The Irish Post Office Has a Plan To Tell One Murphy From Another
online.wsj.com
online.wsj.com
I want to first off say that while on paper US Zip codes are more precise than UK Post Codes, the reality is often very different. The majority of people write their zip code without the "+4" which only gives you a city block, or roughly the same precision as a UK Post Code.
Secondly, I feel like Ireland missed an opportunity here. If they are only adding zip codes now then, yes, going with a US-style system (with the +4) is the correct decision. However why not invent a "person delivery code" rather than a "location delivery code" system?
I know, I know, crazy. But imagine this: Each address is assigned a unique code (e.g. starting with 0-9) and each person is also assigned a unique code (e.g. starting with A-Z) which is this mapped to a address when a letter is routed.
When someone moves house they give the post man a card, which says "Bob Smith (A123456) has moved from 87654 to 838449, please forward my mail indefinitely to that address."
That way when you move house your mail automatically follows you.
PS - I am suggesting that the "people codes" be an add on, so traditional "send to address" mail methods would work (e.g. sending "remember to vote" to every house on a street, rather than every individual would still work).
PPS - Calculating shipping would be no harder than today, just select your city and enter your "person code" or zip-code/house number.
1. No more annoying and temporary change-of-address forms. We just moved, and our mail will be forwarded for 30 days. After that, well, I guess we better become friends with the people who live in our old apartment in case we forget to update an address.
2. Privacy! I can give out a way to mail me something without telling people where I physically live. This is not a big deal for me, but could be a big deal for 'famous' people and victims of domestic violence.
Person codes would allow to-your-door delivery without compromising privacy.
USPS forwards mail for 12 months, not 30 days (the exception being magazines - you get 60 days for them)
Looks like I'm right.
https://moversguide.usps.com/icoa/mailforwarding/change-of-a...
>First-Class Mail®, Priority Mail®, and Express Mail®: All forwarded for 12 months at no charge.
This proposal, which isn't going to replace the geographical based system, ends up greatly increasing the number of issues, for seemingly little gain. Each objection, and proposed solution, is an example of why there are issues.
I mean if someone has two addresses which one do you deliver to? Right now they manually decide, in this "system" they would just set up their default person routing to either one.
Homeless people would likely get a code, but realistically delivering to them might be difficult with no fixed address. But that is also true today. In both systems they could get a PO Box.
I guess, it won't solve either scenario any better than the current system, but it doesn't make the situation worse either...
As for businesses, there's no reason a business entity couldn't get a code and set the routing however they wished. Just treat them like "individuals."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identification_number_... "The number is an integral part of Danish society, and it is virtually impossible to receive any form of government service without one. Even in the private sector one would be hard pressed to receive services without such a number, unless it is minor daily business."
Just checking but a UK post code is roughly 17 delivery addresses. Sometimes more, but not hugely so. There are 22 million delivery addresses and 1.8 million postcodes.
How many addresses are covered by the 5 and 5+4 zip codes?
Of course this doesn't account for business addresses or multi-unit buildings, but 2-3000 addresses seems to be a reasonable estimate.
Addendum: I got throttled but I wanted to comment on the "everyone has an iPhone with GPS" idea.
I think "we" need to step out of the tech bubble for a little bit. The GPS alternative assumes that everyone has a cell phone. This is problematic as it is but it also assumes that the cell phone will never damaged in the emergency, always charged, it is not on the second floor of your house that is on fire, never travels within urban canyons or inside buildings that interfere with signal reception, uses an address format that everyone is familiar with and is easy to read/speak unambiguously, etc.
Your phone probably knows what your lat/long are, but can you quickly look it up in a high-pressure situation? Probably not. And emergency call systems such as 911 don't get that information either. Maybe they will in ten or twenty years, but they don't now.
If easy reliable access to that information is really the main barrier, it does suggest an alternative.
This works well for things like traffic accidents, where the caller may not know exactly where they are, but if you know the rough location, they're pretty easy to find (just look for the smashed up cars...).
It is a _lot_ less useful for a caller inside a house. We occasionally get dispatched to a geolocated address when a baby-sitter or some other visitor who doesn't know the house number calls from their cell phone. Unfortunately, even with the best accuracy available, it's still anybody's guess which house they are actually in (even in a suburban area, there can be several residences within the geolocation radius).
If they can get outside to flag us down, great. If not, it's a lot of knocking on doors until you find the right place...
Of course, it helps with GPS too.
When I drove around ireland in 2009, I used a trusty paper map + the car had a GPS which sort of worked.
The article mentions Dublin having codes starting with D1..D24. Will addresses near Limerick start with L?
The proposed system is tremendously confusing though and I've no idea of the structure behind it (there is one though):
Not very charming or easy to remember, but that sounds pretty convenient as far as filling out the form goes.
Kind of like sending mail to your license plate.
(I'm surprised that Google or Apple hasn't come up with an auto-parser for pasting in a contact's postal address and have it automatically segmented into street, city, zip.)
There is some standardization of addresses but even those formats can be troublesome.
once you have a system in place, something like google maps can connect the dots (literally).
I grew up in Ireland and always found the lack of postcodes to be puzzling, with the address of a house often being no more specific than "go back the road there about two mile and hang left".
The government is supporting a new closed monopoly service! Congratulations "Capita Business Support Services Ireland".