MISSION
Lifetime
Addressing, Inc. was formed
in 1998 to promote adoption of lifetime
postal addresses for mail recipients.
Background
Lifetime telephone numbers and e-mail addresses already exist and provide people with permanent communication links to others.
Permanent deliverability of messages, along with cell phones, forwarding and the ability to convert data into other electronic formats, enable individuals to receive their messages anytime/anywhere - the modern paradigm in communication.
The concept of permanent deliverability is applicable to postal service as well.
Mailers have traditionally used physical addresses so that the postal carrier will know where to deliver the mail. However, modern information technology has transformed this tradition into an old paradigm in addressing.
Mail forwarding is an element of the old paradigm. Mail is presently forwarded for one year. It becomes "undeliverable as addressed" thereafter.
Processing undeliverable as addressed mail costs the U.S. Postal Service over $1.5 billion annually. Such costs unnecessarily inflate postal rates and are dwarfed by the costs and lost revenue incurred by mailers.
Although physical mail will always be delivered physically, the delivery instructions can be stored electronically and networked among postal facilities in order to provide permanent deliverability wherever the recipient wants to receive mail.
The "address" on a piece of mail
identifies its physical destination.
`
The "address" on a piece of mail identifies the recipient.
The destination is determined from a database of delivery instructions provided by the recipient.
