[thelist] zip code ?

martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com
Thu Apr 11 03:53:01 CDT 2002


Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Russell Griechen wrote:

>...As Anthony said; presumably the lat/long coords provided will represent
>the geographical center of each ZIP code, perhaps with other spatial data.

Centroid of the polygon usually, which is pretty much OK unless you want
to *accurately* map them (I once worked on a project mapping cash
dispensers
for a bank, and centroid of a postcode containing on average about 20
properties
wasn't good enough even in cities)

>As for foreign postal codes - my understanding is that many countries
>handle (in many circumstances) consider postal codes to be more or less
>"optional" - there are often geographical correlations that aren't
>apparent to foreigners or nationals who've never pondered the subject.
>For example, the first letter of a Canadian postal code correlates
>directly to a given province (or the NWT).

http://evolt.org/article/rating/4090/15118/index.html
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html

The attached press release might be of interest too...

>The same is true in the U.S. as in Canada; the first two digits of a ZIP
>code will inform the destination state of post, while the third will tell
>you which Main PO takes that mail before it is sent to the local PO and
>from there to the recipient...

That's the UK theory. NFI for France.

Cheers
Martin

[interesting press release below]
> The Post Office
>
>
>
> CACI's Information Systems Division has recently tackled a long-standing
> problem for The Post Office - to produce a system which will assess
> international sortation (or I-Sort) software for direct mail campaigns
> posted from the UK to anywhere in the world. Approached by the
> International
> Services business unit to produce a service similar to that which CACI
> already performs for Royal Mail's Mailsort customers for postings
> within the
> UK. The trickiest task initially was to produce a standard sortation
> database which would be useable for all the different formats of
> addressing
> throughout the world.
>
> For example, in Ireland nowhere outside Dublin has a postcode. Germany
> insists on the postcode appearing before the town name and the house
> number
> after the street name; Australian addresses should show the abbreviated
> state name between the town and postcode, and addresses in the Russian
> Federation start with the country name, followed by the town/city name,
> then
> the street and finally the addressee. This was all before we built in
> allowances for commonly-used variations such as USA, U.S.A., United
> States,
> etc. (although the stipulation was made that all addresses presented
> must be
> in English).
>
> CACI spent much of the summer wrangling with these complexities,
> producing a
> database which could handle all the different types of addressing
> standards
> encountered while at the same time flexible enough to be updated as, for
> example, overseas postal authorities change their labelling
> requirements,
> flight patterns to minor airports are altered, or political events
> demand
> service changes.?all with little or no warning.
>
> The second phase of this project now underway is to provide the software
> assessment service entirely over the web. Bureaux who are writing
> international sortation software and who wish it to be assessed by CACI
> on
> The Post Office's behalf will access the I-Sort website to register for
> the
> service, and then be able to download the relevant materials to begin
> the
> process. Results for assessment will be submitted online, and CACI will
> respond electronically to the software suppliers with their results. Of
> course, a telephone helpline will also be provided by CACI for software
> developers or others who may have queries about the process or service
> offered.
>
> This phase of the project will share resources already in place to serve
> Royal Mail's Mailsort customers. The Mailsort Technical Website is
> hosted on
> an NT/IIS web server leased with support and maintenance from a
> third-party
> ISP. The server runs Oracle 8i database server and ColdFusion
> application
> server. Over the coming months this system will provide many interactive
> features harnessing these products, including customer registration with
> rapid address entry, generation of customised I-Sort databases (ie for
> specific parts of the world) and a flexible portal providing access to a
> database of technical documentation.


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