FAQ

A delivery point barcode contains 62 vertical lines. The first and last bars must be tall and are synchronizing bars. In groups of 5 bars the remaining 60 bars form 12 groups. From left to right the bars stand for the following: The five digit zip code, the plus four, the delivery point (2 groups usually the last 2 digits of the house number) and check digit. This is why you sometimes hear of a zip+4+2+1.

The minimum requirement as set by the USPS is 200 pieces or 50 pounds.

No, but if you are doing a First Class or Standard Class mailing, a permit is almost always printed in the upper right corner of the mail piece. Just ask for a copy of Address N’ Mail’s permit. We do not charge you for use of the permit if we do the mail services. Alternatives to a preprinted bulk permit would be metering of postage (usually prints the postage in red) or the use of a stamp. YES! You can use a stamp for bulk or First Class mailings. Use of metered postage or stamps does not affect your postage bill!

Each zip code across the country is broken into delivery areas for each mailman. These areas are referred to generically as “Carrier Routes”. There are several specific types of carrier routes: City route (referred to as a ‘Carrier Route’), a Rural Route, a Hired Carrier route, and a Box route (PO Boxes). A typical route contains between 200 and 500 hundred deliveries but can be in excess of 1000 (for areas of very high density). New routes can be less than 10( usually formed in anticipation of completion or a new density populated new development. . Sometimes carrier route mail will have a cheaper postage that barcoded mail.

Yes. We are certified by the post office to CASS certify your mailing list. Mailings also use PAVE certified software.

Coding Accuracy Support System certification is required to qualify a mailing for automation rate (bar-coded mail) or carrier route postage rates. Certification includes standardization of the address to USPS standards, matching to the USPS national address directory to ensure deliverability, adding the zip+4 information including the delivery point information, adding carrier route assignments, and adding line of travel for carrier route mailings.

The average address list typically contains up to 10% addresses that can’t be CASS-certified. These can still be mailed, but at a higher postage rate. It’s a good idea to send your list in early so we can assess the quality of the addresses and how the quality affects your postage!

Not all shops support Cheshire Labels so be certain your mailer can. Sometimes specialty mail list houses will only supply their address list in Cheshire format. Also ask your mailer how many labels should be across the page. Normally it is 4 across…but sometimes it can be 5 across. When in doubt ask! Address N’ Mail supports 4 across Cheshire labels.

In order to bulk mail to your customers, their names and addresses must be set up in a usable electronic format. The Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet, Access® database or equivalent products are ideal for such files on a personal computer. If your customer list is in a proprietary application, most applications released within the past few years will export a mail list for your use either through an “Export” or a “Save As” command. (We only rarely find a list we can’t use!) To be most easily imported into the bulk mailing software the list should be exported to a “Comma Delimited ASCII” (.txt or .csv) or Dbase compatible (.dbf) format. Please see our file transfer feature on Address N’ Mail’s home page.

The process of putting a permit, meter mark, or stamp on mail pieces.

In order to make your mail piece look as professional as possible we exclusively use laser printers to print the addresses directly on your mail piece. Direct addressing is more efficient and more likely to meet the increasing demands of the post office on addressing quality.

Mail merge is the process where a mailing list is combined with a letter, invoice, or statement to produce a mailing that is personalized. At Address N’ Mail, letters are printed on a high performance 600 dpi laser printer. Any customer supplied paper for mail merge must be laser compatible.

What is the maximum quantities you can process for the services you offer?

Address N’ Mail shop can process about 50,000 pieces daily.

National Change of Address is a Post Office supported function that allows the checking of an existing mail list to determine if a person or family has moved in the last 36 months. Because of privacy laws strict control of this information is observed. Less than 30 companies across the country have paid the $100,000+ annual fee to be allowed to provide NCOA information to others. A “smaller” version of NCOA is “Fast forward” which can check for address changes over the past 8 months.

A nested fold means that two or more pieces of paper are put together before folding. This produces an insert that is a single piece made of several pieces of paper. It produces a more profession look in the case of multi-page letters, invoices or statements. However, it is more expensive than a regular insert.

Optical Character Recognition is the ability of a special camera to see the characters in the address area, recognize what letters/numbers they are and cause the printing of a bar code on the mail piece.

The mail pieces are addressed in presorted sequence ready for packaging and traying in complete conformance to all postal regulations. Final preparation into mail trays or sacks is accomplished on site. Mailing documentation is retained for at least 1 year.inted on a high performance 600 dpi laser printer. Any customer supplied paper for mail merge must be laser compatible.

What is the maximum quantities you can process for the services you offer?

Address N’ Mail shop can process about 50,000 pieces daily.

Yes, from a practical standpoint the weight should be limited to 1500 pounds. Address N’ mail has an adjustable platform and can accommodate up to “dock high” trucks.

It’s difficult to comprehend the variety of ways a large address list can be re-arranged to influence your postage rates. It’s virtually impossible to arrange your mail by hand to get the lowest postage. This is why you must use a USPS tested and certified software package to prepare your address list…or, you can just leave it to Address N’ Mail!

There are two major benefits to using a saturation list: you save some money on postage and service fees are reduced.The biggest negative side is that the list is addressed to “RESIDENT”, “TO OUR NEIGHBOR”, “TO OUR FRIENDS”, “FUTURE HOMEOWNER”….the list goes on and on.

On July 1, 1996, the post office dramatically changed the way they processed mail and charge postage. The special ZIP+4 rates were eliminated. Now, they rely on “DPBC”, or “Delivery Point Bar Code” to get your mail to its destination. DPBC is sometimes referred to as ZIP+4+2, and it’s simply an even more-detailed zip code than the old ZIP+4.

There are two ways DPBC is printed on your mail. The best way is to have Address N’ Mail process your address list and label it that way–this gets you the best postage rates and the lowest processing fees. The other option is to fully prepare the mail and have it processed by Address N’ Mail’s post processing barcode facility. This also allows you to get postage discounts without having to provide a mail list. Sometimes you may want to insert your enclosures (such as checks, theater tickets, bank PIN numbers). That’s OK! We can still save you money with our post processing bar coding facility!

We mail invoices, flyers, cards, booklets, envelope mailers, self- mailers and anything in between. You may provide the item to be mailed or we can print it for you.

You can provide the list, use one we have on hand, or we can compile a special custom list for you. We never share your information or add your list to any existing list other than you own.

Yes, we print invoices, flyers, booklets, cards of all sizes and types, self- mailers, and envelopes. Black and white or full high quality color is available.

Yes! In addition to the full line of services we offer with Address N’ Mail, we offer a full service billing platform through Bill My Way that allows you to choose the method of distribution (Email, regular mail, or Fax), allows for your customers to review the last 13 months of invoices, and pay on line with absolutely no fees for you to pay.