Parcel post increase may “explain shortcomings with Eircode”, claims FTA Ireland
FTA Ireland has claimed that the “dramatic” rise of online shopping and increase in parcel and packet traffic in Ireland may “explain why the proposed Eircode postcode is so limited”. In a statement issued on Wednesday (6 May), the FTA said it had issued its warning over the Eircode “in response to the An Post’s Annual Report 2014… which revealed that while there was a 3.3% decline in standard postal mail business, parcel and packet deliveries increased by 6% year-on-year”.
Neil McDonnell, FTA Ireland General Manager commented: “While standard mail volumes are going through a structural and unstoppable decline, parcel volumes are likely to continue to expand for the foreseeable future. E-commerce is the fastest growing retail market in Europe. It is for this reason that a structured postcode is so important for Ireland. A random postcode will simply not provide the necessary or achievable savings for the distribution sector in delivering sustainable, cost effective solutions.”
McDonnell continued: “We consider it a distortion of a fair parcel and packet distribution market that Ireland’s postcode will be a random postal address identifier, rather than a structured postcode. While An Post has long-established (and free) access to the state’s entire address database, a random postcode will impose a cost on all An Post competitors, for no operational gain, or consumer benefit.”
In November 2014 FTAI led a delegation of companies that met the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications (JCTC) to express “deep concerns” regarding the Eircode. The delegation claimed that the introduction of Eircode was “likely to appeal to the Revenue, utilities and other companies that interact with the public via postal mail, but its use for parcel, freight, energy and passenger firms was likely to be severely compromised”.
The Eircode does have its supporters among some carriers outside of the FTA Ireland. As Post&Parcel reported, John Tuohy, the CEO of Nightline Group, told the JCTC that he believed that Eircode design was “sound and entirely workable”.
Under the system being implemented by government contractor Capita, post codes for each property will be unique but not sequential. This means that within a postal district of tens of thousands of properties, it will be difficult to tell if certain properties are close to each other without paying for access to the government database.
