

14.21 13.19 13.20RR 3 BOX 624A

13.16 13.19 13.13-1 13.13-2PROVO UT 84604-9658

CONTAINS

10.06-1 10.08ELVIS CORNWALLIS

14.21 13.19 13.20HC 79 BOX 54

13.16 13.19 13.13-1 13.13-2HEAD OF GRASS KY 41135-9701

Military ExampleLINE/CONSTRUCT

Addressee

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

LINE/CONSTRUCT

Addressee

Street Address

City/State/ZIP

CONTAINS

10.05 10.06-1 10.08PFC TIM CONNORS

14.21 13.19 13.20PSC 2 BOX 339

13.16 13.19 13.13-1 13.13-2APO AA 34002-0339

CONTAINS

11.002 11.003 11.006CAPTAIN FRED FREITAG

14.21 USNS ZEUS TARC 7

13.16 13.19 13.13-1 13.13-2APO AE 09595-4076

The Concept

IDEAlliance, CEN, OASIS, ECCMA, and others are all also working on standards that use parsed elements to illustrate the affiliation of address elements as in a database or to demonstrate the content of address lines.

The difference between them is -- only the UPU and IDEAlliance standards include a common language to describe address content (NLT) and to render addresses to meet mail piece requirements (PATDL). And…

The Concept

…only the UPU and ADIS standards are being developed

to include the world posts, leaders from other standards

efforts, the addressing software vendors, and the mailing

community.