Did you know that when you purchase a USPS Walk Sequence/Saturation Address file, your list may contain the same exact address more than once? Most people would ask, “Wouldn’t those records be duplicates?”

Technically there is no way for us to provide you with a “duplicate” address. Each address record we output has been designated as a separate USPS delivery in walk sequence by the postal carrier. These are delivery points or receptacles that service multiple families or businesses. Although the address field is the same, each address will have its own unique walk sequence number in the file.

Sometimes referred to as “Drops” or “Drop Stops”, duplicated addresses can be found in several different scenarios, for example:

Duplex
Fourplex
Boarding House / Fraternity
SFDU with a rental unit attached
Apartment Buildings / Lobby Drops
Gated Communities
Simplified Routes

Some data processes performed on the data after it leaves Compact may flag these records as “bad” or even remove them from the list output. It is important to remember that doing so will invalidate the USPS Qualification paperwork we have provided with our data as well as affect the saturation level attained in each route. The individual addresses included in the piece count that determines whether a route is “Saturated” does indeed include all multiple deliveries present on a given route. So, in certain circumstances removing these addresses could drop the saturation level of a route down to high density or basic rate.

The bottom line is, every address we provide is deliverable as is! In most cases your mail preparer should not be doing anything to alter the enhanced carrier route walk sequence files. Multiple drops do not mean the data is bad or inaccurate, in fact just the opposite: we would not be providing you with a complete route listing if we did not include the drops. For more information about the workings of the Walk Sequence Saturation data, please give us a call!

Thanks,
Mary McCarty
List Services Manager