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Eircodes.

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  • 30-10-2020 11:44am
    #1
    recipio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,804 ✭✭✭


    Just had a parcel delivered by DPD to my neighbour. It was from an Irish shop and had the Eircode. It makes me wonder if the Eircode is incorporated into Sat Nav systems here -- you would think it was foolproof.?:eek:


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    #2
    GBX
    Registered Users Posts: 11,900 ✭✭✭✭GBX


    recipio wrote: »
    Just had a parcel delivered by DPD to my neighbour. It was from an Irish shop and had the Eircode. It makes me wonder if the Eircode is incorporated into Sat Nav systems here -- you would think it was foolproof.?:eek:

    Eircode works fine. Not all couriers use them however. Not all use sat navs either.


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    #3
    recipio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,804 ✭✭✭recipio


    GBX wrote: »
    Eircode works fine. Not all couriers use them however. Not all use sat navs either.

    Thanks. Makes you wonder what was the point of spending 15 million on them instead of GPS based codes.:eek:


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    #4
    un5byh7sqpd2x0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,862 ✭✭✭un5byh7sqpd2x0


    recipio wrote: »
    Just had a parcel delivered by DPD to my neighbour. It was from an Irish shop and had the Eircode. It makes me wonder if the Eircode is incorporated into Sat Nav systems here -- you would think it was foolproof.?:eek:

    Eircode is incorporated into Google Maps which is what most couriers use anyway.


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    #5
    whiterebel
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,831 Mod ✭✭✭✭whiterebel


    The big couriers can't incorporate it into their own systems apparently. They advised the Minister of this at the time.


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    #6
    recipio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,804 ✭✭✭recipio


    whiterebel wrote: »
    The big couriers can't incorporate it into their own systems apparently. They advised the Minister of this at the time.

    Can't incorporate the Eircodes ? Why did the government persist in using them. ? In the UK the postcodes have been incorporated into sat nav systems for years.I also got a self congratulatory text from DPD saying the parcel was delivered and signed for - it wasn't. It was just dropped on the doorstep. This country!


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    #7
    Sonics2k
    Registered Users Posts: 8,237 ✭✭✭Sonics2k


    Couriers just use Google Maps as most of the proprietary ones are just awful.

    From my own experience as a courier though, in some cases an Eircode isn't entirely precise, especially in a row of houses were doors are next to each other.

    In most cases we just want to see the house number on the door, it's 100 times easier in terms of actually finding the correct house.


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    #8
    whiterebel
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,831 Mod ✭✭✭✭whiterebel


    recipio wrote: »
    Can't incorporate the Eircodes ? Why did the government persist in using them. ? In the UK the postcodes have been incorporated into sat nav systems for years.I also got a self congratulatory text from DPD saying the parcel was delivered and signed for - it wasn't. It was just dropped on the doorstep. This country!

    That was the big question at the time. Spending €38M on a system that wasn't any good to anyone, including An Post.


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    #9
    recipio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,804 ✭✭✭recipio


    Sonics2k wrote: »
    Couriers just use Google Maps as most of the proprietary ones are just awful.

    From my own experience as a courier though, in some cases an Eircode isn't entirely precise, especially in a row of houses were doors are next to each other.

    In most cases we just want to see the house number on the door, it's 100 times easier in terms of actually finding the correct house.

    That's surprising. I thought the whole point of Eircodes was that they were unique to every house in the country.I agree bout the numbers, its amazing how many houses have missing numbers even in housing estates.


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    #10
    Tork
    Registered Users Posts: 3,259 ✭✭✭Tork


    recipio wrote: »
    Just had a parcel delivered by DPD to my neighbour. It was from an Irish shop and had the Eircode. It makes me wonder if the Eircode is incorporated into Sat Nav systems here -- you would think it was foolproof.?:eek:

    At least the courier delivered it to somebody, rather than fecking it over a fence. There are any number of reasons why it went to the wrong house. Even GPS can be a bit inaccurate, depending on all sorts of reasons.


