National Postcodes to be introduced

Trouwe Ier

V94 is massive alright. It was listed for addresses in Abbeyfeale, Glin, Limerick City, Doon South Clare, North Tipperary and even a bit of South-east Galway bordering Lough Derg.

I reckon at least 1300 square miles and way more than 80,000 addresses.

Did it need to be that big?

With 139 areas to define, I reckoned that Limerick City and County would have about seven or eight routing keys.

Kilmallock and surrounds however, are V35

Kilbehenny is P67.

thierry14

When will they work with Google maps or anything similar?

seamus

The issue with people posting their own code is a non-issue really.

People are morons. There's a twitter account devoted solely to retweeting people who post pictures of their debit cards.

https://twitter.com/needadebitcard

The eircode just makes it easier for idiots to idiot. It doesn't make things easier for criminals.

plodder

thierry14 wrote: »

When will they work with Google maps or anything similar?

That's the $64,000 question. I must say I'm quite surprised that they haven't lined up some app vendors (if not google) to show something off on the launch day.

If they can't show something or have some story ready, then Joe Public can do nothing with them, and many will just throw them in the bin.

SpaceTime

You'd be surprised how stupid some people are though! Sometimes you have to actually explain the dangers...

Fire - hot!

Yuri Checkov

Just checked my code on the map. Grand. Problem is my neighbours have the exact same postal addresses. On the map you can get the codes for each house.

When postie goes to deliver each eircode letter how is he going to know which code is for which house?

plodder

@getlosteircodes has gone into overdrive

and I see the owner of D11CK74 has just tweeted. I wonder will codes like that enhance or reduce your house value.

Yggr of Asgard

Yuri Checkov wrote: »

Just checked my code on the map. Grand. Problem is my neighbours have the exact same postal addresses. On the map you can get the codes for each house.

When postie goes to deliver each eircode letter how is he going to know which code is for which house?

Simple:

Posties don't use Eircode!

Trouwe Ier

UTV are running with this:

http://utv.ie/News/2015/07/13/Shannon-Airport-assigned-wrong-county-in-Eircode-launch-40920

"SHANNON AIRPORT
SHANNON
LIMERICK"

If I wanted to nit pick, I could say that the descriptor does not state "Co." and that all Shannon post is routed through Limerick.

Eircode is being blamed however as it is for the fate of the 50,000 inaccurate names.

The Gaeiligeoirí have mounted a picket too.

MrMorooka

For the Georgian office building where I work, there are two postcodes, one for an apartment in the building, and one used for two of the businesses here, but not the other one that is here. Is it normal to have two postcodes for the same address?(ultimately all post would be going into the same postbox here).

MrMorooka

plodder wrote: »

That's the $64,000 question. I must say I'm quite surprised that they haven't lined up some app vendors (if not google) to show something off on the launch day.

If they can't show something or have some story ready, then Joe Public can do nothing with them, and many will just throw them in the bin.

I assume any developer looking to use this system would have to pay for access to Geodirectory? That will put off a lot of the single-man app developers and only really allow companies to do it.

Niemoj

Where I live is disputed territory, ie it's in Carlow or Laois depending on who you talk to, I say Carlow as although it's across the county border it very much is still apart of Carlow, I could write either Carlow or Laois and my post would still get to me but I'm happy that Eircode recognises my address in the county it's in, Carlow. R93 XXXX.

Most of the addresses I've tried work fine.

The likes of Shannon Airport though, that'll be interesting to see the outcome there.

TheChizler

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Simple:

Posties don't use Eircode!

The issue is how do they get it to the correct house with the exact same address though. A postman on here before was saying they'd get a description of the house from the sorting office or something like that.

Niemoj

TheChizler wrote: »

The issue is how do they get it to the correct house with the exact same address though. A postman on here before was saying they'd get a description of the house from the sorting office or something like that.

I know where my Nannys lives (back arse of nowhere) she shares her address with a few other hours in the area and the postman just knows which house to deliver what to by knowing the person.

When I try find am Eircode to match her address it comes up with a list of house names I've never heard of before!

TheChizler

Niemoj wrote: »

I know where my Nannys lives (back arse of nowhere) she shares her address with a few other hours in the area and the postman just knows which house to deliver what to by knowing the person.

When I try find am Eircode to match her address it comes up with a list of house names I've never heard of before!

The eircode letters don't have people's names on them, that's the problem. Not all houses will have names either.

MrMorooka

So, looking at what a developer might need to do something with the data - https://www.eircode.ie/images/Licencing-and-PricingInformation-as-of-March2015-PUBLISHED%20v.2.pdf

Say you just want the ECAF, which maps Eircodes to postal addresses. Say you are building an app, you will want the 'Use on Website' license- that's €3000 once off for the current data set, plus 3 more quarterly updates.. Plus €1000 'Data Access fees' annually.

Yikes.

Niemoj

TheChizler wrote: »

The eircode letters don't have people's names on them, that's the problem. Not all houses will have names either.

So basically nothing has changed.

If you live in the sticks just hope your postman is local!

