The Postal Service relies on a number of tools to improve the quality of its Address Management System (AMS) database. The Address Quality Reporting Tool (AQRT) identifies and prioritizes delivery routes with the best opportunity for improving mailing addresses. This year, 46,171 reviews were performed using AQRT, which corrected data on 2.35 million address records.
The Electronic Uncoded Address Resolution Service (eUARS), another critical addressing tool, corrects change-of-address records that do not match a delivery point in the AMS database. The computerized eUARS Address Element Correction (AEC) process corrected 9 million mailing addresses this year, and carriers helped correct an additional 3.3 million.
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. The DSMART Business Names module enables delivery personnel to link a business name with the appropriate suite address on incompletely addressed business mail. The number of business names captured through DSMART increased 13 percent. A commercial version of this Business Names database, called SuiteLink, adds secondary (suite) numbers to business delivery points and includes tables identifying vacant addresses and new addresses not yet receiving delivery.
The Growth Management Tool (GMT) uses new construction data to identify probable new deliveries before they begin to receive mail. This allows managers to plan for changes in route design, establish the appropriate mode of delivery, and ensure that address records are updated well in advance of mail being sent.
To further improve AMS database quality, local postal managers worked with local addressing authorities to identify incorrect or missing address information as well as incorrect county and congressional data. Known as the County Project, this undertaking, has so far compared (and updated, as needed) 3.4 million address records.