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    #11
    CSU
    Registered Users Posts: 459 ✭✭CSU


    ...I could never understand the logic behind the eircode. IIRC, at the time of implementation most of the speil was about how it could help emergency services be more accurate with dispatch. Ive worked on the phones for years in the motor trade and most of the mistakes youll see is from calling out UK car reg numbers...and just about any non-standard part number with D or B or F or S ... I can only imagine the same problems exist in the call centers when someone rings in a panic and calls out the eircode fir example B22UFS , as opposed to 24 Greentrees Avenue.

    ...bit of a joke.


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    #12
    Tork
    Registered Users Posts: 3,259 ✭✭✭Tork


    whiterebel wrote: »
    The big couriers can't incorporate it into their own systems apparently. They advised the Minister of this at the time.
    That's the courier's problem surely? We needed postcodes here and no matter what system was brought in, they would have had to change it. All that has changed on people's addresses is that there is an eircode tacked onto the end. The couriers still have the same old address information they always has to deal with.

    I bet most of the drivers are using Google maps on their phones anyway.


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    #13
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    There is absolutely nothing wrong with eircodes apart from the strange yearning people have for us to be exactly like the UK.

    Companies just don’t want to pay for the database.


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    #14
    Tork
    Registered Users Posts: 3,259 ✭✭✭Tork


    All we need now is for somebody to yearn for the days of "turn left at the telephone box at the cross and drive until Mrs Murphy's rooster looks out over the fence at you" or someone saying they prefer Loc8. Eircode work fine - it's the humans who cock things up.


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    #15
    FishOnABike
    Registered Users Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭FishOnABike


    whiterebel wrote: »
    The big couriers can't incorporate it into their own systems apparently. They advised the Minister of this at the time.

    Licencing costs most likely rather than technical reasons.


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    #16
    recipio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,804 ✭✭✭recipio


    ReginaldSmythV wrote: »
    There is absolutely nothing wrong with eircodes apart from the strange yearning people have for us to be exactly like the UK.

    Companies just don’t want to pay for the database.

    So, Eircodes were bought in to facilitate accuracy but were excluded from Sat Navs as nobody wanted to pay a licencing fee, including the Government. We may as well be back in pre Eircode days where parcels could be 'fecked over the fence'. That certainly makes us 'The best little country to do business in' Not. :eek:


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    #17
    Sonics2k
    Registered Users Posts: 8,237 ✭✭✭Sonics2k


    recipio wrote: »
    That's surprising. I thought the whole point of Eircodes was that they were unique to every house in the country.I agree bout the numbers, its amazing how many houses have missing numbers even in housing estates.

    On the Eircode site itself it's grand, it's just how it appears on Google Maps that can throw things off a bit.


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    #18
    whiterebel
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,831 Mod ✭✭✭✭whiterebel


    FishOnABike wrote: »
    Licencing costs most likely rather than technical reasons.

    Technical reasons. They would much prefer one unit to do scanning, addresses etc rather than drivers having to use scanner and then their mobile to look up addresses. Pat Rabitte wouldn't be told. Unbelievable I know, a government minister pushing things through without understanding.


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    #19
    TheChizler
    Registered Users Posts: 9,400 ✭✭✭TheChizler


    whiterebel wrote: »
    Technical reasons. They would much prefer one unit to do scanning, addresses etc rather than drivers having to use scanner and then their mobile to look up addresses. Pat Rabitte wouldn't be told. Unbelievable I know, a government minister pushing things through without understanding.
    The same would go for any code, nobody is going to fully integrate them right away. No reason they can't be incorporated as they upgrade systems over the years. They have plenty other uses apart from delivery too.


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    #20
    recipio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,804 ✭✭✭recipio


    whiterebel wrote: »
    Technical reasons. They would much prefer one unit to do scanning, addresses etc rather than drivers having to use scanner and then their mobile to look up addresses. Pat Rabitte wouldn't be told. Unbelievable I know, a government minister pushing things through without understanding.

    Thinking it through, whats the point of a computer generated code if the postman and couriers have no way of using it to pinpoint a house. At least in the UK the postcodes are accurate enough to give you 'you have reached your destination' message. It looks to me that the whole thing was a cock up so the Government could tell American investors that we have ' Zip codes' now !


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    #21
    TheChizler
    Registered Users Posts: 9,400 ✭✭✭TheChizler


    recipio wrote: »
    At least in the UK the postcodes are accurate enough to give you 'you have reached your destination' message.
    UK postcodes only pinpoint a street or block, so that statement is false.

