The Postal Service relies on a number of tools to improve the quality of the Address Management System (AMS) database. The Address Quality Reporting Tool (AQRT) identifies and prioritizes routes with the best opportunity for operational improvement. Districts performed 26,493 Address Quality Improvement Process reviews based on AQRT prioritized routes. These reviews identified and corrected addressing data on 2.3 million AMS records.
The Electronic Uncoded Address Resolution Service (eUARS) enables personnel to correct COA records that do not match a delivery point in the AMS database and update addresses that mailers submit for address correction. The eUARS Address Element Correction (AEC) computerized process corrected 9.1 million addresses. As part of AEC II, carriers helped correct an additional 6.3 million addresses.
As a revenue protection measure, a new report was implemented in eUARS to enable retail units to identify quickly PO Boxes indicated as reserved Caller Service boxes that are receiving large volumes of mail. This increased volume would imply that the box is now being used as Caller Service and the charges and box status should reflect the change.
The Delivery Sortation Management Automation Research Tool (DSMART) identifies addresses that receive mail but are not in the AMS database and cannot be sorted into delivery point sequence (DPS). DSMART was used to identify missing delivery points that accounted for 1.9 million mailpieces. DSMART Business Names module provides the ability for delivery unit personnel to link a business name with the appropriate suite address so the mail can be properly sequenced on automation equipment. The number of business names captured through DSMART increased by 4.7 percent, helping reduce default mail volumes by 34 million pieces. The Postal Service offers a commercial version of this Business Names database called SuiteLink, which adds secondary (suite) numbers to business delivery points to facilitate DPS, and includes tables identifying vacant addresses and addresses that do not yet receive delivery. Use of these tables to suppress addresses with no residents helps reduce UAA mail.
To improve reporting of vacant addresses and further assist with reducing UAA volumes, processes were put in place to log carrier-identified Address Change Service (ACS) mail marked as vacant. Addresses on city routes are automatically set as vacant, and a notice is sent for addresses on rural routes for manual verification. When a COA is received for an address marked as vacant, the vacant flag is automatically removed.
The Growth Management Tool (GMT) and new construction data were used to identify new deliveries prior to reporting by carriers. The primary purpose of GMT is to identify deliveries early enough to establish the most effective form of delivery to the address. The secondary purpose is to identify new and fill-in growth; thereby reducing manual mail volumes. The utilization of GMT data increased 73.1 percent.
In September, WebBATS and AMS integrated PO Box data to improve data integrity, reduce redundancy, ensure proper collection of box fees, and improve audit trails. This effort also helps facilitate the ability of customers to find and rent available PO Boxes and contributes to increased revenue.
