Archive for the 'an post' Category

The woes of a postman (or numerophobia breeds contempt)

Published December 18th, 2008 in eire postcode, PONC, pon code, irish post codes and an post. 3 Comments

When it comes to postal addresses Irish people seem to suffer from an extreme case of numerophobia, a fear of numbers. The ideal Irish house is a one-off rural dormer bungalow, with a token 3 metre tarred driveway, overt kerosene tank, and electic gates. The ideal Irish address is as short as possible; “John Smith, Townland, Town, County Cork”

In my youth - which was not that long ago - I earned some extra money as a postman. At this time of year, having taken it for granted like running water or electricity,  the public tend to briefly think of the postal system as they send Christmas cards. The classic advice to posters to make sure the destination address is correct and to include a return address in case it is not. But what about the other side of the postal journey? The receiver.

Housing estate and even street houses do not always display numbers, so if you have an envelope to deliver to number 14 you will have to search for any house that has a number displayed and then find another one near it to see which direction the numbers run in, and only then can you find number 14. In Australia many councils stencil spray paint house numbers onto the kerb, so that if a particular owner finds the idea of having a number on hisoak door repulsive it doesn’t matter.

and when you finally reach the door of number 14 you might find a buzzer for 4 apartments, naturally the labels will not given surnames as that would require too much effort, so you ring Apt 1-4 and there is no answer from any. So you toss a coin (twice) and put the “Sorry I missed you” delivery note into Apt 1’s slot.

Often occupiers will disregard numbers entirely. Housing estate houses in gentrified areas often disregard their actual number and adopt a name instead, such as “Maryville”, “Windrush”, “The Gables” and so on.

Housing estate residents often consider their estates so well known that they drop the Road name, so 14 Rath More, Smith Road, Ballybeg, Co Nonsuch becomes 14 Rath More, Ballybeg, Co Nonsuch. Bearing in mind that Ballybeg could have 25+ estates a delivery driver finding himself on Main Street has no idea where the “Rath More” estate is.

Sometimes upon arriving at a house you find there is not letterbox, or that it is tiny (do builders not follow construction guidelines?), some houses don’t even have doorbells.

Ah I have fond memories of my days delivering envelopes and packages, I remember one house that I held on a pedestal. It had a visible number on the pillar, a number above the letterbox itself, and even a plaque reading “J Smith”. I don’t know why Mr Smith found it necessary to put his name on the outside of his house, perhaps he was someone important, but it sure made my job easier.

An Post will never complain about these matters, because their advantage over private sector couriers is in their staff personal knowledge of lcoal areas. An Post will never voluntarily promote postcodes either for this reason.

eBay convinces An Post to reduce its high postage fees

Published August 25th, 2007 in ebay ireland, an post and rip off republic. 2 Comments

eBay.ie, the localised eBay website, and An Post, the Universal Service Obligation provider in the Republic of Ireland have joined forces to introduce a new pilot scheme for eBay sellers resident in Ireland.

The “e-Parcel Card” was launched on 21 August 2007 and will be reviewed in April 2008, offers eligible eBay users favourable prices on national and international parcels weighing up to 5kg, sent using An Post. Users save up to 45% on national parcels and 75% on international postage. As most of my buyers are in “Great Britain” - to use An Posts language - this should save me a fair amount of money.

The new service is free to join and open to all eBay users who

  • reside in the Republic Ireland
  • have a minimum feedback score of 90
  • with at least 98% positive

Eligible eBay users can effortlessly sign up for the scheme by visiting www.e-Parcel.ie Once registered, they will receive an e-Parcel Card, which they can produce at one of 1000 local “automated” post offices nationwide whenever they are sending an eBay parcel to allow them to benefit from the preferential pricing.

The An Post press release quotes random Irish eBayer, irgs025 as saying: “As a frequent seller on the eBay.ie website, I regularly post packages of all sizes nationally and internationally. The e-Parcel service takes the hassle out of posting packages, the site itself is easy to use and the cost of postage very favourable.” Not how he speaks in the present tense yet the card takes 28 days to arrive and was only launched this week, he must be a yes man.

I welcome the card but I expect when it is “reviewed in April 2008″ it will be cancelled. I’ve seen so many discount cards come and go over the years I have little faith in them, fortunately this is not a stored value card and it is free to apply so one cannot lose.

Why is Registered Post so expensive?

Published May 30th, 2007 in open to interpretation, consumer pays, vague, an post, rip off ireland, irish government and uncategorized. 0 Comments

An Post, the Irish post office, charge EUR 5.00 to send a registered letter (signature on delivery, and web tracking number) anywhere on the Island of “Ireland”.


We would expect the charge to send a regsitered letter abroad to be higher, but infact it is cheaper. The charge for “Great Britain”, “Europe” and “Rest of World” is just EUR 4.93.


Looking past this current irregularity lets just look at the price within Ireland, EUR 5.00. It is quite expensive, when we consider a normal stamp is EUR 0.55, and that registered post is no faster. So why is the price so high? Well I content it is because An Post have a monopoly in this area. Various Government Acts and Statutory instruments specify the “Mode of service” of notices.


For example

RESIDENTIAL INSTITUTIONS REDRESS ACT 2002, Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006

These say a notice can be served by the writer delivering it to the receiver’s hand, or sometimes just at his address, or having it delivered by “Registered Post”


For the obvious temporal and economic reasons most notices are sent via the latter “Registered Post”. In keeping with the practice of vagueness that keeps the courtrooms whirring legislation does not specify what exactly is meant by “Registered Post”, so rather then use a Private Post Provider and risk it being judged an invalid service it is the practice to use only An Post.

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