Date Submitted: 3/28/2006

What is CASS? It is a certification program by the USPS to govern the preparation of bulk mailings. CASS is responsible for address hygiene and routing information that lowers postage costs, speeds delivery, and reduces undeliverables.

What exactly does CASS processing do?

1. Cleanses and standardizes each element of an address to meet USPS standards for format and content.

2. Corrects input addresses and adds the proper postal information to produce a USPS compliant address. This includes ZIP Code, ZIP + 4 code, carrier route code, delivery point barcode and Line of Travel (LOT) information. These codes are required to print the barcode on each mail piece necessary for your Automation discounts.

3. Adds missing address information and corrects misspelled address elements and converts addresses into a format that's readable by USPS automation equipment.

4. Results in the production of a CASS Form 3553 postal report, which is submitted with your mailings that qualified for automation discounts.

In order to qualify your mailings for discounts, you must use a current address-matching search engine from a vendor that is CASS Certified by the USPS.

The database of the ZIP + 4 codes expires every 90 days. Once the expiration date has passed, you will not be able to append the +4 code or produce the CASS form. You will need to purchase a new update of the CASS Certified Object with a refreshed database. According to the USPS, there are about 25,000 5-digit ZIP Code changes on a monthly basis. It’s easy to understand why you need to update the software or Object for CASS certification.

What CASS processing does not do:

CASS comes up short in terms of validating an individual address. What this means is that even though your mail goes through the CASS address matching system – it won’t guarantee that your mail will be delivered to its intended mail box. The range of the address may be accurate, but it won’t include a specific delivery point.

For instance, if the address you’re mailing to is 123 Main Street, Everytown, Calif. 90210 – you will get the ZIP+4 Code that goes along with the address. The CASS system will be able to validate there’s a range of addresses from 100 to 199, but it won’t be able to identify which ones are the actual delivery points.

Also, in terms of apartment unit numbers, if there’s no specific unit number tagged to your address when mailing, the piece might not be delivered to the specific recipient. The CASS system won’t be able to identify which apartment unit the mail piece goes out to.

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