Eircode system launching soon

5starpool

So, it seems that in the next few weeks we'll all receive our new Eircode which is a postcode but only for your residence. 2.2m codes will be issued so each property will have their own unique code.

Will people stop using normal addresses on letters/cards/bills, etc? You are just meant to tack it onto the bottom of your address, much like a UK postcode, but if it is only for your residence then aside from the name surely every other piece of your address is now redundant essentially? I'm guessing it'll largely be used initially by the sorting machines to route letters to correct areas for delivery, but I wonder how often people will have 1 letter wrong and it's just blindly delivered despite the rest of the address being totally different? At the minute letters being delivered to wrong addresses is hardly unheard of, but I bet this will make it worse.

Hopefully it'll be rolled out correctly and quickly, but I think that's unlikely and we'll see several teething problems. All that being said, it's about time we had a postcode type system, so hopefully it'll work out well.

https://www.eircode.ie/home

ch750536

Stinks of water charges.

smash

I can't wait to receive my confusing and already redundant Eircode which has been based around a code system that other countries wish they'd never adopted or are in the process of redesigning.

Knasher

It isn't redundant for your postman, at least unless they plan on carrying around machines that can read them and give an actual address.

EDIT: I mean the address isn't redundant, in case this sounded like a response to smash's comment.

seamus

In theory you could just write the code and send it and it should get there.

In reality you still have humans delivering it, and humans require at the very least a house number to get it right. The postman might have a handheld device with GPS which tells him he's standing outside the right house. But since GPS is only accurate to within 2m at best, he still needs to know if it goes into number 13 or number 14. The handheld device will probably do that for him, which seems stupid - why is the eircode the be-all and end-all if it still needs to be translated back to house numbers? Why not a code for each street, and you write the house name/number on the address.

The system is moronic anyway. Far too much unnecessary overhead, and created in such a way that it requires continuous manual intervention and maintenance. And not to mention the fact that anyone who wants access to lookup addresses has to pay for it.

There are other systems which have practically zero maintenance overhead and based on open calculations could be used by anyone and everyone for no cost.

lizzyman

Jesus their website is insufferable.

In 2015, Ireland will make a little bit of history by implementing a postcode system called Eircode

smash

seamus wrote: »

But since GPS is only accurate to within 2m at best, he still needs to know if it goes into number 13 or number 14. The handheld device will probably do that for him, which seems stupid - why is the eircode the be-all and end-all if it still needs to be translated back to house numbers? Why not a code for each street, and you write the house name/number on the address.

What's a postman going to do when he hits an apartment block and there's no number stated, just a post code?

thunderdog

I went to an Eircode event, a week or two ago as its something I need to know for my job. Pros and cons to the system from what I can see.

The main selling point is that there is approx 30% of addresses in Ireland (rural) that are non unique. This system will give each address its own code. Our local postmen/women have no problem currently finding these addresses as they have the local knowledge there, but other courier (particularly newer ones) should find this info useful.

OneOfThem

Bollox to that.

Sarah,
Shangri-la Meadows,
Ireland.

It'll get to me.

recyclebin

If this means I don't get a call from every single courier asking for directions then I'm all for it.

I live in the sticks by the way.

Chucken

Will the colour of my front door influence this?

thunderdog

This guy has a link to a draft tech spec of eircode

http://www.ossiansmyth.ie/tag/eircode/

LadyFenghuang

What Wha what's this now? New thing??? No non onononononoooooooooooooooo

They want a pee sample you say ?? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I guard my precious bodily fluids

Yes it is that loopy luna time...

I feel good....

_Kaiser_

I can't see it making a difference TBH.. for local/national post people won't bother including it, and for online out-of-State shopping their ordering systems will get even more confused no doubt considering many don't know how to handle a non-US zip code.

Seems like an expensive waste of time to me - especially as there were existing systems we could have used.

But wait... BearingPoint one of the companies behind this is a former arm of KPMG. Funny how the same names keep cropping up over and over eh....?
Interesting reading and timeline here

The only good thing about Capita being involved is that surely soon they'll manage to do something properly and it'll be this.

syklops

There was something on the news about this a few nights a go and the reporter said "An Post have said the introduction of the eircode, shouldn't cause too many delays".

"Shouldnt cause delays?!?", Surely it should improve delivery and sorting, not cause delays.

This is going to be fun.

Herpes Cineplex

seamus wrote: »

The system is moronic anyway.

Of course we couldn't have expected anything less than that.

Ruu

What if I don't want to be found by public bodies??

Buona Fortuna

Got a letter the other day.

~ No Name
~ Wrong Townland
~ Wrong village
~ Just the cottage name

Arrived the very next day

Beat that with a stick.

Mind you it was just full of advertising $hoite

mikom

Blow it out yer hole, Eircode.
More fur coat and no knickers brought to you by the cunts with clipboards.

The_Valeyard

Never had a problem with the current system, so f*ck it, Ill keep going the way I am.


Edit: Dara O Briain video.....

the groutch

people are forgetting the most important benefit, that it will make places easier to find for emergency services.

AlekSmart

the groutch wrote: »

People are forgetting the most important benefit, that it will make places easier to find for emergency services.

