I am trying to make our data consistent and would like to know best practice regarding where to enter apartment and suite numbers.  Should we be entering them next to the street address or on a separate address line?  What do most people do and how does the decision effect direct mail sent from a mail house?

Hi Marni,

You can check out the official word from the US Post Office in this handy PDF. They don't really state a preference, but they do refer to using a second line as the "alternate method", so that implies that they want you to list it after the address on the same line.

At our org, we use two lines, since that's what our old system did, and when we converted, we keep that same standard.

Ken - love the PDF - was looking for this type of info for a different issue last month.

Marni -

We keep ours on one line - this is how I was told post office preferred it and I don't have to worry if someone doesn't pull address line 2 when running labels or envelope. 

Secondary address unit designators, such as APARTMENT or SUITE, are preferred to be printed on the mailpiece for address locations containing secondary unit designators. The preferred location is at the end of the Delivery Address Line. The pound sign (#) should not be used as a secondary unit designator if the correct designation, such as APT or STE, is known or is shown in the ZIP+4 file.

I thought this was postal procedure also - they read from bottom up - so apt/suite # etc should be above street address

213.3 Alternate Location

I am also looking for other organizations "best practice" in terms of standard address formating.  Are organizaitons conforming to the Post Office for abbreviations ie RD verses Road (ST versse Street, etc) and are people starting to use all caps? Please share what you are doing at your org.

We are getting ready to do an overahaul to our data and I would love to hear from many of you.

Thanks!

Sarah

Sarah Coco:

I am also looking for other organizations "best practice" in terms of standard address formating.  Are organizaitons conforming to the Post Office for abbreviations ie RD verses Road (ST versse Street, etc) and are people starting to use all caps? Please share what you are doing at your org.

We are getting ready to do an overahaul to our data and I would love to hear from many of you.

Thanks!

Sarah

We have been using "St/Rd" for "Street/Road" for almost 15 years.  It was my decision to make and that's the way I decided back then (may have been influenced by limits to field size in database at the time). For us, we don't have a need at this time to generate more formal addresses on any mailings generated from RE.  (Someday, it may come back to bite.)

We use upper and lower case.  If we needed to use all caps for a mailing, we could choose that option on Mail - Format. Has check box for use all caps.

My two cents...

We keep everything on ONE line & use abbrev. as much as possible!

Thank you everyone, for your replies.  They were very helpful.  One follow-up question: For those who are enteringthe secondary address unit designators on one line, do you put a comma between the main street address and the secondary address?

Thank you,

Marni Pearce
Database Manager
Seeds of Peace

I do use a comma.  I also use one between city and state when formatting my documents.  Apparently, it's acceptable though USPS prefers no punctuation. :-) 

Marni - We do not use punctuation in any of our addresses.

Here is an example of an address in RE:

1630 43rd Ave E Apt 1417
Seattle, WA  98112-6223

As far as the post office is concerned,is it acceptable to output addresses onto envelopes without using abbreviations? The exec who signs acknowledgement letters dislikes seeing abbreviations in the address block, so I use:

 Mr. John Smith

404 Gift Street

Apartment 7

Baltimore, MD 21207

My boss feels the same way.  Street, etc., abbreviations are preferred by the USPS but not required.

Leslie

David O'Brien:

As far as the post office is concerned,is it acceptable to output addresses onto envelopes without using abbreviations? The exec who signs acknowledgement letters dislikes seeing abbreviations in the address block, so I use:

 Mr. John Smith

404 Gift Street

Apartment 7

Baltimore, MD 21207

Yes, it's acceptable & fine to not use abbreviations. 

It could be to your benefit for efficient mail delivery to use the formats/placements they request.  In your example, the preferred format is with the apartment on the same line as the delivery address.  If it doesn't fit there, their alternative location is above the delivery address line.  (see section 213, http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/pubs/Pub28/pub28.pdf ).  I've tried to follow these as much as possible just in case they require it at some point.  Less work to change it later.  I think I also have less problems with mailing house if I have them formatted correctly.

If you have a street address line below the name line and you have a P. O. Box number line below the street address line, the post office will always use the destination above the city, state, zip line.  suzo

In this example:

 Mr. John Smith

404 Gift Street

Apartment 7

Baltimore, MD 21207

the Apartment 7 line is incorrectly placed - it should be the second line if it stands alone. The alternative is to place it after 404 Gift Street.

 Although the Post Office prefers a very standard address format, we have chosen not to use abbreviations, except for state, particularly for acknowledgement letters. One mailing we did to our Major Benefactor's Reception was done by the mailing house according to the P.O. standards, and the envelopes looked like junk mail. I think it is important to consider the recipient when deciding what the mailing should look like.

Jo Ann Fannon

Dominican Academy, NYC