Canadian Postal Products V2016.09 Product Guide
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Canadian Postal ® Products Guide (Census 2011 Geography) Product Guide Canadian Postal Products 1 Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the vendor or its representatives. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written permission of Pitney Bowes Software, 26 Wellington Street East, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1S2. ©2000-2016 Pitney Bowes Software. All rights reserved. © 2006-2016 TomTom. All rights reserved. This material is proprietary and the subject of copyright protection, database right protection and other intellectual property rights owned by TomTom or its suppliers. The use of this material is subject to the terms of a license agreement. Any unauthorized copying or disclosure of this material will lead to criminal and civil liabilities. Adobe Acrobat® is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States. All other products named herein may be trademarks of their respective manufacturers and are hereby recognized. Trademarked names are used editorially, to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intent to infringe on the trademark. Disclaimer The postal code records, six-digit postal code points, and FSA boundaries/points furnished by Pitney Bowes Software, are accepted for use by the recipient on the understanding that Pitney Bowes Software makes no warranties, expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability or suitability of this information or the supporting data. Pitney Bowes Software shall be under no liability whatsoever resulting from the use of this information. The postal records, points and boundaries contained within the above mentioned files should not be relied upon as the sole basis for solving a problem in situations where an incorrect decision may result in injury to persons or damage to property. Further Information Corporate Headquarters Pitney Bowes Software, One Global View, Troy, New York 12180. Voice: (518) 285-6000 Sales Info Hotline: (800) 327-8627 Technical Support Hotline: (518) 285-7283 Technical Support E-mail: [email protected] www.pb.com/software Canadian Postal Products 2 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Overview of CanadianPost al Products ......................................................... 4 Introduction to Canadian Postal Codes ...................................................................... 6 Canada Postal Points File .......................................................................................... 6 Six-Digit Postal Code Points ...................................................................................... 7 Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points...................................................... 7 Installation .................................................................................................................. 8 Sources of Information ............................................................................................... 8 Updates ..................................................................................................................... 8 Coverage Area and Geographic Area ........................................................................ 8 Coverage Date ........................................................................................................... 8 Datum ........................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2: CanadaPost al Points File ............................................................................... 9 Data Description ...................................................................................................... 10 Postal and Census Linkage ...................................................................................... 10 Caveats .................................................................................................................... 10 General Caveat ........................................................................................................ 10 Chapter 3: Six-Digit Postal Code Points........................................................................ 11 Product Specifications .............................................................................................. 11 Caveats .................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 4: FSA Boundaries/Points ................................................................................ 12 Product Specification ............................................................................................... 12 Caveats .................................................................................................................... 15 Alternate Assignments of Postal Code FSAs To FSA Boundaries ............................ 16 Chapter 5: Using the Boundaries ................................................................................. 17 Locating a Boundary ................................................................................................ 18 Identifying a Boundary ............................................................................................. 19 Labeling a Boundary ................................................................................................ 20 Combining Boundaries ............................................................................................. 21 Canadian Postal Products 3 Chapter 1: Overview of 1 Canadian Postal Products Following a general introduction to Canadian postal codes, this chapter describes the three individual Canadian postal products covered in this guide (Canada Postal Points File, Six-Digit Postal Code Points and Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundaries/Points). The descriptions are followed by the general installation procedure, and all the other information that is common to all three products (for example, sources and coverage). For the current specifications, and any caveats relating to the individual products, refer as appropriate to Chapter 2: Canada Postal Points File, Chapter 3: Six-Digit Postal Code Points, or Chapter 4: FSA Boundaries/Points. Canadian Postal Products 4 Introduction to Canadian Postal Codes A Canadian postal code consists of a string of six alphanumeric characters, in the format AnA nAn (where A is a letter and n is a digit, with a space typically separating the third and fourth characters). An example is K1A 0B1, which is Canada Post's Ottawa headquarters. The first three characters of a postal code are referred to collectively as a Forward Sortation Area (FSA), with the last three characters denoting a Local Delivery Unit (LDU). Pitney Bowes Software’ Six-Digit Postal Code Points file provides the six-character postal codes both with and without the space separator. Please refer to the table variables in accompanying Excel workbook Canada_Postal_Products_variables.xlsx. Canada Postal Points File The Canada Postal Points File is a nationwide point database of every postal code in Canada, created by Pitney Bowes Software. The Canada Postal Points File includes data inputs from TomTom® and Canada Post. The addresses created by TomTom® consist of postal codes and their corresponding address ranges. Addresses are then geocoded using TomTom® MultiNet® North America, Inc. to place the points at street-level accuracy, thereby facilitating the mapping and demographic analysis of customer records. Dissemination Area (DA) codes are assigned to all the geocoded postal codes by Pitney Bowes Software. CAUTION: See Data Description in Chapter 2 for important information regarding DA assignments. The six-character postal codes are linked in the Canada Postal Points File with all levels of the 2011 standard census geography. This is done by establishing a link between the FSALDU and the Dissemination Area (DA). The DA polygon is the lowest level in the census hierarchy, so, once the link to the FSALDU is made, all other census levels can be determined. The address associated with a postal code does not always represent the location of those receiving mail using that postal code. This is particularly the case in rural areas, where rural route service and post office pickup are commonly used to deliver mail (i.e. where Delivery Mode Type (DMT) = “H”). Also, postal codes with a DMT of “K” (group of post office boxes) or “M” (one post office box) are generally linked to the location of a post office on the Canada Postal Points File, as opposed to the physical location of customers who rent a post office box. Pitney Bowes Software further enhances/reassigns postal codes that were Street-coded, block and/or Forward Sortation Area (FSA) centroids. Canadian Postal Products 6 The 2003 Federal Electoral Districts (FED) are also included as a geographic link in the Canada Postal Points File. 2003 FED boundaries are not a standard level of census geography. The FED geography level has been discontinued from Pitney Bowes Software data offerings but remains in the Canada Postal Points file as a legacy field. The Canada Postal Points File is maintained in a geographic projection under North American Datum 1983 (NAD83), using the Canadian National Topographic (CNT) conversion method. Six-Digit Postal Code Points The following four fields are extracted from the Canada Postal Points File referred to above, in order to create