On November 2, 2011, Canada Post announced changes to the transition period for invalid excluded addresses.

Background

In January 2011, Canada Post introduced Point of Call reference data (“PoCAD”) for use in generating Statement of Accuracy reports. An important feature of the PoCAD data is that it includes much more granular information, in particular, unit number information for residential apartments and businesses. With this more granular information, it has become possible to detect invalid unit numbers in many addresses.

One side-effect of this change is that mailers have seen a drop in their accuracy scores. This was to be expected since there was not, prior to the introduction of PoCAD reference data, any way for SERP software to detect bad unit numbers. Since the drop in accuracy scores is related to better problem detection, rather than an actual drop in address quality, Canada Post instituted a transitional period in which addresses with bad unit numbers would be detected, but not counted against a mailer’s accuracy score. Since January 2011, Statement of Accuracy reports have included a line indicating the “Invalid Excluded” percentage. This percentage represents the number of bad unit numbers and is not deducted from the accuracy score. When the transitional period ends, this line will no longer appear on the Statement of Accuracy report. The transitional period for residential apartment addresses has been set to run from January 17, 2011 to January 12, 2012.

What’s Changed

In response to requests from their customers, Canada Post has extended the transition period for excluded large urban business addresses to January 2013. This means mailers have more time to correct these addresses before they’re considered invalid and count against the Statement of Accuracy score. Canada Post has stated that no further extensions will be provided after January 2013. Note that this extension does not apply to residential apartment addresses. The transition for residential apartment addresses will end on January 12, 2012.

What Should You Do?

If you have already completed your upgrade to nCode 10.0, then there is nothing that you need to do. This rule change will not impact your nCode installation in any way. If you currently have some invalid excluded addresses reported on your Statement of Accuracy, then starting with the January 2012 release of the nCode address reference database, you may notice that this percentage will drop as invalid residential apartment addresses will no longer be excluded. If this change will cause your overall accuracy score to fall significantly, you should take steps to correct these invalid apartment numbers, so that you don’t risk postage penalties.