Postal Sorting and Discounts

Q: What is CASS certification?
A: CASS is a USPS acronym for Coding Accuracy Support System. CASS was developed by the USPS to ensure software manufacturers comply with rules set forth by the Postal Service. These rules govern the way address matching software can determine whether an address contains the correct street address, city, state and Zipcode.

Q: What is PAVE certification?
A: PAVE is another USPS acronym for Presort Accuracy Verification. Presort software will determine how your file is prepared for mailing based on another set of rules developed by the Postal Service. If a record has a valid ZIP+4 code then it will qualify for a barcode discount from on three categories- 5 digit barcode, 3 digit barcode or residual barcode.

Q: How do I obtain barcode discounts on my mail?
A: The USPS requires that a mail piece qualifying for barcode discounts have a ZIP+4. Requlations also state that a ZIP+4 can only be appended through CASS certified software. If the software can determine that all address elements (address, city, state, and zip) are correct and a ZIP+4 is assigned to that address, the software will place the ZIP+4 code in the record. PGi can then process your mail piece at a barcode rate.

Q: What if my data base has missing or invalid address elements?
A: If the records in your data base are current and accurate the software can do the best job possible for you. Address matching software is not intended to "fix" records, or to determine if the individual has moved to another address. However, if a Zipcode is incorrect but the other address elements are correct, the address matching software could determine the correct zip code and correct it. The same goes for addresses, cities and state. The software can also append a carrier route code to your records for use in mailings qualifying for carrier route discounts.

Q: Is there a way that PGI can force bar-coding onto marginal address?
A: The results are obtained from a USPS database. PGi can in no way alter the findings of the software. In fact, the software comes with 4 certified settings, and PGi uses the setting which will give our customer the best return of "clean" addresses. Also when, Pgi processes your date base through the software a parameter will cause the job to cease processing if CASS parameters are not used.

Q: Does this mean that once PGi processes the data base through the matching software, it will qualify for barcode discounts?
A: No. As noted above, address matching software will only append a ZIP+4 code to process your file with PAVE certified presort software. Once these qualification counts are determined on the three tiers, your address will be properly encoded and sorted into the qualifying group.