Finding Your Postcode Areas

[kwatt]

A common thing I get (especially with the engineer search) is that people don’t know and can’t find out what postcode ares that they cover and don’t cover. Also, a lot of people don’t understand how they work.

I found a great little tool to use so you can determine which postcodes you cover here:

http://www.map-logic.co.uk/postcode-map … a-map.html

Use the links under the map to zoom in on any area for a more detailed view of each region of the UK.

Now, for most work providers, manufacturers etc., most IT systems and for the engineer search here’s how this works…

All set their coverage using postcode data, I’ve not come across one in the better part of 20 years that doesn’t. The reason is that who gets the call is determines by the first part of the postcode only, for example the “KA1” part of the code. This is commonly referred to as the “postcode area”.

This means that splitting a postcode area for most people just isn’t possible as all the systems that everyone uses will only determine who does what based on that one bit of information.

For example, the logic in the engineer search runs like this…

Postcode area match, agent covers the postcode area.
Product type match, agent covers this type of product
Brand match, agent will repair this brand

What any IT system can’t do or, it’d be a nightmare to try to do it, is go down to postcode districts (the next subset) as there’s thousands of them. They also can’t determine statements like “I cover south west London” as any system won’t know what you mean and, your idea of south west London might be different from someone else’s. That’s why everyone uses these codes, it makes it an absolute in terms of where anyone does and does not cover.

Hope that helps some of you guys understand how this stuff works.

K.

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