Kartografer wrote:Among Approved Postal Providers there are retailers that just sell stamps like Office Depot but also Contract Postal Units and Village Post Offices, which provide some or all of the services of a full post office. It seems simple to say that only US Post Offices should get the post office category, but if we do that we are actually excluding the only locations that USPS intends, due to cost-cutting, as the effective post offices for small communities, either CPUs or Village Post Offices.

https://wazeopedia.waze.com/wiki/Common ... 29/VPO.png
Here is an example: a village post office inside a grocery store in a small village, which is the sole USPS location to serve ZIP 43317. Yeah, it's small, and it's not owned by USPS, but it's all they have, it provides services such as Priority Mail shipping, and USPS lists all its info as it does for US Post Offices. So I agree with Wayzrbill and a few others: we should put the post office category on US Post Offices, Village Post Offices and Contract Postal Units, and nothing else.

This makes a lot of sense to me. If they offer virtually all the amenities of your standard rural post office then I see no reason why VPOs shouldn't be added—they do have 'post office' in the name.

The nature of where they're usually located (halfway to nowhere, BFE, etc.) and the nature of category search (limited radius) means that essentially we're choosing whether folks in such areas get no results or one result for a search for 'post office'. I dare say one is better.

I'm not so sure about CPUs though. In my cursory searches around Louisiana and environs, I've found a number of VPOs that would be good to add. However, the vast majority of CPUs I found are in urban and urbanized areas which are already well served by actual post offices, and the handful of rural ones I found are within a few miles of a regular post office.

As for naming, we should simply name them as the USPS names them. Usually for Post Offices the name has a location identifier such as "US Post Office - Clintonville". For CPUs and VPOs the name may or may not include CPU or VPO, but we should add in the description that this is what it is, not a full US Post Office

I think it's safe to say here that almost all regions via PNH have approved this name format:

"Post Office – [Station Name]"

We have not addressed the issue of CPU or VPO and I have not researched it, but I do think it would be helpful to include this designation in the name. The USPS lists a VPO as for example "VPO Edgard" and I don't think there's any reason to do any different. "Post Office – VPO Edgard"?

If we do want to include CPUs, which I could be convinced to support but could possibly go either way on, I think it’s a tad misleading to name them the same as full post offices. I’m not sure if the general public will know what a “Contract Postal Unit” is exactly but I’m sure they won’t know what “CPU” means even in context. Therefore, I propose, for the time being,

“Post Office – [Station]”
“Village Post Office – [Station]”
“Contract Postal Unit – [Station]”

Where the station name does not include the abbreviations VPO or CPU.

As for area vs. point, I am from a region where we believe post offices to be worthy of area places, and I agree with this determination. However, I wouldn’t say the same for VPOs and certainly not for CPUs.

For what it's worth, PNH mods all agreed on adding "USPS" as the alt name.

Post Office is what most people will search, and including it as the start of the primary name will mean that instant search finds them well. Plus, that's what the building / location is called, not "USPS".

I'm ambivalent about colon vs. dash. I agree starting a line on an area with a dash is not ideal, but I'm not sure that's reason enough. Dash makes more sense to me intuitively.

And again, using VPO and CPU abbreviations is not user-friendly as most are not familiar with those abbreviations (I wasn't before this week).

I incorporate by reference my previous suggestion.

dBsooner wrote:Finally the actual draft of the Post Office Page (thank you voludu2 to recommending the consolidated / slimmed down version): https://wazeopedia.waze.com/wiki/USA/Us ... ost_Office

I still think full post offices should be Areas.

Nagamasa wrote:(BTW: My experience with search that if there is a category name in the search term, including "Post" and "Post office", it will return results only in that category. Your search results page is also titled "Post Office" instead. In other words, typing "Post Office" will return all post office results even named USPS.)

Not in instant results. Only if you click through.

I agree with @Nacron. If somebody has a specific need for specific USPS services, that's not Waze's responsibility at that point. We are not a USPS services directory, nor should we be. We will help them get to the USPS they want to go to, but it's up to them to know which one has the passport/PO box/etc they need. They can go to usps.com to verify the available services. Potentially, WMEPH could even pop that in the description, if approved by the regions' moderators.

It is reasonable to expect us to properly place the Post Office category on places that a typical person would call a post office. In my experience, that would be limited to USPS, but it would not exclude self-service mailing options that are provided by USPS. If a place is more like courier/parcel services such as FedEx and UPS, then in my view, Shopping/Services is better suited.

I believe a Post Office is a USPS only (in the United States)). That is, it has a zip code attached to it (sometimes more than one). If it expands would it include Fedex, DHL UPS and other companies that provide services for any or all of the above? BTW, I think we should add zip code(s) to our post office entries in the comments.

Many grocery stores or convenience stores also sell stamps but should not be listed as post office unless there is the official USPS window.

There should probably be a category for UPS, FEDEX, Pack&Ship Stores. But that is up to staff. Sort of like the Hospital/Urgent Care and the Doctor/Clinic, hopefully this will get fixed eventually.

Re: SpencerFG's

I think we should add zip code(s) to our post office entries in the comments.

I don't really see a benefit to that. Other than knowing my own zip, I don't know any others, so having it listed in Comments wouldn't provide me anything other than possibly the fact that it is the one for the town that shows up in my Search in the app. How often does someone search for a zip code? I'd probably do a regular web search for that. When I do a search in the app, I don't see a zip listed anywhere.

Here is what I think:
* "Post Office" should only be for USPS locations
* If there is a verifiable problem of people mistaking "UPS" for "USPS" then there needs to be a note on the page. On the other hand, if it is a problem of not knowing what category to use for "any kind of shipping store, like UPS, FedEX or Mail 'N More Plus" for US
* The reason for this decision should be on the page (When you type post office into waze, it does not search for places with post office in the name; it only searches for things with the category post office)

* Next, it would be necessary to nail down what qualifies as a Post Office.

I don't think Mail 'N More Plus qualifies, even though they sell stamps and sell USPS mailing services. I don't just drop off a bunch of USPS-stamped packages and letters there because accepting huge quantities of postal mail that they don't get paid for does not pay their bills. Stuff I've stamped or labeled myself, I take directly to the actual USPS post office.

Once upon a time, I used to try to figure out the closest mailbox to my route while I'm out driving so I could mail something. Waze does not have a category for USPS mailbox. And I'm mailing a lot less stuff these days, anyway. So I don't think we need to discuss USPS mailbox.

Do we really map freestanding UPS drop boxes?