# Does Royal Air Mail (UK) make US ground deliveries like UPS? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 26, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828 "2005-11-26T19:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/21 "2005-11-29T09:35:31Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Lets play with statistics 😉 … > > Lewis & Harris, Scotland - population: 17,473 > Land area: 2,137 sq km > Population density: 8/sq km Cherry-picking is potentially misleading; [url=“[http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/images/popn/gpw2.gif](http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/images/popn/gpw2.gif)”]here is a world map showing population densities; certainly there are areas of the UK that are less densely populated than certain areas of the USA, but the less-populated areas of the UK are (by comparison to the USA) still geographically adjacent to the highly-populated areas, so the logistics of outreaching mail to them should be simpler than they are in the USA, where a lot of areas are not only less densely-populated, but are also far outlying from the nearest dense population centre. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/22 "2005-11-29T09:36:33Z")
[Fixed Link](http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/images/popn/gpw2.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Dishfunctional](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/35a633/32.png) [@Dishfunctional](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dishfunctional)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/23 "2005-11-29T17:08:39Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > [Fixed Link](http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/images/popn/gpw2.gif) Cool. [This](http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/plue/gpw/index.html?main.html&2) version of that map works a bit better, **Mangetout** , being the interactive source of the image. Let’s me click myself off into the wilderness… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/24 "2005-11-29T19:51:56Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > Very handy for websites that can afford a Royal Mail subscription - punch in your postcode, they list the residences at that code and you pick your abode from the list. Yeah. I just wish that the database the Royal Mail flogs to everyone would have my address listed correctly. i.e. in a way which enables the postman to find my house, and not any of the others with a number ‘3’ within a hundred yard radius. Ho-hum, it’s an excuse to not pay the phone bill on time 😉 ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/25 "2005-11-29T22:51:21Z")
> [@Dishfunctional](#): > > Does Royal Air Mail (UK) make ground deliveries to U.S. addresses like UPS? No. It is turned over to the USPS for thier normal delivery. They do not have a stateside delivery operation. NOTE: **Is is mail!** > [@](#): > > I’ve ordered a book from a British publisher, and I’ve provided them with a street address here stateside. It’s a rural address not serviced by the US Postal Service - we have to go into town and pick up mail from a post office box. The book should end up at your routine mail pickup/deliver point. You may want to notify them to hold the book for your arrival. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/26 "2005-11-29T22:55:03Z")
RFD is not what it used to be. Some locations are “Way Out” and are no longer serviced as I understant it. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/27 "2005-11-29T22:55:46Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > Anyhow, [US] zip codes are a dark and mysterious art to people who have grown up with UK Postal Codes, which are assigned to a much finer level of detail - individual building blocks and even individual companies in multi-occupancy buildings, in some instances. There are in fact **nine-digit** ZIP codes (“ZIP+4”) that can be used at the sender’s option, instead of the more typical five-digit ones. The extra four digits identify (I believe) an individual delivery route within a zip code district, and can speed your mail’s arrival time by, oh, anywhere up to a day. Or at least, nine-digit ZIP codes _used_ to make a difference. With modern computer processing, it’s probably just the same now. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828/28 "2005-11-29T22:56:45Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > Anyhow, zip codes are a dark and mysterious art to people who have grown up with UK Postal Codes, which are assigned to a much finer level of detail - individual building blocks and even individual companies in multi-occupancy buildings, in some instances. Very handy for websites that can afford a Royal Mail subscription - punch in your postcode, they list the residences at that code and you pick your abode from the list. Also a boon to credit card companies and others that want to do address verification without wanting to introduce any human error. Did I mention that I like postcodes? 😃 Zip/post codes are borderline redundant now anyway. They are only really useful for letters privately mailed by individuals. The real information is in the barcoding on the letter. In Autralia, for example, every dwelling has its own unique code. The owner never needs to know this code, but the OCR equipment at the post office will work it out from the address, and even though our postcodes are only four digits (representing an entire town or suburb each), a letter coming to me will be sorted by the machinery into a tray of mail that represents one postman’s individual beat. For bulk mailing, the customer will often have the entire national database of dwelling IDs on file, and will preprint the barcodes on the envelopes before they even go anywhere near the postal system, in exchange for a discount on postage. Zip/postcodes nowadays merely act as a doublecheck in the case of an error in the address or in the case of handwritten stuff the machines might encounter difficulty with, but this represents a very small fraction of mail. For the most part, an item with the code entirely omitted will sail through the system just as fast and accurately as all the rest. The codes are nowhere near as vital as they once were. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-royal-air-mail-uk-make-us-ground-deliveries-like-ups/332828.md?page=1)