Navigating by Postal Code

My wife shared an interesting and fact with me which she discovered at work during a business analysis session. Singapore postal codes are actually assigned to individual buildings. I had to investigate this one some more.

Postal services has been available in Singapore since the island was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. Postal Codes codes were created for purposes of sorting mail and are usually assigned to geographical areas like cities and suburbs.

In South Africa we had four digit postal code which basically tells you in which city or suburb you resided. Singapore has a 6 digit postal code which actually tells you exactly where the building is located. Other countries like the UK and the USA also use this convention.

So why is this so cool. Well, it means you can use your postal code for other purposes like finding a building on satellite navigation systems without knowing  the actual address. If I know the postal code for let's say my house, 578589, searching it on Google maps gives me this result.

Exactly where my house is located. Cool. As the postal codes are building specific you can also use it for other creative purposes.

Calculating distances between postal codes. There is actually a web wizard for this. A more interesting one is determining geographical sales territories for representatives like in the pharmaceutical industry.

The South Africa mail system started in a boot shaped box under a gnarled milk wood tree in Mosselbay. In 1500, one of the Commanders of Cabral ships, Pedro De Ataide, left a letter of importance in an iron pot shoe under this tree on his return journey from the East. The letter was found by Commander of the Third East India Fleet, Joao De Nova in 1501 on his way to India. And that's how it started.

We visited this National Monument on holiday in 2010. You can still mail a letter from there today.