    Eircodes will bring you within a few metres of the door as they're only limited by GNSS accuracy. But nobody walks around holding their phone up like an old explorer holding a compass until the pin on the map and their position overlap, you look at the map and see it's one of those houses on the end of the street, go there, and as Sonics says use some other feature to identify the exact house. Or in a rural area it'll identify the address perfectly cause it's the only building since for 100s of metres.

    There are many uses for an address identifier other than delivery.


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    #22
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    recipio wrote: »
    Thinking it through, whats the point of a computer generated code if the postman and couriers have no way of using it to pinpoint a house. At least in the UK the postcodes are accurate enough to give you 'you have reached your destination' message. It looks to me that the whole thing was a cock up so the Government could tell American investors that we have ' Zip codes' now !

    What are you on about? UK postcodes aren’t even accurate enough that they work without a house number.


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    #23
    FishOnABike
    Registered Users Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭FishOnABike


    recipio wrote: »
    Thinking it through, whats the point of a computer generated code if the postman and couriers have no way of using it to pinpoint a house. At least in the UK the postcodes are accurate enough to give you 'you have reached your destination' message. It looks to me that the whole thing was a cock up so the Government could tell American investors that we have ' Zip codes' now !

    UK postcodes only bring you to the level of a group of delivery points, which can be a large enough area in a sparsely populated rural area.

    Each eircode is unique to an individual delivery point.

    Both systems require access to or licencing of data to cross reference the postcode or eircode / address / geographical data to identify the location of the delivery point.

    On its own an eircodes map to a delivery point more accurately than UK postcodes. I have no problem inputting just an eircode into Google maps and it announcing "You are at your destination" when I get there.


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    #24
    Gooey Looey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭Gooey Looey


    It's early days for Eircode, in time all couriers will look to upgrade their systems to use it. The delivery guys on the road already use it.


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    #25
    ice.cube
    Registered Users Posts: 103 ✭✭ice.cube


    recipio wrote: »
    It looks to me that the whole thing was a cock up so the Government could tell American investors that we have ' Zip codes' now !

    Some conspiracy your going with there!


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    #26
    recipio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,804 ✭✭✭recipio


    ReginaldSmythV wrote: »
    What are you on about? UK postcodes aren’t even accurate enough that they work without a house number.


    That hasn't been my experience. They seem to bring you right to the house address.

    ice.cube wrote: »
    Some conspiracy your going with there!

    Sorry, a weak attempt at a joke. I do remember it was widely reported that Ireland was the last country in Europe without a postcode system and the Government were embarrassed into bringing one in.


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    #27
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    recipio wrote: »
    That hasn't been my experience. They seem to bring you right to the house address.




    Sorry, a weak attempt at a joke. I do remember it was widely reported that Ireland was the last country in Europe without a postcode system and the Government were embarrassed into bringing one in.

    You’ve just had blind luck then. UK postcodes need a house number for the exact location.


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    #28
    whiterebel
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 14,831 Mod ✭✭✭✭whiterebel


    Gooey Looey wrote: »
    It's early days for Eircode, in time all couriers will look to upgrade their systems to use it. The delivery guys on the road already use it.

    Early days? 5 years?


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    #29
    FishOnABike
    Registered Users Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭FishOnABike


    recipio wrote: »
    That hasn't been my experience. They seem to bring you right to the house address.




    Sorry, a weak attempt at a joke. I do remember it was widely reported that Ireland was the last country in Europe without a postcode system and the Government were embarrassed into bringing one in.
    In a town it's accurate to within 5 or 6 houses in a street or so. So you're probably close enough to make little or no difference. In a rural area you might be far enough away to have some difficulty finding the address.

    An eircode will put you at the exact address.


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    #30
    dublinstudent.
    Registered Users Posts: 20 ✭dublinstudent.


    ReginaldSmythV wrote: »
    You’ve just had blind luck then. UK postcodes need a house number for the exact location.
    Correct. I have an address in the UK and I noticed the postman had written the house number next to it.


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    #31
    Gooey Looey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭Gooey Looey


    whiterebel wrote: »
    Early days? 5 years?

    Yes, 5 years is nothing, you're waiting for them to make a big investment in a new system to last them many years


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