THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WRITE in response to the Jamaica Post notice in The Gleaner (June 13) regarding the new post codes. It might seem logical for the Jamaica Post to identify the new post codes with seven alphanumeric characters such as JMAAW03 for Kingston 8, etc., but I am sure that we the general public will find it quite confusing and cumbersome for a long time to come.
I would like to suggest that the Jamaica Post re-examine the coding system to be more user-friendly to the general public, so that it will be simpler to remember and easier to use. The U.S. has successfully used the five-digit zip code for all of its 50 United States and territories and a few years ago implemented an additional four-digit extension. ZIP is an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan. A visit to the U.S. Postal Service's website (http://www.usps.com ) should be quite helpful to find a wealth of information about the U.S. postal system.
I think Jamaica Post could follow this efficient example for us as well. A Jamaican mailing address could consist of name, street, city or district, parish (using the first two characters (Kingston and St. Andrew could be combined as KI) followed by a five-digit post code broken down into geographical quadrants:
Clarendon CL 01;
Hanover HA 02;
Kingston & St. Andrew KI 03;
Manchester MA 04;
Portland PO 05;
St. Ann AN 06;
St. Catherine CA 07;
St. Elizabeth EL 08;
St. James JA 09;
St. Mary MA 10;
St. Thomas TH 11;
Trelawny TR 12;
Westmoreland WE 13.
An example of a mailing address would be:
John Brown
191 Constant Spring Road
Kingston, KI 03108, Jamaica
I am, etc.,
K. YAP
j.yap@cwjamaica.com
Kingston 8
Via Go-Jamaica
