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Mailsort
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mailsort is a five-digit address-coding scheme used by the Royal Mail (the UK's postal service) and its business customers for the automatic direction of mail. Mail users who can present mail sorted by Mailsort code and in quantities of 4,000 upwards receive a discounted postal rate.
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Mailsort is not widely known to the British public and the code is not written as part of the address, rather it appears elsewhere on the envelope or label or may be encoded as a barcode. Although the majority of people in the UK use the postcode, the mailsort code is now used for automated sorting. The postcode failed in its objective, partly because its inflexibility led to numerous initial two-letter codes being directed to a single main sorting office, and this led to some addresses having non-obvious characters. Furthermore, errors were introduced by the easy confusion by autotype reading of some characters of often hand-written addresses.
As the system is only used by a closed group of Royal Mail customers the scheme can be entirely re-coded from time to time. The last such update occurred in August 2005.
Unlike posting by regular mail it is possible to specify service levels other than 1st or 2nd class with longer delivery times offered. Three Mailsort products are available - known as 120, 700 and 1,400 - each based on the customer's ability to sort into increasingly smaller geographical areas. A further Walksort product is available to those with very large quantities who can present mail sorted first by mailsort code and then by walk number (the second half of the postcode).
| Level | Service | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Mailsort 1 | delivery the next working day after the day of posting | sorted into Mailsort sequence |
| Mailsort 2 | delivery three working days after the day of posting | sorted into Mailsort sequence |
| Mailsort 3 | delivery within seven working days after the day of posting | sorted into Mailsort sequence |
| Walksort 1 | delivery the next working day after the day of posting | sorted into Mailsort sequence and walk sequence |
| Walksort 2 | delivery three working days after the day of posting | sorted into Mailsort sequence and walk sequence |
The first three digits, the Residue Selection Code, corresponds to an area which can vary in size from one postal district to several postcode areas, although most codes correspond exactly to one postcode area. For example:
- 104 corresponds to the KA and ML postcode areas;
- 172 corresponds to LS postcode area;
- 244 corresponds to the SW1 postal district; and
- 269 corresponds to the BN postcode area and the RH14 postal district.
The last two digits, called the Direct Selection code correspond to one or more postal districts.
Mailsort codes are sometimes prefixed by a letter (A-P) which corresponds to sixteen regional divisions of the country, although the letter does not form a part the mailsort code. The letter prefix is used by the sender to ensure that when mail is presented to Royal Mail those items with the furthest to travel are given and processed first while those in the same region as the sender are dealt with last. When mail is presented to Royal Mail it is therefore not given in strict mailsort sequence and furthermore the sequence used will differ from one location in the country to another.
| Residue | Location | Postcode areas |
|---|---|---|
| 101-103 | Northern Ireland | BT |
| 104-109 | Scotland | KA, ML, G, PA, HS, IV, KW |
| 110-122 | Scotland | AB, ZE, DD, PH, FK, KY, EH, TD |
| 123-130 | North West England | BL, WN, M, OL, FY, PR, BB, LA, DG, CA |
| 131-136 | not used | |
| 137-141 | North West England and North Wales | SK, L, CH, LL, CW, WA |
| 142 | Isle of Man | IM |
| 143-145 | North East England | NE, SR, TS, DH, DL |
| 146-172 | Yorkshire | YO, HU, DN, HG, LS |
| 173-178 | Yorkshire | WF, BD, HX, HD, S |
| 179-185 | Midlands | DE, LE, CV, NN, LU, MK, B |
| 186-189 | East Anglia | NR, CB, IP, PE |
| 190-191 | Channel Islands | JE, GY |
| 192-199 | Midlands and Mid Wales | DY, WS, WV, ST, LD, SY, TF, BG, OX |
| 200-227 | not used | |
| 228-231 | London and South East | HP, AL, EN, WD, SG, IG, RM |
| 232-238 | London and South East | SS, CO, CM, DA, ME, TN, CT |
| 239-265 | London and South East | E, N, NW, SE, SW, EC, WC, W, SL, HA, UB |
| 266-295 | London and South East | BR, CR, SM, RH, BN, TW, KT, GU, PO |
| 296-315 | South West England | GL, SN, BA, BS, TA, EX, TQ |
| 316-324 | South Central England | SO, SP, RG, BH, DT, WR, HR |
| 325-350 | Cornwall and South Wales | PL, TR, NP, CF, SA |