It looks as though Royal Mail are aiming to obtain latitude, longitude and elevation data for every deliverable address in the UK.
http://www.royalmail.com/customer-service/pinpoint-positional-data-capture
OpenStreetMap
It looks as though Royal Mail are aiming to obtain latitude, longitude and elevation data for every deliverable address in the UK.
http://www.royalmail.com/customer-service/pinpoint-positional-data-capture
Discussion
Comment from ca_hoot on 18 July 2012 at 18:36
Yeah I saw this, got a leaflet in the post… I’m in one of the pilot areas. No doubt that data will be locked up tight. Although was wondering why they are using a laser distance measurement… distance from the road?
Comment from Pink Duck on 18 July 2012 at 18:44
I suspect it’s to avoid the building from causing inaccuracy with the GPS position, and perhaps to avoid looking too suspicious if they are not delivering letters at the time.
I rather hope that they build a dataset of their postboxes and release that (and the collection times) to the public for free. That would actually benefit their business operations and be somewhat better than now where only the delivery personnel know the exactly locations.
Comment from robbieonsea on 21 July 2012 at 00:19
‘I rather hope that they build a dataset of their postboxes…’
They already have.
See:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/location_of_every_post_box_that
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/last_collection_times
And to go about mapping it:
http://www.dracos.co.uk/play/locating-postboxes/
http://robert.mathmos.net/osm/postboxes/
Comment from Pink Duck on 21 July 2012 at 07:48
I was involved with one of those Freedom of Information Act requests and you’ll note that they didn’t provide the latitude/longitude of the postboxes, just rough locations based on streets/junctions. I have surveyed a city’s worth of postboxes since. Note, that the collection times are rather out of date now.
It would be considerably preferable for the source data provider to release the information directly and to maintain it. In the mean time the links you posted should help prompt others into action.
Comment from robbieonsea on 23 July 2012 at 18:53
Good work.
I’m not entirely convinced how accurate the collection times are anyway, the other day I posted a postcard and just in time caught the post person emptying the box at 7pm. The box’s listed time was around 5:30pm.
IHMO It’s just a guide as too whether it’s likely to be an early or late final collection, and to know where the definitive late post box time is for the area.
I think collecting the post box type & royal cypher is vaguely interesting (on a historical slant) as the Royal Mail themselves may not have this info.