Talk:Tag:amenity=post office
Discuss Tag:amenity=post_office here:
There's a postal service collection centre here. How to tag it? It's not really a normal post office at all.
-- Harry Wood 18:53, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
- I assume the "collection centre" is public facing part of what is actually a delivery / sorting office. I'd agree that this isn't really a Post Office in the normal sense, and from a user's point of view, it doesn't really make sense to tag it as such. How about something like amenity=post_deport or amenity=postal_deport as a single tag to cover postal-related entities that deal with the sorting and/or distribution of mail, but aren't Post Offices. Though thinking more, I wonder if amenity the right key to use? -- Rjw62 17:04, 10 June 2010 (UTC)
- I'm not convinced. The current wiki definition for amenity=post_office is "A post office. A place where letters and parcels may be sent or collected.". That fits the public amenity aspect of a sorting office (picking up post, and other facilities). Much better to keep a well-used and documented tag than replace it with a currently undocumented one. A more parsimonious option might be to keep post_office for depots, but add post_office:type=depot ? Or keep post_depot for places without any public access? I've noticed a number of post_office tags have recently become post_depot - I've added back a post_office tag for my local amenity. ddixon 08:24, 19 June 2010 (UTC)
- With reference specifically to the UK, there are quite a few entities run by the Royal Mail that they term "Sorting Offices" or "Delivery Offices". These may or may not have a customer collection point, for people to pick up parcels that couldn't be delivered for one reason or another. But AFAIK, most of these don't allow you to post anything (apart from at a postbox that's typically sited outside. You won't be able to buy stamps there, nor get any of the other services you typically find at one of the (Royal Mail run/franchised) Post Offices. These delivery / sorting offices are also not termed "Post Offices" by the Royal Mail, as they're not included in the official Post Office Branch Finder. If would therefore be confusing for users to for these entities to be marked as "Post Offices" when they are manifestly not. They're arguably not a sub-type of Post Office, but a separate type of entity ( albeit one run by the same company) and so should not be tagged as a sub-type of amenity=post_office. Rjw62 15:45, 20 June 2010 (UTC)
Postal Code information
How can postal code information be attached to the post office? For example, in the United States, each post office serves one zip code.
For now I am using Key:postal_code. Admins etc., please add to the wiki page if it is a good idea. :-) --Abbafei (talk) 06:53, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
- @Abbafei: I think it's a good idea, and it matches usage I've seen since the early days. A given USPS post office may serve multiple (even many) ZIP codes, not just the ZIP code of the post office's own mailing address. For example, many post offices use a different ZIP code for the P.O. boxes in the lobby than for mail delivery. I added a mention of this proposal to the page, but please feel free to edit pages yourself in a similar manner; wiki administrators are responsible for cleanup and aren't authorities on tagging. – Minh Nguyễn 💬 01:11, 2 December 2019 (UTC)
Bicycle couriers / Bike messenger
Since Proposed features/courier was rejected with the argument that post_office should be used, How to tag a bicycle courier office? It's not usually a place where letters are brought to. --Panoramedia (talk) 09:31, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
- Use office=*, either the generic office=company or something more specific like office=courier or office=bicycle_courier, if this is the back-end office of the service. --Jeisenbe (talk) 07:30, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
USPS branch names
IMO "name=* should ideally contain the local branch name, e.g. "Springfield Post Office" or "Hyde Park Station Post Office"." is a very bad idea. They should all be named as "United States Post Office". The name like Springfield mentioned above, is not an exclusive name like Amazon lockers. There could be multiple post offices in the same municipality using different name (mostly coming from old neighborhood names however no longer being recognized):
J city has 3 POs:
- Bullet Post Office
- Mitchell Post Office
- Lombard Post Office
If just naming them like above, many people will be confused. Normally people should name them as J Bullet Post Office, J Mitchell Post Office...
So I'd recommend using "United States Post Office" （operator=United States Postal Service） everywhere. -- CBRS (talk) 21:13, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
- At least as far as I understand your suggestion, I would consider it to cause more confusion: If all post offices were named "United States Post Office" - so exactly the same - and you're searching and get a list of 30 times the identical name, that would cause quite some confusion as you can't tell the single list entries apart. In contrast, the names "J Bullet Post Office, J Mitchell Post Office..." are much more likely to be distinguishable and maybe even known ("ah, yea, that's the post office next to Mitchell church") and they can be easily distinguished from other features sharing the same locality name ("Mitchell church" vs "Mitchell Post Office"). --Schoschi (talk) 21:54, 12 April 2021 (UTC)
- Some more discussion on this topic: [1]. The article suggests the standard name, "Springfield Post Office". No private shipping chain uses the term "Post Office" in its name, so there's no risk of confusion with other chains. The suggestion is to name the post office whatever the USPS names it, not necessarily according to the city it's in, hence "Hyde Park Station Post Office". – Minh Nguyễn 💬 16:48, 28 October 2021 (UTC)
Rephrase the description
Please remove or rephrase the sentence "Please do not tag this in places where one is unable to do what is expected from a post office, for example buying stamps". Post office is a place where parcels and letters may be sent or collected - this is the definition. An example with stamps is bad. If I can collect and sent a parcel but can't buy stamps, it's not a post office? It's like saying that if a grocery store doesn't sell meat, one can't tag it as a grocery store. Please consider that reality changes and stamps go out of use and are not always needed. maro21 18:52, 11 October 2021 (UTC)