ED E

Pissing

Away

Money

plodder

MrMorooka wrote: »

So, looking at what a developer might need to do something with the data - https://www.eircode.ie/images/Licencing-and-PricingInformation-as-of-March2015-PUBLISHED%20v.2.pdf

Say you just want the ECAF, which maps Eircodes to postal addresses. Say you are building an app, you will want the 'Use on Website' license- that's €3000 once off for the current data set, plus 3 more quarterly updates.. Plus €1000 'Data Access fees' annually.

Yikes.

You can go through a reseller also. There are companies offering web APIs which means your app would access the reseller each time a lookup is done.

TheChizler

Niemoj wrote: »

So basically nothing has changed.

If you live in the sticks just hope your postman is local!

Well once they get the letter it will be great for them as they will for the first time have an unique identifier, the problem is getting it to them in the first place! But even if the eircode letter doesn't get there, government letters will have both names and codes on them so they'll get it in the end, if they haven't got it online by then.

MrMorooka

plodder wrote: »

You can go through a reseller also. There are companies offering web APIs which means your app would access the reseller each time a lookup is done.

True, I guess I was laying out the cost of setting up a reseller service like that.

Also, does anything stop someone buying the database once a year and just sharing it in a torrent or something?

ukoda

MrMorooka wrote: »

Also, does anything stop someone buying the database once a year and just sharing it in a torrent or something?

Just the law

TheChizler

MrMorooka wrote: »

True, I guess I was laying out the cost of setting up a reseller service like that.

Also, does anything stop someone buying the database once a year and just sharing it in a torrent or something?

Would you be likely to give away something you paid thousands for for free? Larger businesses aren't likely to use bootlegged copies either. There'll be a few that will, but they'll be in the minority as far as revenue is concerned.

Stinicker

How likely is this new Eircode system to be integrated into SatNav systems? I have a Garmin myself and find it very useful with the UK postcodes, albeit they are not as accurate as this new Eircode system, in the UK if I am going to a strange place they will only bring me to the general vicinity whereas Eircode should in theory get me exactly to the house or premises in question.

MrMorooka

TheChizler wrote: »

Would you be likely to give away something you paid thousands for for free? Larger businesses aren't likely to use bootlegged copies either. There'll be a few that will, but they'll be in the minority as far as revenue is concerned.

Thinking maybe a group of developers might get together and buy it, cheaper than them all buying individually.

Having said that, I believe it's only the ECAF you can buy as a standalone database? Since all the pricing for ECAD(the actually useful one with lat/lon) seems to be per transaction with monthly billing, so that has to be all via an API, right?

Also, there is a nebulous €2500 fee if you want to put an eircode in an existing database, wtf?

bk

SpaceTime wrote: »

You'd be surprised how stupid some people are though! Sometimes you have to actually explain the dangers...

Exactly, for instance today my housemate posted my Eircode on a whatsapp group of friends of ours! The group included two friends who live in apartments in the same building. He thought the code applied to the entire building and he was trying to be helpful and tell the other two people what their code now is!

I had to tell him it applied to our apartment specifically and thus it was different for the other two people.

And he is a very smart guy, works in IT, a geek, etc. But he made a genuine mistake because he thought the code was like the British Postcode, a general code.

I'm sure many other people will make this same mistake in posting their codes, thinking they are general area codes like the UK and US systems.

So it is important for those of us who know better and to point out the dangers of posting your full address details online.

radia

Yuri Checkov wrote: »

Just checked my code on the map. Grand. Problem is my neighbours have the exact same postal addresses. On the map you can get the codes for each house.

When postie goes to deliver each eircode letter how is he going to know which code is for which house?

I'd be more worried about the cases where they've INCLUDED the resident's name on the system. Let's say you want to find a house to burgle that's just occupied by a woman. Chances greatly increased when the woman's name is in the address line.
Or someone says on twitter they're off on holiday and you'd like a nice map to their house to visit while they're away.
Well here you go.
You'd think for €27 million that someone could have checked the database to make sure they removed the names.

MrMorooka

bk wrote: »

He thought the code applied to the entire building and he was trying to be helpful and tell the other two people what their code now is!

I had to tell him it applied to our apartment specifically and thus it was different for the other two people.

But that's the thing, I live in a converted house, 4 flats, and we all seem to have the same postcode(the finder doesn't seem to recognise there being flats here, even though we have separate ESB meters and things). Had a look at the map and it's the same for all the flats in and around Rathmines, and some apartment buildings. So it's not consistent.

bk

I wonder could we see some sort of crowd sourced website emerge where people enter their Eircode, address and their longitude and latitude to create an open source database of this information?

Honestly, it is ridiculous that this information has to be licensed after our tax payers money has already paid for it's development!!

BailMeOut

ED E wrote: »

Pissing

Away

Money

eh no. This will spur on a big industry of online commerce in Ireland and the economic benefit will far exceed the any setup costs. Ireland is in the dark ages when it comes to online shopping and delivery and couriers not being able to find delivery addresses is the main reason for this. I certainly avoid online deliveries as I have to spend 30 minutes on the phone with the drivers giving turn by turn directions every time.

bring it on - this is a very good development for this nation.