Postal Codes

This Phase of the Postal Codes concerns postal infrastructure for sorting and delivery services. They do not cover administrative or geographic areas.

The sorting and delivery services concerns delivery to such address types as PO Box, Private Bag, counter collection services parcels, registered items and Poste Restante.

The postcode structure described here is a five-numeric character design, based on the national, regional and local delivery (spokes) routing. This indicates the journey of a mail item from origin or from central sorting to delivery office.

There are three levels in the hierarchy in the postcode:

• ◦

  Postal Region

• ◦

  Postal Area

• ◦

  Delivery Post Office

The first character identifies the Postal Region, of which there are five (5).

The second character identifies, within a postal region, the postal area.

The last two characters identify a Post Office for the delivery, which may be any of the postal delivery service infrastructure types listed under point 3 above.

The third character in this Phase 1 design is always zero. This character is a service type indicator that will change for Phase 2 designs and possible later designs, which are to be based on administrative and geographic data types. These are intended for physical address sorting and delivery services.