Postcodes
Is it a Statement of Accuracy requirement to remove old postcodes from data which hasn't been cleansed?
No. When your data is being cleansed by your Data Solution Provider, any old postcodes will be automatically updated to the new postcodes - unless it is a record that can be overlooked for the Statement of Accuracy assessment. Please check the list of Statement of Accuracy exclusions for further information. Aside from the exclusions, if you choose not to update your postcodes, this will adversely affect your Statement of Accuracy percentage.
Postcodes must be sorted into ascending order (except for VolumePost 3). The New Zealand Post network will accept mixed postcode lodgements (i.e. mailing lists with old and new postcodes), however any mail with an incorrect address or postcode may take longer to be delivered.
No. Postcodes have been developed to ensure a combination of street address and postcode uniquely identifies every urban and rural address within our delivery network. In any postcode area there are no duplicate streets and up to approximately 10,000 delivery addresses. Each rural delivery area now has a postcode while New Zealand Post PO Box and Private Bag lobbies also have dedicated postcodes.
Postcodes have been developed to increase mail processing efficiency. Our network incorporates 10 machine 'lines' at six major mail processing sites that will process mail for the entire country. Each machine line (numbered 0 – 9) processes mail for a specific geographic region. The machine line represents the first digit of the postcode – it runs north to south in ascending order. The second and third digits reflect postal sort areas and our delivery network i.e. urban posties, New Zealand Post PO Box, Private Bag and RuralPost.
Postcode boundaries have been developed to ensure that a combination of the street address and the postcode uniquely identifies every urban and rural address point. There are no duplicate streets or addresses within a postcode boundary. To further reduce commonly experienced addressing ambiguities, each New Zealand Post PO Box, Private Bag lobby and rural delivery (RD) area has been assigned its own unique postcode.
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While we would not expect changes to be frequent or extensive in nature, New Zealand Post may, in the future, need to update the postcode system to reflect significant changes in delivery point density or shifts in postal network boundaries. For example, as an urban area encroaches into a rural region some addresses may change from rural postcodes to urban postcodes. Additionally, significant infill housing in urban areas may result in the need for new postcodes to ensure the number of households in each postcode area remains similar.
You can access postcode information in a variety of ways through this website:
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