In message NuF6o.94523$tB1.12249@hurricane, at 21:50:52 on Thu, 5 Aug
2010, Richard J. remarked:
The bigger problem is not that it's poorly understood by the public, but
that it's poorly understood by businesses who attempt to carve up their
service areas based on postcode, when administrative (and physical)
geography is usually a better idea.

I thought the whole point of postcodes was to carve up the country
based on the most efficient way to organise deliveries. In which case,
why aren't postcodes also better for other businesses, rather than
administrative geography which is often still based around historical
boundaries that have little relevance today?

Because other businesses have different catchment areas to those
convenient for postal sorting offices.

The example I usually give is the villages between Cambridge and the
Hertfordshire border (at Royston). It's of very little use if when you
search an estate agent's website for houses to buy, that the ones for
sale in those villages only show up if you tick "Hertfordshire" (on
account of their SG postcode) rather than "Cambridgeshire" (because you
wanted a house near Cambridge, not one near Stevenage).

It doesn't even work for other delivery companies, who will typically
ask you to go and retrieve a mis-delivered packet at their Stevenage
office, when the Cambridge office is a third of the distance away and in
a town you probably visit quite often - rather than almost never.
--
Roland Perry