[Tagging] Postal verses locational addresses

[Philip Barnes]

On 12 September 2023 10:28:11 CEST, Warin <61sundowner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>On 12/9/23 03:57, Greg Troxel wrote:
>> The fundamental issue is that there are postal addresses and what might
>> be called "civil addresses" or "physical addresses" ('locational' I
>> understand but is not normal English usage).
>I could not think of a better descriptive 'word' for what I wanted to express.
>>   In the US, we also have
>> "911 dispatchable location" which is all about getting there physically
>> and is US-bureaucatic-speak.
>> 
>> OSM has decided to tag postal addresses on address points.   I find this
>> an odd choice, and I think it really doesn't mean this, as companies
>> that use PO boxes are not tagged that way, but with the street address.
>> 
>> The only fix I think of is to have a separate set of tags paddr: and a
>> rule that those should be set if they are different from the addr: tags
>> (which are postal).  except postcode, which is a postal-only.
>
>
>Err the zip/postcode in the UK is a (small) physical area. It is used by truck delivery drivers to enter into their GPS to find a route to the delivery point. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdom
>
>Possibly the OSM addr thinking is based on the UK where the postal address is the physical location?There maybe exceptions to this in the UK too?
>
The company I work for has a PO box meaning the postcode is not the actual location.

Visitors often arrive having put the postcode into their satnav and have had a detour via the Royal Mail sorting office several miles away.

Putting the company name into an  OSM based router will take you straight there.