India Post introduced six digit Postal Index Number(PIN) code on August 15, 1972. It was needed to give unique identity to all physical addresses of the country in terms of delivery jurisdictions of post offices. The code help to solve the challenge of inaccurate addressing and ensure accurate and fast delivery by post offices. The postal code is known differently in different countries postcode, zip code etc is alpha numeric or numeric number that is included in postal address for easy identification of the sorting district and the addresse’s delivery post office. The Universal Postal Union says 160 countries of the world have introduced postal codes. The codes were introduced in Germany in 1944. The code was originally designed to help postal operations but today it is used by couriers, e- commerce players and various other service providers as means of locational identification of a person.
The proportion of PIN coded mails in India improved after the introduction of computerized billing by utility service providers and launching of KYC norms by banks, where giving complete accurate address was made compulsory. The PIN code helps in taking piece of mail to addresses post office. The delivery jurisdiction of the post office is divided into beats and there is a postman assigned to each beat. Beat sorting at post office is done manually in India. The system of postal code that was introduced 50 years ago may not be operationally relevant in the new role of post office.
0 Comments