12th Sept 2007

Writing a database program for a Church prompted an interest in postcodes. Naturally I assumed that NZ Post would be anxious that mail was addressed as fully as possible and they would make things easy to obtain the relevant information at no cost.

Back in the days when Telecom and NZ Post were run as a public service by the government, the relevant postal codes for a particular suburb were published as a list in the telephone directory.

After Telecom got flogged off, they dropped this service presumably because NZ Post were too miserable to cough up cash for something they previously got free.

Last year NZ Post purchased new mail sorting equipment (presumably at telephone number cost) which relies for accuracy on correct postal codes. Each mailbox received a mailout with their new postcode in large numerals and we were urged to use them, then everything went quiet again. There's been no publicity since and it would be interesting to know what percentage of the mail carries the correct postcodes. It's all very well knowing your own postcode, but to find out one for someone else, the only means NZ Post provide is a web site. The assumtion is that everyone (a) has access to a computer and (b) you are sitting by it when you address your letter.

With hope I examined the latest telephone directory which arrived last month, but alas the forward thinking NZ Post executives have once again passed up the chance to collaborate with whoever is producing the directories these days and include the correct postcode in the published address of each subscriber. The old post codes used to take a page in the old telephone book, the new NZ Post postcode directory for Canterbury is 89 pages (2 columns of street names per page). You can download this as a pdf file and I guess print it out as a reference. You can buy an electronic version for the whole of NZ for $1000 but unless your into Direct Marketing, that sort of dough is beyond non profit organisations.

So, the church notices will go without postcodes.

TC