On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 1:36 PM, Colin Smale <colin.sm...@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Have you shared your idea with USPS? Let's all use lat/lon and scrap all
> that silly business with street names and zip codes.
Having hauled mail, I would occasionally come across something addressed by
latitude/longitude and we'd have to make an educated guess (but as others
have pointed out, don't exactly have the time or the motivation to care
about accuracy). Hence zip codes aren't about the public's convenience,
but the mail haulers. The postal service can figure out a latitude and
longitude (and they sort of have to if there's no actual street address,
which happens). But, largely thanks to magazine contests before the rule
came in place in the US (and thus the postal service would have to figure
out where it was trying to go no matter how long it took) trying to figure
out just how to make something undeliverable, the postal service is "best
effort" if you're not conforming to postal standards.
That said, properly wrap your mail ('FRAGILE' doesn't mean anything to the
postal service, assume your package is going to get on the bottom of a 1400
pound pallette of mail with something heavy and pointed on top if you want
it to survive; there's no such thing as overprotecting your contents if you
want it there in one piece). The postal service can work with a name and a
missile address. The postal service can work with a name and a zip code if
it's rural enough. But, and I don't even do that line of work anymore, if
you pull shit like mail a gallon of milk unprotected and without a
cooler...I hate you.
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