{"id":6519,"date":"2015-06-26T10:11:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T10:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique\/"},"modified":"2015-06-26T10:13:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T10:13:08","slug":"postal-numeric-encoding-technique","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet","title":{"rendered":"Postal Numeric Encoding Technique"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_postal_numeric_encoding_technique_mean\">What Does Postal Numeric Encoding Technique Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The Postal Numeric Encoding Technique (POSTNET) is a bar code method used by the United States Postal Service to assist in properly routing mail. In POSTNET, the ZIP code is formatted as a bar code, with each digit represented by five bars. The POSTNET codes always start and end with full bars.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_postal_numeric_encoding_technique\">Techopedia Explains Postal Numeric Encoding Technique<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The Postal Numeric Encoding Technique encodes the ZIP code and destination address in a bar code format on postal mail. Techniques like error detection and correction are used in this system. Each digit consists of a set for five bars, two of which are full bars and three are half bars. Full bars represent &#8220;on&#8221; bits while half bars represent the &#8220;off&#8221; bits on the pseudo-binary code. Bar codes come in 5-digit (32-bar), 6-digit (37-bar), 9-digit (52-bar) or 11-digit (62-bar) formats.\n<\/p>\n<p>POSTNET is largely being replaced by Intelligent Mail bar code which began implementation in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Postal Numeric Encoding Technique Mean? The Postal Numeric Encoding Technique (POSTNET) is a bar code method used by the United States Postal Service to assist in properly routing mail. In POSTNET, the ZIP code is formatted as a bar code, with each digit represented by five bars. The POSTNET codes always start and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[223],"class_list":["post-6519","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-storage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is the Postal Numeric Encoding Technique (POSTNET)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Postal Numeric Encoding Technique and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Postal Numeric Encoding Technique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Postal Numeric Encoding Technique and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-26T10:13:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Postal Numeric Encoding Technique\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-26T10:11:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-26T10:13:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet\"},\"wordCount\":164,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12147\/postal-numeric-encoding-technique-postnet\",\"name\":\"What is the Postal Numeric Encoding Technique (POSTNET)? 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