Eircode - its implemetation (merged)

in a few years all the courier companies will be using Eircode, as their logistic software providers build in support .

in the UK postal codes took years to be fully utilised

my3cents wrote: »

No it didn't, I'm old enough to remember it happening.

As I have said before the UK's postcodes became part of your address and if you didn't use them then the Royal Mail said your letter will have to be sorted by hand and take longer to arrive.

There was also much more publicity for for the UK postcode.

btw one useful bit of "implementation" which we could all do is to Eircode our stuff so if its stolen and recovered it can be more easily returned.

Th first trials of a postcode was in Norwich in the 1959, there was a gradual rollout throughout the uk , completed in 1974, thats 15 years !,

The PAF file wasn't created until the early 80s and not in widespread use until the early 90s


eircode is a sprinter by comparison !

my3cents wrote: »

iirc it was 1974 when the postcodes were sent out to all addresses and everyone told to use them. Up until then use wasn't expected.

yes but they have been in existence and had been extending throughout the UK for the best part of 14 years

lets say in 14 years , we'll make Eircodes mandatory for mail,

" uptil then there use wasn't mandatory expected " reads the history

BoatMad wrote:

in a few years all the courier companies will be using Eircode, as their logistic software providers build in support .

No they won't. Most postcode systems were made to make things simple & easy to understand. Our government in their wisdom paid a company to come up with an overly complicated system that makes no sense. All the delivery companies state that the eircode system is random. It would cost them more to use it. *****65 isn't beside *****66. It doesn't work when sorting deliveries.
The UK system uses a simple grid. They can pinpoint you in the middle of a field within 1 meter.
The GPO doesn't have an eircode. How does that make sense?

my3cents wrote: »

How can an UK postcode pinpoint you to within 1m when a whole street will often have the same postcode?

It can't. Maybe he's thinking of OS grid coordinates?

Sleeper12 wrote: »

No they won't. Most postcode systems were made to make things simple & easy to understand. Our government in their wisdom paid a company to come up with an overly complicated system that makes no sense. All the delivery companies state that the eircode system is random. It would cost them more to use it. *****65 isn't beside *****66. It doesn't work when sorting deliveries.
The UK system uses a simple grid. They can pinpoint you in the middle of a field within 1 meter.
The GPO doesn't have an eircode. How does that make sense?

as someone who has been involved in mapping and logistics software for 20 years, I feel I know a little bit about UK post codes.

The positional accuracy varies but can be out by several hundred metres in certain cases, and in general is not accurate to to anything like you say.

The PAF uses a 100m grid, UK post codes cant in reality be resolved to anything better then that with any certainly, many post codes in the UK will share the share two points on the PAF grid.

Now there are extensions like the ForGIS, that DO locate the postal code to 1m , but its not fully complete and doesn't cover the channel islands for example.

Eircode on the other hand , directly links to GeoDirectory , which contains positional data accurate to survey standards for mail address locations.

Modern computer orientated codes shouldn't be designed to be human readable, its far easier to build then to be efficient machine based lookup systems, which the PAF is not by the way. does the barcode on your corn flakes mean anything to you - no it doesnt , a computer however is happy looking it up from millions of items in a price lookup table

The GPO does have an Eircode. ( D01 F5P2)

Courier companies will of course use Eircode as their logistics software suppliers add support, its quite easy to simply use the GeoDirectory lookup to then build local sorting tables or route maps, especially as we will see , like in the UK , specialised databases appearing that are aimed at routing and sorting.

