subject: Courier Software: Address Verification [print this page] Courier software is a very comprehensive type of program. Because it touches on so many different elements within a single company, the list of features that a courier program offers can be overwhelming. If you are in the market for new courier dispatch software though, one feature that you want to be able to offer your customers is that of Address Verification.
Address verification is a great feature to look for in your courier software, because it is going to make the client happier, and it is going to save the courier company some time and frustration. Whenever someone places a request for a shipment online, the address is going to be run through the courier software. Additionally, in most cases when a person puts in an order over the phone, the address will be entered into the same software, just by a dispatch worker instead of by the customer. This ensures that every address that is being shipped to is going to be subjected to the address verification feature.
After this address is checked in the software, you will know whether or not it is a valid US address. There are so many ways that a mistake can be made when writing down or typing an address for a shipping label. Some of these types of mistakes will results in a real address, albeit a wrong one, being the one listed on the shipping label. In many other cases though, such a mistake will result in an address which is not valid, due to a conflict of some kind between the street number and zip code for example. This software can catch such errors before a package ever moves.
If a package is shipped with an incorrect address without this feature, there is a good chance that a courier driver is going to try to deliver the package to an address that doesn't actually exist. When this happens, you have several problems at once. The courier company is wasting time on a delivery that will never be completed. Because of the incorrect address they are going to have to charge the client company a penalty fee. Finally, the client company's customer is going to be unhappy when they don't receive their package on time. Incorrect addresses mean that everybody loses. This can be prevented whenever the address isn't a real address if the courier company that you do business with has address verification in place.
