November 27, 2007
Postal News – Albanian Postal codes are in operation
Albania's Postal operator Posta Shqiptare puts postal codes into operation and publishes this data. Currently the new codes are only sparely used.
In October, 2006 the Albanian government announced the new postal code system (see AddressDoctor news January 9, 2007). However, the postal operator needed some time to implement the postal codes.
Some senders in Albania are using the postal codes, but even on the Web Site of Posta Shqiptare no address can be found with a postal code.
According to a government document, available to AddressDoctor, the new address format is as follows:
RECIPIENT
STREET_TYPE "STREET_NAME", [HOUSE_NUMBER/STAIRS,] [APPARTMENT_INFORMATION]
POSTAL_CODE-LOCALITY
ALBANIA
Example:
Ervin Berisha
Rr. "Aleksander Moisiu", P. 15, Sh.1, Ap. 6
1001-TIRANE
ALBANIA
"Rr." is a common street descriptor and stands for rruga. "P." or "Pall." is the abbreviation for Palace, which is the synonym for apartment buildings. "Sh." means stair (shkalla). The use of quotation marks as part of street names is quite unique in the world. Quotation marks appear if the name of the street is in the nominative case, e.g. it is named after a person or a historical event. If the name of a street is in genitive case as in Rruga e Elbasanit (Elbasan Street), Rruga e Durresit (Durres Street), quotation marks are not used.
Sometimes, especially in build up areas, a descriptive form of addresses can be found like "Rruga "Themistokli Germenji", siper Restorantit La Perla", which means "Themistokli Germenji Street, above the La Perla restaurant".
Due to a particularly in the Albanian language, Albanian city names have two grammatical forms - a definite and an indefinite form. In the case of Tirana, the indefinite form is "Tirane", which should be used in addresses.
When mail is sent to post boxes, the wording "KUTIA POSTARE", abbreviated K.P., appears instead of the street line in addresses.
The implementation of the new postal codes and address format in AddressDoctor products is scheduled for the next software release in February.
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