[OSM-talk] post boxes and collection times

[Karl Newman]

On Nov 20, 2007 10:12 AM, Freek <freek_osm at vanwal.nl> wrote:
> On Tuesday 20 November 2007, Thom Shannon wrote:
> > Freek wrote:
> > > b) they may change over time,
> >
> > well of course everything changes over time. Whether we map it or not
> > should be based on a combination of likely hood of change and usefulness
> > of being mapped. Collection times tend to stay the same for years in
> > this country. If they change very often elsewhere then maybe it's not
> > worth bothering
> >
> > > c) you should be able to deduce the official collection times from the
> > > combination of operator and post box type (in my case, small versus
> > > normal and perhaps "late-emptied" boxes).
> >
> > The post boxes near me vary from 4:30 to 7pm with almost every 15
> > minutes in between.
>
> So you are using the "last collection time" Andy was talking about elsewhere
> in this thread? We do not have such an indication (apart from the last
> collection day), so I thought you were talking about the "official"
> collection time (as far is there is such a thing), which would probably not
> be very accurate/interesting.
>
> Apparently this is a bit country-specific: a last_collection_weekday tag would
> for example not be very useful here, as nobody will be waiting near a post
> box to see when the postman arrives.

Many (most?) post boxes are labeled with the last official collection
time so you know if you drop off a letter/package before that time
it's "guaranteed" to be picked up that day. But as someone else
mentioned, there are subtleties to that in Germany, for one. There are
separate "last collection times" for general vs. local next-day
delivery.

Karl