USPS Publication 28, Postal Addressing Standards, Part One

This episode reads from Publication 28, Postal Addressing Standards, issued by the United States Postal Service and kept on its Postal Explorer site. It follows the publication's own order. It starts with the contents and then reads clause 211 and clause 213 with its numbered parts. After each part, a short gloss draws on the Wikipedia article Address.

What is read

• Contents: the Introduction, chapter 2, chapter 3, and Appendices A to J, read heading by heading.
• 211 Standardized Delivery Address Line and Last Line: the Delivery Address Line is validated with the ZIP+4 file, and the Last Line with the City State file. A complete address allows an exact match with those files. A standardized address includes all required elements and uses the Postal Service standard abbreviations.
• 213 Secondary Address Unit Designators: designators such as APARTMENT or SUITE must be printed where a location has one. The preferred location is the end of the Delivery Address Line.
• 213.1 Common Designators: APARTMENT, APT. BUILDING, BLDG. FLOOR, FL. SUITE, STE. UNIT, UNIT. ROOM, RM. DEPARTMENT, DEPT.
• 213.2 Pound Sign (#): if it is used, a space goes between the sign and the secondary number.
• 213.3 Alternate Location: if the Delivery Address Line has no room, the secondary information goes on the line immediately above it.

The glosses

The glosses cover where the postal code sits in other countries. In the UK it goes on its own line at the end. In much of Europe it goes before the town, as in 1010 Lausanne. They also cover how London began regulating house numbering under the Metropolis Management Act 1855, and the order of East Asian addresses written in their native scripts. The last gloss covers the Universal Postal Convention's recommendations for international mail.

The voice is synthetic. Nothing in the reading needs to be followed.

Sources

• Address (en.wikipedia.org, text CC BY-SA, license)
• https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28c2_001.htm
• https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28c2_003.htm