How do you deliver when the street has no number?

By storing an address record rather than a line of text: the text as dictated, the commune from a list, a point placed on the map by the customer or the employee with its accuracy, a one-word landmark. Text and landmark serve the courier on site; the point serves the zone, the fee and the round; and the point recorded at hand-over replaces the customer's for next time.

Is the customer's GPS point reliable?

Not always, which is why its accuracy is stored with it. Under open sky, a phone typically locates itself within five metres; between buildings, indoors or from a desktop computer, the error can reach tens or hundreds of metres. Below a written threshold, the application asks for a landmark; hand-over corrects the point.

What is geocoding for if addresses are not standardised?

It helps when the text contains a known street or place, by proposing a point the customer confirms, and it always gives a point's commune. It never decides alone. Free public services have strict usage rules, at most one request per second, no autocomplete, mandatory caching and attribution; the application goes through a caching proxy, or a paid service sized for its volume.

How do you set the delivery fee per zone without argument?

By drawing zones as polygons in the application and attaching a fee, windows and couriers to each. At order time, the application tests which polygon the point falls in and shows the fee and window before confirmation; outside every polygon, it proposes a pick-up point or a carrier. Changing a fee means redrawing a polygon.

How do you avoid the three calls before the door?

With a WhatsApp confirmation before departure: the map, the landmark and the window, and a closed question. You only call if the answer is “no” or does not come. During the window, the courier's position is shared. At every new order, the known address is confirmed in one word, and a new record is created if the customer has moved.

Does the courier need a native app?

Often yes for the courier, because they need continuous GPS, a timestamped photo and all-day operation without network; the customer places their point from the site or an installable web app. The detail of the choice is in our PWA or native guide.

How long does it take to set this up?

Six weeks in the typical calendar: one to draw the zones and write the rules, one for the address record, one for capture and map, one for zones and dispatch, one for confirmation and hand-over, one for measurement. The duration depends on the number of zones and the state of existing addresses.

“The courier cannot find the address”: what gets built in Algeria in 2027 to deliver without a street number, GPS point, landmark, delivery zones, geocoding, WhatsApp confirmation

Short answer. An address is not a line of text, it is a record: the text as dictated, a commune from a list, a point placed on the map with its accuracy, a one-word landmark, and the source of every field. The customer's point, placed from a browser between buildings, is often accurate to a few dozen metres; the point recorded by the courier at hand-over is accurate to a few metres, and that is the one kept for next time. Delivery zones are polygons drawn by the manager; the point falls inside or not, and the fee, the window and the courier follow at order time, not at the end of the round. Before departure, a WhatsApp message with the map and the landmark replaces the three calls; you only call if the answer is “no”. Geocoding helps when the text is geocodable, it never decides; and free public services have usage rules you must respect by caching results. Six weeks, the first without code.

This guide is for the manager of an online shop or a wholesaler whose couriers lose an hour a day searching, the founder settled in France whose customers in Algiers get three calls before every parcel, and the logistics lead who wants a fee per zone without staff guessing it. It does not repeat how a delivery platform handles couriers, cash on delivery and returns, described in the delivery platform guide, nor how a fleet is tracked continuously, described in the fleet GPS tracking guide; it describes what gets built around the address itself, and it extends our software engineering page.

Delivering without an address, in five layers

The text “opposite the pharmacy” is not the problem; it is even the most useful information for the courier once on site. The problem is that it is the only information, and that it lives in the order. Five layers complete it without replacing it.

Figure 1 · The accented layer is the one applications forget: the address lives in the order, as a line of text, and dies with it. An address table, with a point, its accuracy and its source, is what makes the second delivery to the same customer start from the right place without asking anything again.

Capture. The text as dictated, the commune from a list, a point placed on the map by the customer, from the site or the app, or by the employee taking the order on the phone and asking “where exactly?”, and a one-word landmark. The browser only gives the position on an HTTPS page and after the customer agrees; you ask at the moment it helps them, not when the site opens. Geocoding and codes. When the text contains a known street, a geocoding service proposes a point, which the customer confirms; the other way, a point always gives its commune. A short code is derived from the point, and it fits in a few characters once the city name is added. Results are cached; a free public service like OpenStreetMap's forbids autocomplete and limits the rate, and that is not optional.

Address record. An address table, not a field in the order: text, point and accuracy, landmark, computed zone, source and date of every field. The point confirmed at hand-over replaces the customer's point; one address per customer, reusable, attached to the single customer record described in the customer file guide. Zones and dispatch. Polygons drawn by the manager; a point inside a polygon gets the zone's fee, window and couriers; outside every polygon, the application proposes a pick-up point or a carrier. Confirmation. A WhatsApp message with the map and landmark before departure, following the window and template rules described in the WhatsApp agent guide; the courier's position is shared during the window; at hand-over, the precise point and a photo. Confirmation replaces the calls, and feeds the record.

A delivery address, as it is really stored

The figure shows a single address, with its map and its record. Everything written there has a source, and two points coexist until hand-over.

Figure 2 · One address, as it is really stored. The point placed by the customer from their browser is accurate to 35 metres, common between buildings; the point recorded by the courier at hand-over is accurate to 6 metres and lies 42 metres away: that one is kept, with the confirmed landmark, and the next courier starts from it. The short code is derived from the point, not typed. The coordinates are a constructed example.

The point placed by the customer is accurate to 35 metres. That is not an anomaly: under open sky, a phone typically locates itself within five metres, and accuracy degrades between buildings, under trees or indoors; a position taken from a browser on a desktop computer can be hundreds of metres off, because it comes from the network and not from a GPS. That is why accuracy is stored with the point: below a written threshold, the application asks for a landmark; above it, it does not settle for the point and waits for hand-over.

The point recorded by the courier at the moment of handing over the parcel is accurate to 6 metres and lies 42 metres from the customer's. That one is kept, with the landmark confirmed in one word, and the next courier starts from it. The short code is derived from the point, not typed; ten characters describe a cell of roughly fourteen metres a side, and the short form, four characters fewer plus the city name, can be dictated over the phone. The coordinates in the figure are a constructed example.

«An address is not a line of text: it is a text, a point, its accuracy, a landmark, a zone, and the trace of who confirmed it.»

Six real situations, and what the application does

The six situations found in almost every delivery application we take over, and the construction that settles them.

Figure 3 · The first two rows are settled by the point and its accuracy; the third by lists and polygons rather than text; the fourth by the polygon at order time; the last two by the WhatsApp confirmation, before departure and at every new order. None is settled by a courier who knows the city better.

The first two are settled by the point and its accuracy; no geocoder finds a housing estate by its number of flats, and a circling courier is an imprecise point whose accuracy nobody stored. The third is settled by refusing text where a list or a polygon will do: the commune comes from a list, and the district is a drawn zone, which makes the per-district statistics the manager asks for possible. The fourth is settled at order time, not at the end of the round. The last two are settled by the WhatsApp confirmation, before departure and at every new order, following the channel rules described in the notifications guide. None is settled by a courier who knows the city better.

Delivery zones drawn on the map, and what follows

The delivery fee “by zone” is, in most applications we take over, estimated by the employee at order time and disputed by the customer at the door. The construction that settles this fits in one word: polygon.

Figure 4 · Zones are polygons drawn by the manager in the application, and everything follows: order 1 falls in zone A and gets A’s fee, window and couriers; orders 2 and 3 fall in B; order 4 falls in no polygon, and the application proposes a pick-up point instead of accepting and then failing. Amounts and delays are a constructed example.

The manager draws the zones in the application, with a mouse or a finger, and attaches a fee, windows and couriers to each. At order time, the application tests which polygon the point falls in; order 1 falls in zone A and gets A's fee, window and couriers; orders 2 and 3 in zone B; order 4 falls in no polygon, and the application proposes a pick-up point or a carrier instead of accepting and then failing. The point-in-polygon test is a standard operation of geographic databases, and it takes a few milliseconds.

Changing a fee means redrawing a polygon, not retraining staff. Zones also serve to order the round by proximity, to compute the first-attempt delivery rate per zone on the manager's dashboard, following the real-time dashboard guide, and to decide which windows to offer a customer in zone C, which is only served on Thursdays. Amounts and delays in the figure are a constructed example.

«The fee, the window and the courier are not typed at order time: they follow from the point and the polygon it falls in.»

From order to door, in six steps

What happens to an order, in order, and when each decision is taken.

Figure 5 · The accented step happens at order time, not at the end of the round: the point falls inside a polygon or not, and the fee, the window and the courier follow. The sixth step is what makes next time easy: the hand-over point replaces the customer’s point.

Place the point, by the customer on the map or by the employee on the phone, with its accuracy. Complete: commune from the list, one-word landmark, text as dictated. Resolve the zone: the point falls in a polygon or not, and the fee and window are shown to the customer before they confirm; out of zone, a pick-up point is proposed. Confirm by WhatsApp with the map and landmark; you only call if the answer is “no”. Deliver: ordered round, courier position shared during the window, landmark on the courier's screen. Record hand-over: precise point, photo, time; the address record is updated.

The courier's app does the fifth and sixth step without network, following the offline guide, and this is one of the cases where a native app is justified, for continuous GPS and timestamped photos, following the PWA or native guide. Cash on delivery and returns, which start at the sixth step, are described in the delivery platform guide.

