Developed originally by Royal Mail to enhance and streamline postal delivery, Postcodes and Postcode geography have evolved to form an integral part of business planning as an established reference point throughout the United Kingdom.It may look simple, but a Postcode is probably the most accurate way to identify a location. A familiar and widely used reference, it provides routing instructions for the delivery of mail and pinpoints on average just 15 addresses. Geoplan has been working in conjunction with Royal Mail for over 40 years - and our data and software guarantee you the most up-to-date postcode information at your fingertips.
Outward Code: The mail is collected and taken to a mail centre. The first half of the code (e.g. HG3),tells us which delivery office to transport the mail to.
Inward Code: At the delivery office (or mail centre) the second half of the postcode, combined (e.g. 1GP), with the building name or number, gives us the location of the delivery point.
Each Postcode is built up from several layers of geographical information from the Postcode Area to the Unit Postcode, e.g. the Postcode of Geoplan is HG3 1GP.
HG denotes the Harrogate Postcode Area - there are currently 124 Postcode Areas in the UK. Which represents approximately 220,000 addresses per Area. A total of 27 million data points. Ideal for displaying national sales and market statistics.
HG3 denotes District three in the Harrogate Postcode Area - there are approximately 3,000 Postcode Districts in the UK. Which represents approximately 9,000 addresses per District. Ideal for displaying regional sales and market statistics.
HG3 1 denotes Sector one in District three of the Harrogate Postcode Area - there are approximately 9,500 Postcode Sectors in the UK. Which represents approximately 2,850 addresses per Sector. Ideal for detailed market analysis applications including; direct marketing, media analysis, retail planning and the management of territory structures on a local level.
HG3 1GP denotes the full, Unit Postcode there are over 1.8 million Unit Postcodes in the UK. Which represents approximately 15 addresses per Unit Postcode. Ideal for displaying the location of customers, prospects, personnel, stores etc.
Royal Mail make circa 30,000 changes to Postcode locations every month, either updating exiting Postcode locations, introducing new Postcodes or retiring old Postcodes.
A Postcode location will change based on address density and operational need for Royal Mail to ensure their field team of 150,000 posties can deliver mail effectively and efficiently.
A Postcode may be retired as a result of changes to Royal Mail’s operational geography, meaning that Postcodes become redundant or underdeveloped or underutilised.
New Postcodes are normally introduced to accommodate new building development - housing estates, business parks, etc. this results in an area with no free Postcodes to allocate.
The Postcode changes affect many aspects of business analysis and day to day operation, so Postcode products and business data need to be kept up-to-date to maintain their effectiveness.
If the Postcode or part of the Postcode is missing, then the item may need extra sorting time which can be up to 20 times slower than sorting by machine. If any part of a Postcode is wrong the item might be sent country wide before reaching its proper destination.
Geoplan works in conjunction with Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey to ensure that businesses can rely on our Postcode-based products to be the latest and most accurate available, allowing you to see where gaps, opportunities, duplications, imbalances or trends lie.
