ADDRESSING

2017www.PostalTechnologyInternational.com

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2017www.PostalTechnologyInternational.com

ADDRESSING

How do you deliver mail to someone if they do not have an address? Around 75% of countries have inconsistent, complicated or non-existent addressing systems, making the task more difficult, while problems can still occur even when a letter or package is labeled – the location can be hard to find, or the item itself may go missing.

Setting up a national addressing system from scratch costs millions and takes years; maintaining it even more. Even highly developed nations such as Ireland and South Korea have spent years introducing new systems, and both have struggled to

roll them out. A developing country without the same level of resources would find it even harder.

what3words is a new approach to global addressing. Using an algorithmic engine similar to that of a coordinate system, it has divided the world into a grid of 3 x 3m squares; 57tn of them. Each square is pre-assigned a unique three-word address: simple, memorable and effective.

Using words instead of numbers or alphanumeric strings is a simpler way of referring to the delivery point of any place in the world, be that a house, an office, a

township hut or a specific corner of a field – even in countries with an existing addressing system, deliveries can now arrive at a specific or remote location if this is preferable. The drop-off point can be viewed on a map and navigated to, with 100% geocoding accuracy.

Addressing the unaddressed The what3words system is already being used in one of the most challenging delivery locations: Rocinha, the largest favela in Brazil, has thousands of tiny roads and walkways. Crammed into the south side of Rio de Janeiro, its residents are full of economic ambition. However, with the favela virtually impossible to navigate, that potential has always been limited.

The what3words app offers three-word addresses to the favela’s residents, written on stickers for people to use when ordering online. The system understands the district and the delivery station, simplifying the process of getting packages to their recipients. The post office can then scale

WITH MOST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD LACKING A DECENT ADDRESSING SYSTEM, COULD THERE BE A BETTER WAY FOR PACKAGES AND PARCELS TO FIND THEIR RECIPIENTS?

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its operations, reduce time training new recruits and work out more efficient routes.

Mongol Post, Mongolia’s national postal delivery service, has also adopted the what3words addressing platform across the country. Mongolia covers an area nearly the size of the European Union, and every citizen now has a three-word address. Mongol Post customers can discover their address via the what3words app, then write it on an envelope or enter it at the checkout of an online shopping website.

Batsaikhan Tsedendamba, CEO of Mongol Post, says, “I have been working at Mongol Post for 10 years now. During this time, we have been presented with numerous local and international addressing systems and technologies. Of them all, I believe what3words is the most user-friendly and optimal technology.”

Satisfied customers what3words is being used by a host of other delivery and logistics firms across the globe. In the UK, Direct Today Couriers now uses

what3words as part of its last-mile express delivery service to rural parts of the country. Missed deliveries have been reduced by 83% as a result.

Global logistics giant Aramex has integrated the technology into its e-commerce operations, ensuring more efficient and effective deliveries. With a move toward unmanned delivery solutions, what3words can now be used to set waypoints, destinations and landing points for the Altavian drone aircraft: medicine and aid can be sent directly to a disaster zone, or a pizza delivered to a park bench.

This is all part of a concerted effort to add commercial partners who can see a clear benefit to the three-word addressing solution. By plugging the API into their own software, apps and services, what3words can drive real efficiencies for delivery and logistics, enhance the customer experience for mapping, navigation, travel and business, and improve lives via governments, NGOs and charitable organizations.

Lost and foundMain image: what3words’ global location reference system gives everyone, everything and everywhere a simple address Left: In June 2016 what3words announced it will provide a national addressing system to Mongol Post, Mongolia’s national postal operatorBelow: Mongol Post customers can now discover any three word address, via the free what3words app

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2017www.PostalTechnologyInternational.com

ADDRESSING50

Expanding the offering what3words has apps for iOS, Android and the web. It is currently available in 12 languages – from English and Arabic to Spanish and Swahili – and is being used in more than 170 countries. In addition to mapping the globe with 3 x 3m squares, users can easily batch convert and reverse geocode latitude and longitude coordinates to three-word addresses via an Excel plug-in. More importantly, the API and SDK are available for businesses and developers to integrate into their existing systems, or to build entirely new apps and services.

An algorithm and wordlist underpin the system. The core technology is contained within a file around 10MB in size, meaning it can be used off-line with no data connection and installed on the simplest of smartphones or devices. The wordlists have 25,000 words per language – the English version has 40,000 words, as the sea has been addressed as well as the land.

Words take into account the length, distinctiveness, frequency, ease of spelling and pronunciation. Simpler or more common words feature in more populated areas, while longer words are used if the population is minimal.

The system is non-hierarchical and, since all units referenced are the same size, there is no need to interpret the code based on the size of geographical area. It is also non-topological; a three-word address used to reference a 3 x 3m square on the Earth’s surface is not dependent on the addresses of adjacent squares.

Importantly, the algorithm also shuffles similar-sounding three-word combinations around the world to make it obvious if an error has been made when typing or saying the address. For example, ‘table.chair.lamp’ and ‘table.chair.lamps’ are purposely found on different continents. Error detection also makes intelligent suggestions on what it thinks is meant as the address is entered. It even accounts for typos and human error.

Humble beginnings Having spent 10 years organizing music events around the world, Chris Sheldrick, CEO of what3words, constantly faced logistical frustrations as a result of poor addressing. He discussed the idea of a more usable and less-error-prone version of the latitude and longitude coordinate system with a mathematician friend. An early version of the what3words

algorithm was written on the back of an envelope, and in March 2013 the company was founded by the pair.

Since then, growth has been rapid. The native app was released and the website launched in July 2013. The API followed in November 2013 and the offline SDK in October 2014. Off-line functionality was added in February 2015, and voice input capabilities are already in development.

The team has worked hard to ensure three-word addresses are available across as many platforms as possible. The service is available in Esri, ArcGIS, AutoCAD, Hexagon and Fee. You can also type a three-word address straight into the DuckDuckGo search bar, through the Facebook Messenger App, and can even find a three-word address via a Garmin SmartWatch. n

IN THE NEXT20 YEARS...Drone delivery – This will be more commonplace, with drones taking medicine and food into a disaster area or a pizza to a park bench.

Population – The world’s cities will be even bigger, with more people, making finding them with current addressing systems an even harder task.

Delivery – Rather than just delivering ‘door-to-door’, the phrase will be ‘anywhere-to-anywhere’, with no limitations on pick-up or drop-off points thanks to innovations and technology.

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All images: what3words is now in use worldwide, including in the UK (left), Mongolia (above) and Brazil (below)