People not putting postcodes on addresses!!

[shipmaster122]

Is it still common for mail to be seen coming into MC's with no postcodes on?

I often hear the excuse "It's going somewhere local - I'm sure the postie can figure it out!". Unfortunately, I often wonder if this is the case.. After all, the majority of the network is machine-based, right?

Also, does not putting a postcode on a packet (or anything for that matter) delay delivery of an item? Or will it just be rejected by the machines and someone in the MC write the postcode on the item without causing delay? Or is that the point of an MDEC..

[TeeferTiger]

Still get some without addresses on, nevermind postcodes! lol

Some items are still manually sorted, some have to be because they're so illegible. It's amazing when doing the sorting how people expect you to get a letter delivered with the amount of guessing they put on the envelope. Sometimes there can be no surname, a guess at a house name (or a range of numbers-possibly a "opposite the chip shop"), X avenue/road (they're not sure), name of the village but not the postal town and then the county (which RM don't really use any more) and then no post code. But, they still get there... albeit with the person whinging that it took 2 days.

[shipmaster122]

In that case, I can see why they give such good discounts to account customers! I notice one of the key points is the contract is 95% postcode accuracy..With the internet nowadays, all it takes is a quick Google of the address, and the postcode comes up. I once read and article about a bloke in america who tried to push postal workers to the limit - sending vegetables with the address engraved on, sending a postcard with the address in pictures, ie barn cottage would be a picture of a barn and a cottage..

[shipmaster122]

What next, address in algorithm form? maybe a crossword puzzle?..

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Whats worse is when they just put the district and no town name or post code.

Just for instance, Huddersfield has 5 well known districts Kirkheaton, Shepley , Bradley, Deighton, Fartown

Problem is in Yorkshire alone there are :

2 Villages called Kirkheaton
3 Areas with Bradley in their name (2 alone in Huddersfield )
3 Shipley's or Shepley's
2 Fartown's (both in our MCs catchment area)
3 Deighton's

So as you probably see Post Codes should be used even if only being sent locally.

[TeeferTiger]

Whats worse is when they just put the district and no town name or post code.

Just for instance, Huddersfield has 5 well known districts Kirkheaton, Shepley , Bradley, Deighton, Fartown

Problem is in Yorkshire alone there are :

2 Villages called Kirkheaton
3 Areas with Bradley in their name (2 alone in Huddersfield )
3 Shipley's or Shepley
2 Fartown's (both in our MCs catchment area)
3 Deighton's

So as you probably see Post Codes should be used even if only being sent locally.

Do you know how many "Tal Y Bont"s there are in North Wales, let alone the whole of Wales? lol Also, Conwy is a county as well as a town so if people put the county on after Abergele (for example) the mail sometimes ends up at Llandudno's office instead of at Rhyl's and then has to go all the way back to Chester in the missorts to get to Rhyl the following day Llandudno ends up with loads of missorts because of the Conwy county thing, that's why I always write Conwy County and not just Conwy when I put my address on stuff because I don't want it delayed/AWOL.

Even if people just put the first half of the postcode, it'd help. BD1 (Bradford city centre), LL30 (Llandudno) etc. At least they'd end up at the right Delivery Office where someone who knows the area can have a stab at which letterbox to put it through.

[wearewolves]

xmas time is the worst

[Lounge Lizard]

xmas time is the worst

Not for tips.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

What next, address in algorithm form? maybe a crossword puzzle?..

Already been done

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 55499.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We may be living in the era of the email, but one young illustrator has proved that the art of correspondence is far from dead. While working for her degree at Glasgow School of Art Harriet Russell decided to find out exactly what lengths the men and women of the Royal Mail were willing to go to to ensure the safe delivery of her missives.

To put them to the test she concealed the addresses of 130 letters to herself in a series of increasingly complex puzzles and ciphers. Among the disguises she employed were dot-to-dot drawings, anagrams and cartoons. The answer, it seems, was very far indeed. Amazingly, only 10 failed to complete their journey back to her.

In another pleasing twist to the story, Ms Russell was unwittingly resurrecting a family tradition first begun by her great-great grandfather Henry Ponsonby, a private secretary to Queen Victoria and a veteran of the Crimean War. This eminent forebear embellished letters to his children at Eton with a series of illustrations in which he concealed the school's address. It was a family quirk continued by his son, Arthur Ponsonby, a pacifist who went on to be Labour MP for Sheffield Brightside before his elevation to the House of Lords.

However, neither quite set about their task with the degree of invention employed by their 21st-century descendant who over the course of a year went to ever greater lengths to disguise her address.

