The Complete Ma State Abbreviation Guide: Official Usage, Capital, and Rules

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Postal automation demands strict adherence to USPS Publication 28 address formatting guidelines. Processing facilities run high-speed sorting machines that photograph mail covers, interpret recipient lines, and route envelopes to regional transport trucks within milliseconds. Human intervention occurs only when optical character readers cannot decipher the address block.

To meet automated postal standards for mail destined for Massachusetts, format the destination line using capitalized text without terminal punctuation. Position the two-letter state code between the city name and the ZIP code, separated by standard spacing:

JOHN DOE
100 CAMBRIDGE ST FL 12
BOSTON MA 02114-2501

A critical detail distinguishes Massachusetts from most American regions: its ZIP codes begin with a leading zero. Massachusetts ZIP codes fall primarily between 01001 and 02791. Software systems that treat postal codes as raw integers often strip this leading zero, converting "02138" into "2138". This automated data truncation breaks address validation software and reroutes tracking numbers into administrative error queues. Always format the postal field as a text string to preserve the five-digit or ZIP+4 nine-digit structure.