Address Requirements bpost (Belgium)
Letters sent to Belgium, once printed, are forwarded to bpost for delivery. From this point onwards, further responsibility lies with bpost. To ensure that your letters can be processed smoothly and for the agreed prices by bpost, it is important that the recipient addresses comply with specific requirements.
In this article, we have summarised the most important address requirements of bpost for you.
In order to provide our customers with the best possible support in complying with these requirements, Pingen checks the recipient address for additional requirements for letters to Belgium since September 1st 2024. Learn more about the address checks of Pingen
If there are problems processing the recipient's address, bpost may reject the letter or only deliver it for a surcharge. In such cases, no reimbursement will be made correct addressing is the sender’s responsibility and the costs cover the additional processing effort. To ensure that the address meets the postal address requirements, we recommend sending a test letter via Pingen and verifying successful delivery. In this way, potential problems can be recognised and rectified at an early stage to ensure smooth delivery.
Address Requirements bpost:
Address Positioning
To make the recipient's address clearly legible in the envelope window, the address must be placed within the address area. The following dimensions must be observed:
- Distance from the edge: 22 mm from the left (x), 60 mm from the top (y)
- Address Area Size: 85.5 mm x 25.5 mm
Address Structure
To ensure that the recipient's address can be processed by bpost, the following order must be respected:
- Salutation (optional), recipient name
- Further recipient designations (optional)
- Company name (optional)
- Street and house number with box number (optional) or PO box and PO box number in one line in this order. Additional information such as building, entrance, floor and other details must be provided on the address line above.
- 4-digit postcode and city in one line in this order, without a comma separation between postcode and city. Additional information about the destination country (country code or ISO code) must be omitted.
The following link allows you to check addresses directly by bpost and output them in the correct format: www.bpost.be/en/addressing-address-validation-tool
Usually accepted by bpost:
Usually not accepted by bpost:
Fonts
bpost defines specific information regarding font formatting:
Font Size (Height of verse)
Minimum: 10 pt
Maximum: 17 pt
Recommended font size: 10 pt to 12 pt in "regular" (normal) font style
Character spacing
End of a character to the beginning of the next character:
Minimum: 0.35 mm
Maximum: 2.0 mm
Word spacing
The space between blocks of digits and words:
Maximum: 2.0 mm
Usually one space
Font & color
For the recipient's address to be properly read, a clear font with an easily readable font size is mandatory.
- Recommended fonts: Arial, Helvetica or Verdana
- Uniform font
- Font colour: Black
- No italics or decorative fonts
- No serif fonts
- No negative or bold fonts
- No fonts with connected letters
- No 3D or shaded fonts
Usually not accepted by bpost:
Further details on the design:
bpost specifies further requirements for address design:
- At least three, maximum seven address lines
- The address must be left-aligned
- Address must be consistently in the same language
- No special characters such as inverted commas, brackets, exclamation and question marks or ‘/’, ‘#’, ‘&’, ‘§’, ‘n°’, ‘nr’, etc.)
- No lines, underlining or framing in the address
- No blank lines between the address lines
- Neither postcode nor city must be underlined or blocked out.
- Use of Latin characters and Arabic numerals only.
Usually not accepted by bpost:
Detailed documentation of the requirements by bpost can be found here:
Address verification by Pingen (since September 1st 2024)
To help you meet the requirements of bpost, Pingen will check the recipient address for compliance with additional requirements from September 1st 2024 for letters to Belgium.
If Pingen detects that a document does not comply with the address requirements, it will receive the status "Action required" after upload. The "cover page feature" enables you to correct the recipient's address directly via Pingen. This feature automatically adds a new page in front of the document. This allows the address to be re-entered in compliance with the address requirements and placed on the cover page accordingly.
The following requirements will be reviewed in Pingen from September 01, 2024:
Prohibited content in the postcode line
In the address line with the postcode and the city, the postcode must appear before the city. In addition, there must be no characters (such as a comma or hyphen) between the postcode and the city. Both pieces of information must be separated by a space. Pingen checks whether the order is correct and whether there is a space after the postcode.
In addition, country designations before the postcode such as B- or B should be avoided, as these are no longer accepted by the Post.
Please make sure that the line with the postcode only contains the postcode and the city and that they are separated by a space. For example, 9050 Gent (and not “9050, Gent” or “BE-9050 Gent” or “B9050 Gent” or “Gent 9050”).
Postcode does not have 4 digits
In Belgium, postcodes that are not 4-digit are considered invalid. If a recipient address has a postcode with fewer or more than 4 digits, it will be rejected by Pingen. Pingen checks whether the last or second-last address line contains a 4-digit postcode.
Please make sure that the zip code is a continuous 4-digit number. For example, 9050 Ghent (and not "905 Ghent" or "9 050 Ghent" or "9'050 Ghent").
In case the letter shall not be sent to Belgium, please ensure that only the recipient country is indicated on the last address line in one of the supported spellings.
Country designation on the last address line
bpost specifies that the country should be the sole content of the last address line. For this reason, Pingen checks whether there is a country designation (such as “Belgium” or “België” or “Belgien” or “Belgique” or “Austria”).
Please make sure that the country name is on the last address line and that the address line with the postcode does not have a country name. For example, 9050 Gent (and not “9050 Gent Belgium“ or “9050 Gent, België” or “1000 Wien, Austria”).
Invalid Address Structure (Soon)
When sending letters to Belgium, it is mandatory to include a recipient name in the address. Furthermore, no empty lines (or lines without content) are allowed between the different address lines. In addition, the address line with the street name/house number or P.O. Box must be followed by the address line with the postcode/city. In addition, neither the address line with the street name/house number nor the address line with the postcode/city may be split over multiple address lines.
Please ensure that the address contains a recipient and no blank lines between the address lines, that the address line with the street name or P.O. box is followed by the address line with the postcode/city and that both the address line with the street name and the address line with the postcode/city are shortened so that they each fit on one address line.
Important:
For technical reasons, Pingen cannot carry out a complete verification of the requirements by bpost. The address check by Pingen serves solely to help identify various problems before sending the letter. However, it is the sender's responsibility to ensure that letters sent to Belgium via Pingen comply with bpost regulations. Any additional expenses due to incorrect addressing will be charged by Pingen.
Note: The illustrations in this article are not to scale.
