Introducing....Postcodes

Snail mailers take heed, there's a new code of practice for sending letters to Grand Cayman.

In what is described on the Cayman Islands Government Website as 'an historic move for the postal service in the Cayman Islands, a new seven-digit alphanumeric postcode system took effect on Wednesday, 9 August 2006.

As of this date, the Post Office, also known as the Postal Department, is now called the Cayman Islands Postal Service (CIPS), in a move towards a fresh image for our postal people.

Postmaster General Ms Sheena Glasgow noted that the seven-digit postcode is being implemented to facilitate better sorting of mail and to expedite delivery of mail.

It is expected that proper use of this system will help to reduce the instances of undeliverable mail caused by improper addressing.

"Through [our] campaign on how to properly use the postcode and address mail, we hope to reeducate our population across all three islands. Ideally, each person will then spread the message on how to properly address mail for the Cayman Islands to the people they communicate with internationally," Ms Glasgow stated.





And here's the science

Because mail is delivered via private letterboxes and there is no home delivery of mail in the Cayman Islands other than by express service, for the Postal Service to effectively deliver the mail, there must be a PO Box reference included in the address. This applies to postal services on all three islands.

Under the new system, each customer has been issued with a postcode with seven characters that start by identifying each of the three islands. For instance KY1 is for Grand Cayman, KY2 is for Cayman Brac and KY3 is for Little Cayman.

The other characters establish the locations of the 15 post offices or postal agencies located on the three islands and the last two characters indicate the section where the box is located.

All addresses should be in title case and in English, which is the official language of the Cayman Islands. The name of the island and postcode should always appear on the same line. The postcode should be in upper case and be separated from the name of the island by two spaces.

The first three elements of the postcode are separated from the last four numbers by a single hyphen. The last line of the address block should always be the name of the country in upper case (CAYMAN ISLANDS).


The Reef Resort's new fully-coded address:

The Reef Resort,

P.O. Box 30865,

Grand Cayman KY1-1204,

CAYMAN ISLANDS