Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 29, 1994 TAG: 9411290072
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: PAUL DELLINGER LENGTH: Medium
Still, there is something about getting a letter that you can hold in your hand, read at your convenience, re-read for fun, and answer at leisure. For decades, I have enjoyed correspondences with people I knew in childhood, college, the service and a select number I've met in more recent years.
I recently found out I've been doing it all wrong - at least the address part on the envelope.
It may be the U.S. Postal Service's best-kept secret that there is a way of addressing your mail these days that speeds it along more quickly, by working with new postal equipment.
I first ran across this new way of addressing mail in a little message in the back of a stamp booklet, which I came close to discarding unread.
I've since learned that post offices have free pamphlets giving even more details, titled ``Addressing for Success.'' One reason letter writers don't generally know about them is because they have, so far, been aimed only at business mail.
There's probably a good reason. Under the new speed-'em-along system, envelope addresses must be typed. But practically all of my correspondents these days type their letters anyway, as well as the address, so that's no problem.
So how do you tap into this faster mail service?
The first step is to type the address in ALL CAPITALS and without any commas or periods.
The second is to make sure the two bottom lines contain the street address or box number, followed by the city or town, state (using its two-letter abbreviation) and ZIP Code.
That's because postal scanning equipment starts looking at the address from its lower right-hand corner in sorting the mail, and works its way across the address toward the upper left-hand corner.
Those two bottom lines are the key. The other stuff - the name of the addressee, name of the business if that is included, and whatever else you might want to put in - must be above them. That includes such things as apartment numbers, ``Attn: John Doe'' and such. If those go below the two key lines of information, they mess up the scanning devices and the envelope must be sorted manually - which is to say more slowly.
One more thing: If you happen to know the extra four digits that ZIP codes now have, called "ZIP+4" in postal parlance, you can speed your mail even more by using them. When the scanner sees a nine-digit ZIP instead of a five, it needs to look no farther but can sort the piece of mail on that bit of data alone.
The ideal address would look something like this:
JOHN & JANE DOE
4417 BROOK ST NE
WASHINGTON DC 20019-4649
The main things to remember are all capitals and no punctuation. ``Everything we learned in typing class,'' said Pulaski County Postmaster Terry Clark, ``that's all out the window now.''
Other little problems that can foul up the scanners include some fancy typewriter face like ``script'' (even with this advanced technology, old is sometimes best), letters so close together that they touch, the address being slanted instead of straight across the envelope, the information being too dim for the scanning devices to read, and sticking something like the aforementioned ``Attn: John Doe'' below the two key delivery address lines.
The only other thing to remember is to start typing the address at least 23/4 inches from the left side of the envelope.
Happy letter writing.
Paul Dellinger is a New River Valley bureau staff writer.
by CNB