Post Codes
Aug. 8th, 2008 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lostcarparkIn Ireland we've been waiting for a post code system for many years. There really is no excuse for it any more. The lack of one has long caused problems for anyone trying to fill out forms on the web. It also makes it much more difficult to use things like GPS systems here. This problem is compounded by the fact that 40% of addresses in Ireland are not unique.
Another problem affects anyone trying to ship goods in Ireland, as my sister and I found developing the Brenda's Pets web site. We want to offer free shopping to customers within 10 miles of her shop. With a post system, it would be a fairly easy matter to set up a range of postal codes that qualify.
An Post, the incumbent postal service provider, long claimed they don't need one. This is, of course, because they have developed a computerised address finding system that doesn't use post codes, and introducing a system would wipe out their advantage.
After a lot of badgering, An Post came up with a post code system, based on longitude and latitude. The problem with this approach was that it produced rather long codes, and the whole thing was quietly dropped.
So now a private company have produced their own postal code system for Ireland, although I'm not sure about the name they've given them - "PONC Codes".
Another problem affects anyone trying to ship goods in Ireland, as my sister and I found developing the Brenda's Pets web site. We want to offer free shopping to customers within 10 miles of her shop. With a post system, it would be a fairly easy matter to set up a range of postal codes that qualify.
An Post, the incumbent postal service provider, long claimed they don't need one. This is, of course, because they have developed a computerised address finding system that doesn't use post codes, and introducing a system would wipe out their advantage.
After a lot of badgering, An Post came up with a post code system, based on longitude and latitude. The problem with this approach was that it produced rather long codes, and the whole thing was quietly dropped.
So now a private company have produced their own postal code system for Ireland, although I'm not sure about the name they've given them - "PONC Codes".
