Lob's Address Verification solution achieves CASS Cycle O certification

The Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS™) Certification is an optional certification system provided by the United States Postal Service aimed at improving accuracy and standardization for any software accessing the USPS address database. You can learn more about Lob and the CASS certification here but in short, being CASS-certified means Lob's Address Verification solution has earned an A+ from the USPS.

As we continue to grow exponentially, we are committed to the promise that our product meets this high standard—we are proud to announce Lob has achieved CASS Cycle O certification.

All functions available in CASS Cycle N apply to Cycle O, but major changes include new address fields, updated reference data, and more intelligent matching logic. These enhancements are designed to improve address accuracy, decrease undeliverable mail, and streamline the validation and delivery process overall. USPS documentation says it best: these changes are a “Win, Win, Win—a Win for mailers, a Win for the USPS, and a Win for the recipients.”

What’s changed?

The USPS’s CASS™ Cycle O - Executive Summary is a valuable reference, and we’ve captured the most notable changes below. All updates are reflected in our Address Verification API documentation and developers can also see the detailed changes here).

• New features to improve the validation of military addresses, highrises, and addresses with a secondary data point (APT A, or businesses with a suite, and those that include a single trailing alpha like 201B King St).

• New (& redefined) Delivery Point Validation (DPV^®) data to offer more information on address characteristics to be considered when determining deliverability. This includes new DPV flags like Door Not Accessible (DNA), No Secure Location (NSL), Non-Delivery Days (NDD), and additional No-Stat Reason Codes, plus new DPV footnotes (like PB for PO Box, or R7 for those unable to get mail). These changes are designed to better identify addresses that are unable to receive mail—and why.‍

• Other new features around PO Boxes that include: PO Box Only Delivery Zones to identify cities that have only PO Boxes; this can enable prompts for a PO Box mailing address at the time of entry if another address format is input. Cycle O also introduces PBSA, a PO Box Street Address Identifier to identify and standardize PO Box Addresses.

• The CMRA – PMB Identifier & DPV Confirmation helps identify and standardize Private Mail Box (PMB) information and Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) addresses.

• The introduction of TotalDPS will, among other outcomes, increase the availability of Informed Delivery service.

• A new 5-Digit ZIP validation feature identifies records that meet 5-Digit ZIP validation and qualification for discounted postage rates.

CASS certification guarantees a standard of quality in address verification services. But Lob’s AV product is just one touchpoint in our end-to-end automation platform—​​from mailing lists, creation, printing, postage, delivery, and sustainability—and you can expect best-in-class execution throughout the direct mail lifecycle.

Special thanks to Amaan Rahim, Vishal Mangwani, Michel Puentes, Guy Argo, and Achyuta Iyengar on their dedicated efforts towards this achievement.

More resources

• Lob provides various ways to improve your address data hygiene and deliverability and offers ways to augment your first-party data with additional datasets to increase reach; learn more here.
• Case Study: BlueChip Financial reduces potential mail costs by 50% with Lob Address Verification.

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