The USPS knows every mailbox in America. DSF2 lets your data know it too.

An address can be perfectly valid and still be a waste of postage. A summer cottage in January. A dorm mailbox in July. A business address receiving an offer meant for someone's kitchen table. Standard address validation can't see any of that — every one of those addresses is real and deliverable.

Deliverable isn't the same as worth mailing

The USPS® maintains detailed information about every delivery point it serves — not just whether an address exists, but what kind of place it is and how mail arrives there. DSF2® is the licensed USPS product that makes that knowledge available for your data. Peachtree Data is a USPS DSF2 licensee, so your addresses are checked against the Postal Service's own delivery file.

What DSF2 tells you about each address

Each record comes back described: business or residential. Seasonally occupied — the snowbirds who are only home half the year. Educational institutions, where the residents turn over every spring. Vacant or occupied — a simple yes/no reported by the letter carrier who actually walks the route. Even the mail receptacle type: curbside box, door slot, or cluster box.

That detail changes decisions. You might drop seasonal addresses from a time-sensitive offer, split business addresses into a separate campaign, or skip student housing in summer. Less undeliverable and unread mail, more of your budget landing where it can work.

The walk sequence discount most mailers miss

DSF2 appends something else to every record: a pseudo walk sequence number that puts your mailing in the exact order the carrier walks the route. That ordering is worth real money. DSF2 processing is one of the methods the USPS Domestic Mail Manual approves for walk-sequencing a mailing — and walk sequence is what unlocks the deepest per-piece rates the Postal Service offers for mail concentrated in an area:

• High Density — at least 125 pieces going to a single carrier route (300 or more qualifies for High Density Plus).
• Saturation — pieces addressed to at least 90% of a route's active residential addresses, or 75% of its total active deliveries.

If your mailings cluster geographically — a neighborhood retailer, a regional campaign, a saturation drop around new store locations — the pseudo walk sequence number on your DSF2 output is the difference between paying standard rates and qualifying for those discounts. We'll tell you honestly whether your data is concentrated enough to qualify before you count on the savings.

What you get back

Your data returns with each address flagged — every attribute documented on the record, so the intelligence stays with your master data instead of evaporating after one mailing. That's how we work on everything: every improvement comes back to you, documented.

A note on pairing

DSF2 needs only an address; names are optional. But if your data has names, we'll usually recommend running NCOALink® in the same pass — it catches the people who moved while DSF2 describes where the mail is going. Start with a conversation and we'll tell you whether you need one, both, or neither.

How it works

1. 1

   Start with a conversation

   Tell us what you mail and to whom. DSF2 only needs addresses — names are optional — so it works even on data other services can't touch. We'll tell you whether it's the right fit before you send anything.

2. 2

   We match your addresses against the USPS delivery file

   As a USPS DSF2 licensee, we check each address against the Postal Service's delivery data and pull back what it knows about that delivery point.

3. 3

   Each address comes back described, documented

   Business or residential, seasonal, educational institution, vacant or occupied, and the mail receptacle type — curbside, door slot, or cluster box — flagged on every record, plus a pseudo walk sequence number that puts your mailing in the carrier's walking order.

4. 4

   Pair it with NCOALink if you have names

   When your data includes names, we recommend running NCOALink® alongside DSF2 — the moves get caught and the delivery points get described in the same pass.