Standardizing MLS Addresses

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
llcampbell
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USPS Pub. 28 Addressing Standards

#41

Post by llcampbell »

How can Church units in the United States comply with USPS Publication 28 Addressing Standards to increase efficient processing by high speed address reading equipment? The Post Office loses billions each year so the more we can do to comply with government requested addressing standards, the more the Church units make their work easier.

Pub. 28 requests that all letters be upper case for more accurate high speed processing. Whereas, we are required to use a default method that uses lower case letters.

Pub. 28 request that the font used be sans serif where each capital letter has the same thickness, whereas the Church uses by default the Times New Roman serif font where each letter has very thin sections to save ink in newsprint for publications, but are harder to read by equipment especially in small lower case letters.

Pub 28 request that punctuation be omitted with the exception on the hyphen in the ZIP plus 4 carrier routing codes, whereas, the Church default is to use periods and commas that are not recommended.

Pub 28 requests that apartment numbers be on the same line as the street name and number, but if space does not permit, then to add the apartment to the FIRST address line. Whereas, the Church default is to add all apartment numbers to the second line even when space permits on the first line. When Church units print reports all must include the second address line, else members will travel to addresses that appear complete on line one, but omit the vital apartment, space, or unit number on the second line. All reports consume more paper and unit costs when a second line must be printed unnecessarily for many addresses on all reports displaying the address.

Every single Postal Addressing Standards for the United States is violated by the default address we are using. While our policy is to comply with Government requests. How can units in the U.S. comply with Pub 28 Addressing Standards?
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sbradshaw
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Re: USPS Pub. 28 Addressing Standards

#42

Post by sbradshaw »

llcampbell wrote:Every single Postal Addressing Standards for the United States is violated by the default address we are using. While our policy is to comply with Government requests. How can units in the U.S. comply with Pub 28 Addressing Standards?
The Church upholds with the law, and generally follows standards where they are known and make sense. The U.S. Postal Addressing Standards are recommendations; they are not laws. Standards/recommendations for mailing addresses vary around the world and it would be impossible – or would require a lot more resources than could responsibly be dedicated – for Church employees to learn about and localize tools for every country where the Church has wards and branches. Also, addresses are used for more than sending mail – most wards use the postal service only rarely, so human readability is just as important a factor in how addresses are formatted.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
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