How Much Address Information Does A Parcel Delivery Company Need?

According to the official Postal Address File, a database of every single address in the United Kingdom, just three items of address information are sufficient to be able to identify every one of those addresses. That is why there has recently been press coverage of a plan by the Royal Mail, which maintains the address database, to delete the names of counties from the records completely.

More than 100 now-obsolete county names are still in use, such as Avon, Sussex, Gwynedd and Clackmannanshire. According to newspaper reports, these are to be deleted from the database by 2013. But by 2016, companies will no longer need to include the names of any counties in addresses for them to be considered properly addressed.

The area which will lose the greatest number of addresses is Scotland, where 54 one-time counties will be culled from the records. A further 48 will disappear from official addresses in England, while the list is completed by eight Welsh and six Northern Irish counties.

This removal of addresses is in response to a request from the UK postal regulator Postcomm. In May 2010, it asked for the names of now-defunct counties to be removed from the official database as soon as was practicably possible. The beginning of the end for including county names in addresses came in 1996. That was when automated sorting technology rendered them surplus to formal requirements.

However, many people still feel strong emotional attachments to particular counties especially in areas which have been affected by local government boundary changes so have persisted in using the counties when addressing letters and parcels.

Companies have also continued to use them as a convenient method of dividing territories among teams of sales and delivery workers. Steps were being taken more than five years in advance of the official deletion of the information from records, as it took several years for people to adapt their habits.

The scale of the work required in removing counties from official records was demonstrated when it was announced that Postcomm was stepping back from requiring work to start immediately on expunging old county names from the database because of concerns raised by government departments, companies, and mail and parcel delivery companies themselves at the possible disruption which could be caused.

Correct addressing of a parcel can be ensured by using a postcode finder service. This speeds up considerably the processing of consignments, and helps maintain a parcel delivery services reliability.