Address Standardization for Shipping & Logistics

Carriers validate addresses against their own strict formatting rules. An address that’s perfectly understandable to a human but inconsistently formatted can be rejected at label generation or misrouted in transit.

The problem

Customers type addresses however they like — "Apt 4B", "Unit 4B", "#4B" are all the same unit, but only one of those might match a carrier’s expected format. Multiply that across every field and every country, and failed or delayed deliveries follow.

How address standardisation helps

Standardising splits the address into the discrete fields carriers expect — house number, street, unit, city, postcode — while providing canonical expansions where thoroughfare and unit abbreviations are fully resolved ("apt" → "apartment"). This enables carrier-ready label formatting and eliminates delivery exceptions.

Example

POST /v1/address/normalize

curl -X POST "https://api.goodvat.com/v1/address/normalize" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOODVAT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "query": "221b baker street apt 4b london nw1 6xe uk" }'

200 OK

{
  "houseNumber": "221b",
  "road": "baker street",
  "unit": "apt 4b",
  "postcode": "nw1 6xe",
  "city": "london",
  "country": "GBR",
  "expansions": [
    "221b baker street apartment 4b london nw1 6xe uk",
    "221b baker street apartment 4b london nw1 6xe united kingdom"
  ]
}

Key response fields

Field	Why it matters here
expansions	Canonical expanded strings used for carrier API payloads and address-verification validation gates.
houseNumber / road	Core street address line carriers require.
unit	Isolated so it can be placed on its own label line per carrier convention.
postcode	Drives carrier routing and delivery-zone sorting.
country	Determines which carrier and national format rules apply.