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| Quote: This initiative, being piloted in East Anglia from 16 July, will help improve the accuracy of location-based information used by individuals and businesses. If successful, the initiative will be rolled out across the UK later in the year. For individuals and companies, many everyday activities involve using information which is based on the location of an address. Royal Mail already provides one of the UK’s most widely used location-based tools – the postcode. Location-based information is used by the emergency services, satellite navigation systems and smartphone applications. We want to help improve the accuracy of this information. So, we are mapping address information which is accurate to the front door of every home and business in your area. This could, for example, help the satellite navigation systems in the cars of friends and families find your address more easily. | |
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http://www.royalmail.com/customer-servi ... t-redirect
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| Quote: Royal Mail is piloting an initiative to map the precise co-ordinates of every address in the UK to help companies and other organisations improve the accuracy of location-based tools and technologies. During the pilot, postmen and women will map the GPS longitude, latitude and altitude co-ordinates of every property in East Anglia. | |
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I am baffled about this, TBH. I don’t see what need Royal Mail needs for X,Y and Z coordinates of an address. It’s hardly going to make their deliveries in the area more reliable, and if the postman can’t read the address on the envelope and match it to the correct door (guess what - this is a common failing where I live), I hardly see how GPS positioning data will make them any more accurate. We use postcodes, not GPS coordinates. Mind you, if postie needs prompting to get the letter through the right door (maybe by using a “warm, warmer, cold, colder” directional system), you have to ask if he/she is suited to the task in the first place.
However, this seems to be a data grab in the hope that companies will pay to use it. So it won’t improve Royal Mail’s services, but it may help those direct mail companies get to you a little more efficiently.
