Address Accuracy means that 95% of the addresses on a database to be mailed are valid Canada Post addresses. If this standard is not achieved, a cost adjustment (ie. penalty) will be applied to all the mail pieces with inaccurate addresses. The adjustment rate for Incentive Lettermail and Addressed Admail is up to $0.05 per piece.

As of April 2001, the Minimum Volume Threshold for Address Accuracy for Addressed Admail, Publications Mail, and Catalogue mailings is >5,000 down from 10,000 in 2000.

A new item called Statement of Accuracy (SOA) must be provided to Canada Post to report the percentage of accurate addresses on a mailing list. A SOA must be generated for each customer database once a year.

Canada Post authorized address validation and correction software is available for the purpose of identifying deficiencies and correcting to CPC standards. Service bureaus can provide this service for smaller users.

Keep in mind that address correction software will not always automatically give you 95% Address Accuracy. Sometimes manual intervention is required to correct typographical or spelling errors and incorrect information. Should your mailing list remain static for over one year, it is still important to run Address Accuracy due to continual urban growth and municipal amalgamations which can effect changes to many of the addresses on your mailing list.

For mailers, the number one problem in maintaining Address Accuracy in their mailings is their own Address Database Management. When there are errors in the addressing fields, mail is either delayed or not delivered at all and often can translate into increased costs. When address information is entered incorrectly, address evaluation software programs can't read the address properly and will consider it invalid.

Although Address Database Management differs from business to business, there are steps that companies can take to ensure that data entry is properly executed. For Address Accuracy Software to work properly, all information must be entered in the proper fields. For example if the postal code is entered in the province field, the software will be unable to determine the address, because, although the information is there, it's in the wrong place. Regardless of how the database is constructed, it won't do the job mailers need if the information isn't entered properly.

Although the right formats for each individual situation may differ, Canada Post suggests the following fields:

Name Company/Department
Address 1
Address 2
City Province Postal Code

Ongoing maintenance of the address lists is essential. You can make it easier by providing your customers with Change of Address insert cards, or Business Reply Mail. With this updated information and verifying the accuracy of these addresses, you improve the performance of your mailing list.

Printing a list of the addresses that are invalid can help you identify those addresses, which may need to have additional, different or modified information in order to be deemed valid.

Put all addresses in upper case, justified to the left
Eliminate punctuation, except in proper names
Never use # or No
Place any unit number before the civic number with a hyphen in-between
Do not underline any part of the address

When printing the label:
Addresses should be in 10 to 12 point size
Put the municipality, province and postal code on the same line
Add two spaces between the province symbol and postal code
Format all return addresses in the same way