In message , at 23:47:49 on Thu, 5 Aug
2010, Tim Roll-Pickering remarked:

I wouldn't be surprised if other post codes reflect the use of rail at
the time and don't bear the best relation for how other companies
deliver services - e.g. insurance where premiums vary quite a lot on
either side of the London post code boundary for no reason other than
that.

All kinds of effects like that kick in, even when two properties can be
almost neighbours, but are thought of quite differently because they are
in different postcodes.

I used to live in Hinchley Wood, which is on the "edge of London", and
it was quite instructive to see a range of businesses deciding whether
by implication it was a property which would naturally look "inwards"
(to Surbiton/Kingston) for its services, or "outwards" (to Surrey).
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 10:39:00 on
Fri, 6 Aug 2010, David Walters remarked:

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

That might have nothing to do with postcodes or counties. The delivery
company depot is chosen for their convenience and they might use the
Stevenage one because it is bigger and has more capacity than their
Cambridge one, even if the later is nearer.

They might, but it doesn't sound plausible to me.

Nor is it plausible that a plumber would prefer to be called out all the
way from Stevenage, rather than from Cambridge etc etc.

The fact that you have to travel further to collect a parcel doesn't
bother them, you aren't even their customer.

That's the cynical view, but it also means they have to drive further to
deliver it. This is a classic "cockup" situation, arising from the
inappropriate application of postcodes.
--
Roland Perry

On Tue, Aug 03, 2010 at 01:32:42PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:55:02
on Tue, 3 Aug 2010, David Cantrell remarked:
hit "Navigate to", "Address", select Germany from the list of countries,
type five letters to find the town,
Have they avoided having (the equivalent of) half a dozen towns called
"Newport", or does it show some (equivalent of) County information to
help sort out one from the other?

I assume so. I can't think of any such placenames in Germany off the
top of my head, but if I try to use the same method to find a
destination in the UK, typing four characters (n, e, w, p) gets me a
list of ten Newports, plus Newport Pagnell, Newport-on-Tay, and Newport
Park and it's a trivial matter to mash my finger down on the right one.

The list entries are presented thus:
Newport (Gwent)
Newport (Dyfed)
Newport (Barnstaple)
etc
the sort order appears to not be very sensible, but it's not a very big
list so I guess that's OK.

type three letters to find the
street, it then asks me for the house number and directs me right to
their front door.
You seem to be *not* typing the German postcode into your TomTom.

Yeah, what I said at the beginning of my message was a bit of a
give-away about that. My point was that navigational devices work
there, to a high degree of precision, even in the absence of highly
geographically precise postcodes. Perhaps you misunderstood my
intention. Or perhaps I misunderstood yours.

--
header FROM_DAVID_CANTRELL From =~ /david.cantrell/i
describe FROM_DAVID_CANTRELL Message is from David Cantrell
score FROM_DAVID_CANTRELL 15.72 # This figure from experimentation

On Thu, Aug 05, 2010 at 09:50:52PM +0100, Richard J. wrote:

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

Errm, because other businesses aren't in the business of organising
postal deliveries but instead of doing things like selling houses or
offering plumbing services. In those cases, what matters are that the
customers live (for example) in Hastings, not that they have a TNxx xxx
postcode.

--
David Cantrell | Nth greatest programmer in the world

We found no search results for "crotchet". Did you mean "crotch"?

David Cantrell gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying:

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

Errm, because other businesses aren't in the business of organising
postal deliveries but instead of doing things like selling houses or
offering plumbing services. In those cases, what matters are that the
customers live (for example) in Hastings, not that they have a TNxx xxx
postcode.

Or, quite simply, that other delivery businesses might not have their
depots in the same layout as RM.

On 06/08/2010 09:40, Roland Perry wrote:

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,

Guess what often happens if you are in south London and look online for
things in "Croydon"?

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
10:39:00 on Fri, 6 Aug 2010, David Walters
remarked:

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

That might have nothing to do with postcodes or counties. The delivery
company depot is chosen for their convenience and they might use the
Stevenage one because it is bigger and has more capacity than their
Cambridge one, even if the later is nearer.

They might, but it doesn't sound plausible to me.

Nor is it plausible that a plumber would prefer to be called out
all the way from Stevenage, rather than from Cambridge etc etc.

The fact that you have to travel further to collect a parcel doesn't
bother them, you aren't even their customer.

That's the cynical view, but it also means they have to drive
further to deliver it. This is a classic "cockup" situation,
arising from the inappropriate application of postcodes.

You were lucky the Cambridge office wasn't several miles the other side of
Cambridge on the way to Huntingdon, as happened to me once.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 15:05:03
on Fri, 6 Aug 2010, remarked:
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

That might have nothing to do with postcodes or counties. The delivery
company depot is chosen for their convenience and they might use the
Stevenage one because it is bigger and has more capacity than their
Cambridge one, even if the later is nearer.

You were lucky the Cambridge office wasn't several miles the other side of
Cambridge on the way to Huntingdon, as happened to me once.

That would still be better than Stevenage (or even Welwyn Garden City,
which is another common place for such offices servicing
faux-Hertfordshire).
--
Roland Perry

In message , at
19:52:49 on Fri, 6 Aug 2010, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
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,

Guess what often happens if you are in south London and look online for
things in "Croydon"?

It may suggest other Croydons, I expect.

Like the one near Royston, that's got a Hertfordshire address but is
geographically about five miles inside Cambridgshire.

I don't have a map with the postcode boundaries on, but the furthest
"inside Cambs with Herts address" I can find is Wimpole Hall, which
almost six miles as the crow flies inside the county border (and is only
eight miles from the centre of Cambridge City).
--
Roland Perry

On 07/08/2010 09:27, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
19:52:49 on Fri, 6 Aug 2010, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
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,

Guess what often happens if you are in south London and look online
for things in "Croydon"?

It may suggest other Croydons, I expect.

Like the one near Royston, that's got a Hertfordshire address but is
geographically about five miles inside Cambridgshire.

That's the one.


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK