About 1.3 million British consumers expect the Royal Mail to deliver a parcel to their door on
the very next day. A local council installs EV charging points across the town, meeting the
population’s demand. Meanwhile, a big retail brand analyses catchment areas to build its
new high street shop. What do all these situations have in common? Batch geocoding.
Batch geocoding is the process of mass conversion of addresses into precise geographic
coordinates that will later feed GPS-based apps. Delivery companies need it more than
anything, as do mail services, businesses looking to expand their reach, or governments
developing public service strategies. Thankfully, they can count on the specialised services
of companies like egon.com.
More Than Addresses
There’s much more to a map pin than meets the eye. For those red balloons to pop up in the
right spot on the map, thousands of address lines had to be efficiently converted into
latitude-longitude coordinates. Street names can change (not to mention several streets with
the same name); long roads may have different names along their way; the lines between
neighbourhoods aren’t always clear.
Drivers who have taken the wrong turn based on imprecise GPS suggestions have an idea
of how bad geocoding can affect their lives. The situation can get even direr for companies
working with delivery, mail services, and logistics, where inefficient itineraries can have hefty
costs. The danger: basic geocoding tools can misplace up to 15% of their addresses due to
limited access to data, poor-quality address points, and faulty algorithms.
Indeed, ensuring precision is one of the biggest challenges in geocoding. For starters,
geocoding algorithms can also be fed incorrect information, stemming from imprecise
coordinates, a lack of metadata, and missing values. It’s often difficult to map rural or remote
areas precisely, due to the lack of a formal addressing system. Nevertheless, location has
become vital for about 80% of business data used in analytics.
Finding the Right Way
Undeniably, geocoding services still have a lot of room for improvement. However, the
geospatial analytics market is growing fast, and it’s expected to cross the USD 55 billion
mark by 2029. Since precise coordinates are vital for nearly every industry today, the
competition between software developers for market dominance is fierce.
While there isn’t a fail-proof system (yet), the best apps work on robust address datasets,
reducing mistakes caused by insufficient data. Additionally, they curate address points,
ensuring that buildings and apartments can be pinpointed on the map. In fact, precision can
be greatly enhanced by adding contextual information, such as zoning, property
assessment, and parcel information. Advanced geocoding systems use GIS tools and
satellite imagery to enrich location services, especially in remote areas.
The Path Ahead
Following a global trend, the UK’s location intelligence market is set to soar in the next few
years. Advanced technologies like AI and big data analysis will play an even bigger role,
improving routes, reducing traffic bottlenecks, and optimising energy consumption; always
backed by data-driven decisions.
Software developers have also been trying to meet a growing demand for real-time
geocoding systems required for navigation and GPS tracking services. Real-time geocoding
is a game-changer in situations that require live rerouting, such as emergency response.
Meanwhile, the UK’s IoT market is rising fast, meaning that soon there’ll be sensors all over
the place, providing traffic and road condition updates on the go.
More than time and cost efficiency, precise geocoding systems can promote sustainability,
significantly impacting air pollution in urban areas. Recent studies suggest that better
geospatial location services can reduce up to 30% of carbon emissions related to traffic.
