[Talk-us] Mailboxes, etc.

[Alan Mintz]

At 2009-10-04 13:39, Greg Troxel wrote:
>Dan Homerick <danhomerick at gmail.com> writes:
> >> How are people tagging mailbox shops, which typically have "PO Boxes"
> >> for rent, and offer various packaging and shipping services (UPS,
> >> USPS, etc.)?  Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.net>
>
> > I would use amenity=post_office + operator=*
> >
> > I might toss in a name tag as well, if it doesn't look like the
> > renderers are picking up on the operator tag (haven't tried it).
> >
> > see: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dpost_office
>
>Private shipping/mailbox facilities are not Post Offices, at least in
>the US.  The wiki page does say that post_office is usable for private
>facilities, but I disagree that such use is reasonable - the government
>office and a private mailbox shop are totally different kinds of
>entities.
>
>I would call them
>
>   shop=shipping
>
>or
>
>   shop=private_mailbox
>
>depending on the primary orientation of the business.


I feel that they are similar enough to use the same primary tag, with 
operator and name being used to distinguish among the USPS, UPS store, etc. 
This is even the direction that the USPS seems to want to go in - 
downplaying that they are a government agency and trying to appear more 
like a competitive commercial enterprise.

It seems reasonable to infer that such a place has mailboxes for rent. I 
suppose a mailboxes=no tag could be used if needed.

--
Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.net>