In the last week or two I have asked and answered a lot of questions relating to CASS, prompting me to say, hey it’s high time I blogged about it.
So let’s start at the beginning, what is CASS? It is an acronym from the US Postal Service and stands for Coding Accuracy Support System. It ensures that addresses are standardized for increased deliverability and data quality. It is a necessary step for any bulk mailing- the USPS requires it - as it cuts down considerably on undeliverable mail pieces.
What other reasons are there to use CASS on address records? The CASS process does more than just ensure mail deliverability; it will clean and standardize an address record. Common misspellings are corrected as are directionals, city names and ZIP Codes. A standardized address record has a better chance of matching (fuzzy or otherwise) to another standardized address record. For this reason we CASS records as part as our Household Matching and Business File Matching macros.
We also CASS records prior to Geocoding as it improves the accuracy of our geocodes. If an address passes the CASS process, it has a better chance of being placed by matching the Address Points database (which is also run through CASS as part of our data build process), or interpolated by the street geocoder, and if these aforementioned processes still fail, the ZIP+4 Coder will kick in (using the CASS appended ZIP+4 code) and be able to place the address on the map.
How do we know a record passes CASS? CASS Result codes are returned for each address record sent through the CASS tool. Our Geocoding, Household and Business Matching macros will accept the codes AS01 or AS02 as acceptable regardless of the presence of additional codes. This is just fine for standardization, matching, and geocoding purposes but will not necessarily be ok for mailing. In the case of matching, a code of AS02 is considered a slight downgrade reflected in our match score.
For mailing purposes, you will want to examine all of the codes returned in the CASS Results field. In order for an address to be considered valid and deliverable by the USPS, the code AS01 must be present without any error (AE**) codes. Usually if an error code is returned, AS02 will be returned instead of AS01. These records may be missing a suite number for instance, a fine candidate for placing on a map but it could pose a problem to a mail carrier faced with the decision of which slot to drop the mail piece through.
Where do I find the CASS Result Codes? The list of Result codes can be found in the Alteryx Help, linked from the CASS page. The same table can be viewed on Melissa Data’s (our CASS provider) website http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/ResultCodes.asp . The codes and descriptions come straight from the USPS and honestly could use a more verbose description in some cases. Below are some of the questions that have come up in response to these codes:
- AS22 – No Suggestions: Does “no alternatives” mean it is a good (DPV- Delivery Point Validated) address?
- Usually this means the address is incorrect and you’re looking for suggestions to replace the bad address with.
- AS23 – Extraneous Information Found: Is the extraneous info ignored and it is a good (DPV) address?
- Most likely the address would return an AS01 result code without any AE** codes. Basically it omitted certain components of the address it didn’t need and coded the address.
- AS17 – Address does not receive mail at this time:What does this mean?
- This comes directly from the USPS. Mail can be undeliverable for any of these reasons:
- Dog on the premises or an immediate threat to a mail carrier.
- Hazardous Weather such as the aftermath of a storm or natural disaster.
- Mailbox Blocked – if a carrier continually cannot deliver mail the postmaster may withdraw delivery service.
- Full Mailbox where no more mail will fit.
- Travel Obstructions such as road construction.
- AC** Codes – Change Result Codes: Is it OK to use or does the change by default mean that it is not DPV?
- Yes any AC codes means that certain components of the address were standardized to USPS standards and can\should be used.
Remember, the returned CASS fields are the newly created address fields that are valid for mailing (especially if change codes are present), not necessarily the original address fields.
Will running CASS slow my module down? The short answer is, yes. CASS is an involved process of soundexing and comparing different tables, extracting information, appending data and more. Accuracy costs speed. That being said, we have implemented many measures for speed gains by processing records independently on multiple threads and by priming the cache up front, meaning larger datasets will process more efficiently than smaller ones. We have also made CASS processing optional in some of our Macros, where you map your previously CASS’ed fields.
Are there ways I can gain speed improvements when running CASS? Again the answer is, yes. Sorting the data by ZIP Code prior to CASS will improve speed as will running on a solid state drive, 64 bit with multiple (4+) cores.
I hope you found this informative. More questions will surface as you continue to work with address data. There are just so many factors that contribute to Result Codes. If you have a particular question about the CASS process, a returned code, or a bad geocode, I’d be happy to answer them. You can also use the lookups on the USPS website or Melissa Data to understand more about individual addresses and the CASS process in general.
Till next time.
Tara