These, it seemed gripped the imagination of Clydeside Royal Mail sorting workers as much as they did their author. Now the results of this unique and anonymous collaboration form the basis of a new book, Envelopes: A Puzzling Journey Through the Royal Mail, published by Allison & Busby, and hotly tipped as a stocking-filler hit this Christmas.

Ms Russell, 31, who now works from a studio in Wapping, east London, confesses that she had no idea her family had preceded her when it came to teasing the postman. She also admits she is no great letter writer, preferring to communicate by email: all the envelopes she sent contained nothing but blank sheets of paper.

She said: "It is an odd coincidence. We used to get a lot of wrongly addressed mail sent to our home, which was Shulbrede Priory in Surrey and that got me thinking about the postal system. The first one started as an experiment to see if it could get through."

Among the initial batch of envelopes was a letter with the address written in mirror writing. But it was not until sorting office staff forwarded one in which her street name and number were the answer to a series of crossword clues that she realised someone was taking their job very seriously indeed. Especially when the letter eventually flopped on to her mat with the boxes filled in and bearing the proud message: "Solved by the Glasgow Mail Centre."

She admits there were times when she worried that she might be in trouble for wasting Royal Mail time but still the letters continued to find their way back. "I was really quite amazed. I didn't know who was doing it. I imagined there was a small group of them and I think they must have caught on because a lot of them were to the same address." The identities of the sleuthing Royal Mail staff have never been established and Ms Russell, who also counts Hubert Parry, the composer of "Jerusalem" among her illustrious forebears, believes it is most likely they have moved on.

"I have never spoken to anyone and no one has come forward," she said. "But it is clear they were taking part and involving themselves in it."

The book, with its periodic tables, colour-blindness test and eye-chart addresses has already caused something of a stir in the United States although it is expected to do even better in the UK. The Bookseller has already described it as "a little treasure waiting to be discovered".

Ms Russell said: "I started out not knowing anything about my relatives doing this so my family dug out some of their old letters to show me."

For his part, Henry Ponsonby preferred whimsy to ciphers and cryptic clues. His letters bore addresses appearing as doodled signposts in snowstorms or as huge envelopes shouldered by tiny people.

[clashcityrocker]

Among the initial batch of envelopes was a letter with the address written in mirror writing. But it was not until sorting office staff forwarded one in which her street name and number were the answer to a series of crossword clues that she realised someone was taking their job very seriously indeed. Especially when the letter eventually flopped on to her mat with the boxes filled in and bearing the proud message: "Solved by the Glasgow Mail Centre."

Probably did it during one of their breaks.

[shipmaster122]

Wonder if the ones which were sent 1st class arrived the next day?

[Caniel]

Happens all the time, I get loads for the flats missing the friggen flat number! I send them back if I can't match them to a name after a week, I also write on them "Needs flat number, block has over 100 flats"

"Postie will figure it out??" Postie hasn't got time to knock every door to try and match up where a letter/packet is supposed to go because the sender forgot to put the number on it or doesn't know

[kawoxux]

Even on a local level theres porblems because there will be an:

x street
x road
x avenue

..any you will get a letter for "10 x" without the st, rd, av and no postcode. Unless you know the name of the person impossible to tell without the postcode

[Lounge Lizard]

Whats worse is when they just put the district and no town name or post code.

Just for instance, Huddersfield has 5 well known districts Kirkheaton, Shepley , Bradley, Deighton, Fartown

Problem is in Yorkshire alone there are :

2 Villages called Kirkheaton
3 Areas with Bradley in their name (2 alone in Huddersfield )
3 Shipley's or Shepley
2 Fartown's (both in our MCs catchment area)
3 Deighton's

So as you probably see Post Codes should be used even if only being sent locally.

Do you know how many "Tal Y Bont"s there are in North Wales, let alone the whole of Wales? lol Also, Conwy is a county as well as a town so if people put the county on after Abergele (for example) the mail sometimes ends up at Llandudno's office instead of at Rhyl's and then has to go all the way back to Chester in the missorts to get to Rhyl the following day Llandudno ends up with loads of missorts because of the Conwy county thing, that's why I always write Conwy County and not just Conwy when I put my address on stuff because I don't want it delayed/AWOL.

Even if people just put the first half of the postcode, it'd help. BD1 (Bradford city centre), LL30 (Llandudno) etc. At least they'd end up at the right Delivery Office where someone who knows the area can have a stab at which letterbox to put it through.

Mentioning those parts reminds me that a few days ago I was in the Old White House and Albion in Conway and Links Hotel in Llandudno.

[TeeferTiger]

I know those places