Postal codes in Jamaica

There are currently 304 postal codes in Jamaica, with one and two-digit sector codes only being used in Kingston, the country's capital.[1]

A plan to introduce a postcode system, was first announced on June 6, 2005.[2] This was to assist the Postal Corporation of Jamaica's international partners in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada to sort letters bound for Jamaica, which ended up in Japan or Jamaica in Long Island in the US.[3]

However, the system was not brought into force, despite reports in the Sunday Observer in 2006 that it would be ready introduced by the end of that year, as plans to introduce it to Kingston in July 2005 were put on hold as the public had difficulty understanding the system.[4]

On February 12, 2007 it was announced that the postcode project had been suspended indefinitely.[5]

The codes were planned to be alphanumeric, in the format: JMAPPNN, where

  • JM is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
  • A is a letter for one of four zones
  • PP are two letters for a parish
  • NN is a two-digit number for a post office

Division of postal codes

The zones were described in a press release of Jamaica Post 18 July 2005,[6] the encoding of the post offices one week later on 25 July 2005.[7] The four zones into which the parishes are divided does not correspond with the traditional division of parishes into counties. The parish codes are as follows.

Relationship to existing postal zones

Although Kingston, the country's capital, along with part of the parish of St Andrew, was already subdivided into postal zones, these were not incorporated into the new codes. For example, JMAAW03 was to be the postcode for Kingston 8, rather than JMAAW08, which was to be the postcode for Half Way Tree, in Kingston 10, while the postcode for Vineyard Town, Kingston 3 was to have been JMAAW20.[8]

See also

References
  1. Jamaica, Universal Postal Union
  2. Post code system to be introduced in Jamaica, Postal Corporation of Jamaica, June 6, 2005
  3. Postal Code System Easy to use – Dr. O'Meally Nelson, Jamaica Information Service, June 21, 2005
  4. New postal code system before year end, Sunday Observer, April 2, 2006
  5. POST CODE PROJECT SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY, Postal Corporation of Jamaica, February 12, 2007
  6. Unlocking the Postal Code, Postal Corporation of Jamaica, 18 July 2005
  7. Unlocking the post code - Pt III, Postal Corporation of Jamaica, 25 July 2005
  8. Kgn 8 post code is JMAAW03, Postal Corporation of Jamaica, June 13, 2005
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