What are Postal Codes?
- Postal codes are a group of letters and numbers that are used to expedite mail sorting and delivery. Each country has a different method to its respective postal code madness, but ultimately, all postal codes serve the same purpose. The sequence is used to indicate sections of the country, city, street and possibly even the delivery type.
- In the United States, postal codes are called ZIP codes, which is an acronym for zoning improvement plan. Originally started as a five-digit number, the consecutive numbering of ZIP codes reflects movement across the country from the Northeast to the West Coast. For example, the ZIP code for Bangor, Maine is 04401 while Honolulu's ZIP code is 96801. The first three digits in the code designate major cities and distribution locations with the final two digits refining the location to a greater extent.
- In the U.S., the ZIP code system began in 1963 as a result of explosive business mail volume. Use of ZIP codes was optional upon its inception; however, four years later, the United States Postal Service made its use mandatory on all second- and third-class mail and required that mail in those classifications be sorted by ZIP code. The ZIP code system was revised again in 1983 with the addition of four additional digits. Known as ZIP+4, the codes further refined delivery locations.
- Although it's now referred to as "snail mail" as a result of the digital age and electronic transfer of information, the use of ZIP codes does expedite the delivery of mail. The development of bar codes as a representation of the numeric ZIP further enhanced speed of delivery with automation. Use of bar codes and proper sorting offers the greatest savings in postal rates.
- Canadian postal codes are made up of six characters (three letters and three digits) grouped in threes and separated by a space. The first three characters (which are made up of a letter-digit-letter sequence) comprise what's known as the Forward Sortation Area. The first character, a letter, specifies a province or territory; the second character, a digit, specifies urban or rural delivery; and the last character, a letter, indicates region, city or section of a metropolitan area. The second group of three characters (digit-letter-digit) is called the Local Delivery Unit and further refines mail delivery to indicate groups of addresses that make up small towns, universities, large buildings and other locales.
- Great Britain actually boasts the first world's first experiment with postal codes designed for automation. These six-character alpha-numeric codes began in 1959 in the city of Norwich. By 1974, this coding system was in place throughout Great Britain. Historically, England saw the use of postal codes as early as 1857, when Sir Rowland Hill divided London into delivery districts based on compass points very simplistically as N, W, S and E. Numbers were added to refine the locations during World War I, and codes took on the form of NW1, SE2 and so on.