I simply dont understand , ill-informed anti-Eircode rants , usually by people with little or no understanding of how modern computer systems and mapping use underlying geo-data.


as for

It would cost them more to use it. *****65 isn't beside *****66. It doesn't work when sorting deliveries.

stuff and nonsense, a well organised geo database engine can extract positional information from the Geodirectory and easily build custom sorting or route maps, Courir logistics software does it today by geo positional data, eircode can resolved to that , hence easy integration . Humans dont sort squat these days , do human understanding of the codes is useless.

dont believe the nonsense spouted on radios by courier companies, they are in competition and one likes what the other hates ( or more likely their logistics software sucks and cant be easily modified)

Eircode is simply a hash into GeoDirectory , that fine , Geodirecory has all the information necessary to build anything a courier needs.


haters just hate it seems

Sleeper12 wrote: »

And 100 different eircodes will point to the same building. That doesn't make any se

it makes complete sense,if that is where you go to deliver the mail for 100 addresses, like say an apartment block.

the last thing you want is close but not identical locations for the code. so that a logistics has to then try and interpret what street these codes refer to, this is a very common issue with the UK PAF file, where you cant tell what side of the street the address is on.

clewbays wrote: »

... and all 100 apartments will be located in that building! would you prefer couriers had to wander around looking for an address?

Couriers can read " apartment 14 floor 2" with the best of them. i find , the purpose of the postal code, is to get them accurately to the door of the complex. Few couriers can these days get directly to the apartment door anyway

Sleeper12 wrote: »

The point is that this is exactly what delivery companies want. I get that some people believe that every major or international delivery company is lying when they say it won't work for them, that its too complex and will take them longer to sort using eircode.

Several like DHL and nightline are integrating into their systems, goggle maps will have it in 2016 as will Garmin, sure but its " too complex", maybe if you learnt programming yesterday ....

Why they'd lie I don't know. Our government paid a company to create a complex postcode system. The only reason its so complex is to try make private companies pay for the decoding system.

The decoding system is very very simple, buy you have to license the database. its ( eircode) actually a very simple code, that basically means nothing to humans, thats good. Does a VIN number on a car mean anything to you . Means a lot to Revenues computers however.

As someone who puts up 100 miles per day visiting 5 to 10 different address I was genuinely looking forward to a proper post code. I was genuinely embarrassed that so many homes in Ireland hadn't got an individual address. After years of waiting and listening to promises I'm very disappointed.

The political system of forcing people to have unique address , would simply never fly in ireland. I mean how many people use the L numbered road in their addresses. we love our townlands. There was never any political will , to force address change.

Eircode solves precisely your problem, if you have the eircode you will never need to seperate Tom Murphy ballinaclash, from his uncle Tom murphy ballinaclash,
this year you will be able to type their eircodes into your google maps and never have to worry about non unique addresses again !!! and drive to their door

The very latest statement from An Post is that they use eircode to get a letter to the general area but the postman or woman still uses local knowledge to get the letter delivered.
Complete waste of money and Time. Another great FG success story

leaving aside your nonsense FG remark, AN post cant use eircode because AN post sees no value in providing their postman with computer technology like every courier company has. In that regard An Post is a bill delivery service, the rest come by courier. rather like " buggy whip manufactures said the gasoline engine was crap and would never replace horses "....howd that work out

By the way AN posts new mail box uses eircodes!!

Anpost has historically been anti any form of postal code ( good bad or indifferent) because it knows that it gives a benefit to courier companies that have little local knowledge, whereas its postman do.

This has nothing to do with Eircode, and everything to do with ANposts outdated delivery mechanisms , Post office letter delivery is dying anyway


rather then just ranting , try and analyse what Eircode was set up to do

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I also have a mail order company. An Post deliver everything for my company. Bills I email to my clients all parcels weighing up to several kilos are sorted and delivered (without the wonderful eircode system) by an post.

if you add an Eircode to the address , they will deliver it just as well,

however the facts dont lie, ordinary postal companies have lost huge business to couriers, I get a lot of stuff from the UK, wouldn't dream of letting the conventional mail business near any of it ( 10 days from the UK , seriously crap).

Eircode is and can be used by An Post to do sorting , its not used at the local level , because of the manpower a post company throws at the problem.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

My company has had to same problem. If you remove the eircode you won't get these delays.
We remove the eircode from address before posting

Ive added eircode to my postings and to letters to me, I notice no delays, the bills all arrive around the same date with or without my eircode

SPDUB wrote: »

Actually An Post does give every postman a handheld computer ( first introduced about 5 years ago for Registered Mail )

Yes I've seen that too, my normal postie has a handheld