The story is about posties in England who deliver a letter that only had the vaguest address detail on it.

Australia Post has much to learn. I've had things addressed correctly to me that have trouble getting here

BBC story

Lovely story - of individual ingenuity. But, honestly Copago, Australia Post could not possibly learn anything from our postal system - it's in tatters! Strikes - no post for over a week, Sunday collections stopped, etc. My son has been waiting for over 2 weeks for a parcel (confirmed posted).

Also, Post Offices are closing and being installed in Smith's (newsagents) causing hardship and problems particualrly for the elderly who cannot reach these inaccessible shops (often in pedestrianised areas where you can't park).

I don't think that is unique, one often hears of similar stories from time to time, perhaps less now than in years gone by. Unfortunately I didn't keep it, but my daughter once received something almost as vague, and incorrect, from a friend many years ago, the friend went on holiday somewhere and sent a postcard. It was something like my daughter's name, then the house name spelt incorrectly (I think it was Muchoxo instead of Muchaxo), no road name then the wrong area (or no area), she did however get the name of the island correct and via uk. I think the posties enjoy the challenge.

I guess ours isn't too bad then - I can't ever remember them having a strike. If anything it runs a bit hot and cold - things can take weeks to get to me from Western Australia and then you'll get something form the US in four days.

My posties are great, there is a team of four who take it in turns on this route.

As for the service, it can take four or five days to get something to or from distant lands, sometimes more but it is fast especially when you consider it has to go from here to England and then get re-routed onwards.

In the UK we are encouraged to use our post codes, and are told that the post code, along with the house number, is unique, and refers only to our address.

OK then I thought, if that is the case, why bother putting the street name, town, and county?

I tested the validity of our post codes by sending a letter to myself from my local post box, addressed to nothing other than my full post code and house number.

It arrived 27 days later after having gone through sorting offices in Birmingham, Guildford, Portsmouth, Coventry, and Ipswich ..........

Well done UK postal services!

My cousin always puts just the house number and postal code as her return address when she writes to me. I was wondering if it would work... obviously not!

I guess that is one of the big advantages of having spent most of my life living about 40km from the one small town.
Recently a letter came addressed to my maiden name (i was first married in 1971 and have been widowed, married again & widowed again ) and the name of the town. No street, no postcode.
The lady who sorts the mail was able to throw it in my pile for our twice weekly delivery, and i got it less than a week after it was posted.

When we moved from London to Bedford, we got a card addressed to us by surname and road name - no number. The road is eight miles long, but we got the card the next day.

My aunt lives in a small town. She gets cards addressed by my cousins to "Grandma Betty", whatever the town name is, Montana. They get to her every time.