CASS International Address Standards 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which international organization publishes the S42 standard for postal address components?
- Universal Postal Union (UPU) (Correct answer)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- United Nations (UN)
- World Trade Organization (WTO)
Correct answer: Universal Postal Union (UPU)
The Universal Postal Union (UPU) publishes the S42 standard, which defines international postal address components and their formats.
Question 2: In a Canadian postal address, what does the second character of the postal code always represent?
- A letter designating the province
- A digit (0-9) (Correct answer)
- A letter designating the city
- Either a letter or digit
Correct answer: A digit (0-9)
Canadian postal codes follow the pattern A#A #A# where # is always a digit; the second character is always a digit (0-9).
Question 3: For CASS purposes, how are Puerto Rico addresses treated regarding country designation?
- As international addresses requiring a country field
- As domestic US addresses with standard ZIP codes (Correct answer)
- As US territories requiring special territory codes
- As foreign addresses requiring customs forms
Correct answer: As domestic US addresses with standard ZIP codes
Puerto Rico is a US territory and its addresses are processed as domestic US addresses within the standard USPS ZIP code system.
Question 4: Which element is unique to German address formatting compared to standard US address formatting?
- The postal code precedes the city name on the same line (Correct answer)
- The street number appears before the street name
- The recipient name appears after the street address
- The country name is omitted on domestic mail
Correct answer: The postal code precedes the city name on the same line
In German addresses, the postal code (Postleitzahl) precedes the city name on the locality line, e.g., '10115 Berlin'.
Question 5: What is the correct ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for the United Kingdom?
- UK
- GB (Correct answer)
- EN
- BR
Correct answer: GB
The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the United Kingdom is 'GB' (Great Britain), not 'UK' which is reserved but not officially assigned.
Question 6: In Australian address formatting, which line immediately precedes the country line on international mail?
- Street address
- Suburb, state abbreviation, and postcode on one line (Correct answer)
- PO Box line
- Recipient name
Correct answer: Suburb, state abbreviation, and postcode on one line
Australian addresses place the suburb (city), state abbreviation, and 4-digit postcode together on one line immediately before the country line.
Question 7: When coding a mailpiece destined for Japan, which direction does the Japanese address hierarchy flow compared to US addresses?
- Same direction: smallest to largest unit
- Opposite direction: largest to smallest unit (prefecture first) (Correct answer)
- No consistent hierarchy exists in Japanese addressing
- Japanese addresses always omit prefecture information
Correct answer: Opposite direction: largest to smallest unit (prefecture first)
Japanese addresses flow from largest to smallest geographic unit (prefecture, city, district, block, building), which is the opposite of US address hierarchy.
CASS International Address Standards 2
Which international organization publishes the S42 standard for postal address components?