Address verification relies mainly on mail recipient

Question: In Thursday’s Kokua Line column (808ne.ws/816kline) regarding licenses and ID cards, it said the post office “returns all undeliverable envelopes where the named individual and the address provided are not verified in their system.” How does the post office verify who lives at the address? I know a woman who rents out two of her bedrooms as her adult children have moved out. How does the post office know that the renters are legitimate occupants of that address?

Answer: “We only know as much information as is provided to us by our customers. If the mail is correctly addressed to the woman’s home, it will be delivered, regardless of the addressee names. Unless we are notified by the woman that the addressees do not live there, we would deliver the mail as addressed,” said Duke Gonzales, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Honolulu.

As reported, hundreds of Hawaii driver’s licenses or state ID cards are returned to the city every month as undeliverable by the Postal Service. The city says anyone who has not received their permanent license or ID after six weeks should call 768-9128 to follow up. (And, to answer another reader’s question, yes, that is the correct phone number, but the voicemail does fill up. If you are unable to leave a message, call back the next morning.)

Gonzales explains the mailing process:

“When senders — in this case, the city — request return service, we return any mail piece that is considered undeliverable. There are many reasons that a mail piece would be undeliverable, including: incomplete, illegible or incorrect address; addressee not at address (moved to a new address); missing postage, unclaimed mail, etc.”

As for verifying who lives at a specific address, “We only know as much information as is provided to us by our customers. That information is used by our automated processing machines to route mail to its intended destinations and by our carriers to actually deliver the mail that they receive from our mail processing facility. This is why it is essential for customers to use their correct and complete mailing addresses at all times and to notify us whenever there are any changes to their address, via a change of address order. We don’t know that a customer has moved on to a new address unless the customer notifies us of this change.

“Keep in mind that, if a customer moves between the time they apply for a driver’s license and the time it is mailed out, the license would be returned if the city sent the license to a customer’s previous address, due to the city’s return service request. This service prevents us from forwarding mail to an address other than what is listed on the mail piece.

“The bottom line in this situation is that far more than 90 percent of all driver’s licenses are being correctly delivered to Honolulu residents. Per the city’s request, we are returning all licenses that are undeliverable. There is no one specific reason that the licenses are undeliverable. The best way for a customer to ensure that they receive their driver’s license is to use their complete and correct mailing address when applying for/renewing their license.”

Mahalo

Thanks to Lane S. for returning my Kindle to the airport TSA after I misplaced it July 18. I wanted to thank you in person, but since I am not able to, I hope you see this. I wish there were more honest people like you. Bless you! Mahalo! — R.L.

Mahalo

My wife and I would like to thank the person who paid for our lunch at Hannara Restaurant in Waianae. We were so grateful and surprised …. Next time, please join us. We would sure like to enjoy your company. Mahalo! — A reader

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.