So it may allow for the rationalization of the "wasteful"..."innefficient" smaller local Emergency Service Locations,staffed by...welll....I dunno...locals,who generally know their locality reasonably well,cos they're....well...Local...Yea ?

But this may mean that the outsourced,new efficient super-emergency- service,run from a big shiny new Super-Station in the City will be able to find the same location actually faster on their new Tablet/Laptop or iWatch...but cos they're NOT actually local to the emergency itself it'll take the new lads longer to get there.....you get the drift ?

I'm going to suggest that DENIS O'BRIEN's name will surface here before too much longer....?

mikom

the groutch wrote: »

people are forgetting the most important benefit, that it will make places easier to find for emergency services.

For emergency services read Dominoes pizza.

Junkyard Tom

This is PC gone mad, and big brother, and the nanny state and.. chocolate.... sponge.....

cake?

Capt'n Midnight

the groutch wrote: »

people are forgetting the most important benefit, that it will make places easier to find for emergency services.

Can't they just triangulate on your mobile phone ?

Of course it would be too much to expect that all the utilities and all the local planning depts would provide the emergency services with a list of their records.



In Italy they just use milestones and distances along roads. Now that we've finally put up all those L1013 signs up we could do that too.


An Post use character recognition so they don't even need a "Post" code anymore.

kneemos

AlekSmart wrote: »

S

I'm going to suggest that DENIS O'BRIEN's name will surface here before too much longer....?

Well Irish Water will need a list and location for every house in the country.

Mountainsandh

I don't understand why they seem to have thought that a geographically logical post code was not an option.
Place names being the same, and one off housing in the middle of nowhere do happen in other countries too, like France.

Back in France you have a number for the region, then a number for the nearest village/townland. Then this is completed with the written address. Postmen and delivery men do well with that.

If a really precise location was needed, well then you could use the geographical number + letter sequence.

The geographically meaningful code benefits everyone in the area/region and outside : it's easier to narrow a search for services in an area one is interested in.
Say, if I'm looking for a campsite in France, I always look at the postcode to make sure it's in the area I want.


Ahhh... but then there would be no lists to sell to parcel/courrier companies, right ?

I live in the sticks too, and have never ever had an issue receiving anything, other than courriers who refuse to drive to us because they're trying to save money by getting us to collect parcels elsewhere.

diomed

syklops wrote: »

There was something on the news about this a few nights a go and the reporter said "An Post have said the introduction of the eircode, shouldn't cause too many delays".

"Shouldnt cause delays?!?", Surely it should improve delivery and sorting, not cause delays.

This is going to be fun.

I read that as "An Post will delay post to prove that the Eircodes don't work (because they won't let them work)"

The situation reminds me of the time in the early 1980s when I put our Accounts Payable system on computer. It took me weeks of late nights and it was running perfectly.
One day I overheard a fellow employee taking a phone call from a supplier who was asking for payment. My colleague was saying we were (he wasn't) installing a new computer system, and it was giving endless problems, and there would be a big delay in payment. I took the phone and assured the supplier that there was no problem, and he would receive payment on the 20th of the month as usual, and on the 20th of every month in future.

Nate--IRL--

Why is the last bit randomised? Doesn't that defeat to whole fcuking point?

Nate

animaal

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

Why is the last bit randomised? Doesn't that defeat to whole fcuking point?

Nate

No, that *is* the point.

As far as I know, you have to pay in order to be able to lookup an address.

It's a win-win. Not for you or me, of course.

syklops

diomed wrote: »

I read that as "An Post will delay post to prove that the Eircodes don't work (because they won't let them work)"

The situation reminds me of the time in the early 1980s when I put our Accounts Payable system on computer. It took me weeks of late nights and it was running perfectly.
One day I overheard a fellow employee taking a phone call from a supplier who was asking for payment. My colleague was saying we were (he wasn't) installing a new computer system, and it was giving endless problems, and there would be a big delay in payment. I took the phone and assured the supplier that there was no problem, and he would receive payment on the 20th of the month as usual, and on the 20th of every month in future.

Why did your colleague say that?

diomed

syklops wrote: »

Why did your colleague say that?

His first reaction to everything was a story, seldom action.

porsche boy

They opted for the wrong system, possibly at the behest of a brown envelope. The reality here is that we should have went with the future proof, GPS based 'loc8' system. It's what other European countries are slowly switching to.

Canis Lupus

Eircode.... Why can't they just call it post code like everyone else. Why does everything Irish have to be Eir 'something'...

Nate--IRL--

animaal wrote: »

No, that *is* the point.

As far as I know, you have to pay in order to be able to lookup an address.

It's a win-win. Not for you or me, of course.

Why am I not surprised. Brown envelope for everybody in the audience......

Nate

Buona Fortuna

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

Why am I not surprised. Brown envelope for everybody in the audience......

Nate

Its our culture

LFCFan

The attitude in Ireland is that if someone comes goes to the government with a fool proof, cheap, easy idea to solve a problem, the government will go out of their way to find a more expensive, idiotic, crap idea as long as there's something in it for someone along the government food chain. If they are handed a working solution then where will they possibly be able to waste millions of taxpayers money.