Data Partnership - Royal Mail Postcode Address File

Address Update Solutions

There are a couple of address update solutions available to you when updating your database or customer records. You could pay someone or just do it yourself using the Royal Mail's Postcode Address Files.

Whilst the Royal Mail's address update database of 28 million deliverable addresses works out to be the cheapest option by far (circa £50) you will find yourself a little stuck if your database primarily consist of business. The problem is that the Postcode Address File (PAF) offered by the Royal Mail represents a majority but not all business names although it does report to have every deliverable address. With residential addresses the file is known to be very concise and has comprehensive UK coverage.

Our recommendation - to reduce costs, would be to use the PAF file for both business and residential address updates (as a first pass) and then depending on how many unmatched business records you have remaining, think about sending the unmatched records to a business list address bureau to screen against their business universes.

Drop us an email / brief with any questions and we will do our best to help you out with any free advice we can offer.

The PAF file details follow as this is still a great cost efficient solution if you need to update addresses on a frequent basis (around 6,000 postcode changes take place every month so if you want to stay current you're going to need the file eventually).

Direct From Royal Mail

PAF is the only complete source of all known UK addresses & Postcodes. InfoLogic are authorised Royal Mail resellers of PAF and PostZon (Postcodes with grid references) ensuring that the PAF data you receive is the latest, most up-to-date release available.

Postcode Address File (PAF) Applications

PAF data is essential to ensure that addresses are clean and accurate for mailing purposes. The benefits of clean addresses are:

Reduce postage costs through Mailsort, Presstream and Cleanmail
Reduce the amount of undelivered mail
Preservation of brand image
Improved accuracy of customer and prospect analysis

Address Data Fields Supplied

Organisation Name
Building Name/ or house number
Street
Locality
Post town
Postcode
Grid Reference (optional)

Data can be supplied at premise level which provides a unique record for each one of the 28 million UK addresses.

Grid references can be appended to the PAF data for the appropriate licence fee or licenced separately for mapping and GIS applications.

PAF Data Coverage

PAF can be purchased as a full UK database or by individual Postcode Areas (e.g. UB, RG).

Data Supply Format

PAF can be supplied as either tab delimited text files or as an Access database. Depending on size data will either be supplied on CD or via List-Logic secure ftp site.

PAF Licensing

Data is licenced for each PC that has access to it with options for system licences and internet licences. Prices for PAF start at £50 plus VAT for a single user, please contact us for other licensing options.