According to Canada Post, there are best practices to follow when addressing an envelope. Addressing an envelope incorrectly can delay the delivery process. Also, knowing this information might impact the type of envelopes that your organization purchases.

Addresses

An envelope tends to be rectangular and comes in various sizes. According to Canada Post (n.d.) there is a minimum and maximum size to the length and the height of an envelope.

• Height: between 140mm-245mm or 5 1/2 inches – 9 5/8 inches
• Length 90mm-156mm or 3 1/2 inches – 6 1/8 inches

An envelope has two sections: the destination address and the sender address. The sender address is located at the top left of the envelope, and the destination address is located in the centre of the envelope.

There must be 10mm or 3/8 inches of clearance around the two sides and the bottom of the destination address for machine coding. Machine coding is something the post office needs to do (Post Office, n.d.) to process mail. So, do not write close to the sides or bottom of the envelope. Note that this does not apply to the area around the sender address.

If your envelope includes a graphic, this must be placed to the left of the destination address, being mindful of the area needed for machine coding.

Addressing the Envelope

Canada Post (n.d.) has specific instructions on how a sending address and a destination address should be formatted.

• STREET ADDRESS – uppercase letters.
• POSTAL CODES – uppercase letters and separate the first three characters from the last three characters with one space. Do not include a hyphen between the two sets of characters. Example: K8N 5B9.
• Municipality, province or territory + postal code – on the same line.
  • To write this you must separate the municipality from the province (or territory) with one space.
  • Then separate the province (or territory) from the postal code with two spaces.
  • Do not use commas to separate the information.
  • Example: Belleville ON  K8N 5B9
• Don’t use punctuation unless it is part of a proper name, e.g., ST. JOHN’S.
• Format the return address the same way as the destination address and place it in the top-left corner of the envelope or package (or on the back of the item at the top) (Canada Post, n.d.).

To see examples of how to address envelopes to send in Canada, to the United States, and internationally, please visit the Canada Post website at: Addressing Mail Accurately | Canada Post.

Symbols and Abbreviations

It is important to note that Canada Post (n.d.) also has specific instructions to shorten types of street names such as Avenue (AVE), Boulevard (BLVD), and Crescent (CRES). This also applies to provinces and territories such as Ontario (ON), Yukon (YT), and Prince Edward Island (PI). These two-letter abbreviations are also used to represent the various states in U.S. addresses, California (CA) and Florida (FL).

When sending mail internationally, write the country out in full. Example: United Kingdom instead of UK.

A comprehensive list is available from Canada Post at Addressing Guidelines-Symbols and Abbreviations.

References

Canada Post. (n.d.). Address accuracy. https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/kb/business/address-accuracy/addressing-mail-accurately

Canada Post. (n.d.). Symbols and abbreviations. https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/articles/addressing-guidelines/symbols-and-abbreviations.page?

Attribution

This chapter was created for Effective Business Communication by Lesley Hayman and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 International License.