Postal Affairs Blog-- This excellent article is reprinted here with permission, courtesy of Monica Lundquist and Window Book, form their Postal Concierge newsletter:

 

The United States Postal Service® (USPS®) shared updated data from a 2010 Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) study at the recent Mailer's Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meeting. Prior to this 2010 study, the most recent data available was from a study conducted in 2004. Both of these studies were conducted by Christensen & Associates.

 

UAA Volume Declines Total UAA volume dropped from 9.3 billion pieces (4.71% of total mail volume) in FY 1998 to 6.9 billion pieces (4.11% of total mail volume) in FY 2010. (This reduction, while significant, falls far short of previous Post Master General Jack Potter's goal of reducing UAA mail by 50% by 2010.) Historically, UAA mail runs in the range of 4% to 5% of total mail volume, and the percentages of total volume vary by class of mail. Periodicals mail, for example, has a UAA percentage of about 1.5%, while Standard Mail usually runs about 6.75%. Interestingly, the volumes of UAA mail that the USPS forwards or treats as waste both experienced declines, but the volume of UAA mail that the USPS returns to sender actually increased. Read more!