Seen elsewhere: GPS accuracy, short codes and geocoder rules, and what carries over

Three facts carry over as they are. GPS accuracy: phones typically locate themselves within five metres under open sky, according to the official site of the US GPS system, and less well near buildings; what carries over is storing accuracy with the point and never treating a point as exact. Short codes: Google's open location code system describes a cell of roughly fourteen metres a side with ten characters, works offline, and shortens with a city name; what carries over is a code derived from the point, readable over the phone, never typed by hand. Public geocoder rules: the OpenStreetMap Foundation's service allows at most one request per second, forbids autocomplete and requires caching and attribution; what carries over is a caching proxy in your application, or a paid service sized for your volume.

What those sources do not say: your polygons, your fees, your accuracy threshold and who confirms; the project's first week answers that, and the manager draws and signs.

The rules of an address that gets found

Six rules, written in the first week. The point is worth more than the text, and the text stays for the courier on site. Accuracy is stored with every point, and a threshold triggers the landmark request. The commune comes from a list, the district from a polygon, never from typed text. The fee and window follow from the polygon at order time. Confirmation precedes departure, by message, and the call is only the fallback. The hand-over point replaces the customer's point, and the address record outlives the order.

And one rule of method: existing addresses are taken over as text to geocode and to confirm at the next order, never as points you pretend to know; the take-over follows the logic described in the customer file guide.

Six companies, and the address that was missing

Six situations composed from projects we meet; the names are generic and the figures are examples.

An online shop in Algiers, sixty parcels a day. One parcel in four needed at least two calls. The construction: point placed by the customer at order, WhatsApp message with map and landmark before departure, call only if “no”. Calls per delivery fell in the first month; cancellations at the door, described in the cancelled orders guide, too.
A food wholesaler in Sétif, three hundred outlets. Retailers ordered from the portal with free-text addresses, and rounds were done from memory. The construction: one address record per outlet, point confirmed at the first delivery, rounds ordered by proximity; the portal is described in the B2B portal guide.
A founder in Marseille, cosmetics shop delivering Algiers and Blida. The delivery fee was estimated by the employee. The construction: three polygons drawn by the founder from France, fee and window shown before confirmation, out of zone proposed as pick-up; remote management follows the shop from France guide.
A pharmaceutical distributor in Oran, cold chain. Proof of delivery required the exact time and place. The construction: precise point and photo at hand-over, signed by the courier, attached to the note; the case is close to the cold chain guide.
A pre-sales company in Constantine, twelve reps. Outlets were recorded by name, and a new rep took a month to find them. The construction: address record per outlet with point and landmark, round shown on the map; pre-sales is described in the field pre-sales guide.
A meal delivery service in Annaba. The delivery zone was “the centre”, and every courier had their own definition. The construction: one polygon drawn by the manager, windows per zone, out of zone refused at order time with a clear message; the first-attempt delivery rate is tracked per zone.

The 2027 calendar

Six weeks for a company that already delivers; the first week passes without code.

Figure 6 · Six weeks, and the first without code: polygons and fees are drawn and signed by the manager before anything is built. The second week is accented because the address table is what lasts: orders pass, addresses stay. The sixth week’s measurement is what is then tracked every month.

Week 1, zones and rules: polygons drawn by the manager, fees and windows per zone, accuracy threshold, commune list, who confirms and how; signed. Week 2, address record: address table with point, accuracy, landmark, source and date; existing addresses taken over as text to geocode and confirm. Week 3, capture and map: point placed by the customer on site and app, by the employee on the phone; commune from the list; derived short code.

Week 4, zones and dispatch: point in polygon, fee and window at order time, out of zone proposed, ordered round. Week 5, confirmation and hand-over: WhatsApp message before departure, shared position, point and photo at hand-over, record updated. Week 6, measurement: first-attempt delivery rate per zone, mean gap between customer point and hand-over point, calls per delivery. Every week ends with a demo, following the delivery without breakage guide.

What makes an address fail

Five causes, seen in applications we take over. The address in the order: it dies with it, and the second delivery starts from scratch. The point without accuracy: a point placed from an office is treated as exact, and the courier circles. The district as free text: three spellings, no statistics, no fee per zone possible. Asking for position when the site opens: the customer refuses, and you never get a point again. Autocomplete on a free service: the service cuts access, and address entry breaks on a Saturday.

And one cause of method: leaving zones and fees “to define later”. They condition the address record, dispatch and measurement; the first week exists to draw them.

Frequently asked questions

The questions managers and founders ask when they describe couriers who cannot find the door.

How do you deliver when the street has no number?: By storing an address record rather than a line of text: the text as dictated, the commune from a list, a point placed on the map by the customer or the employee with its accuracy, a one-word landmark. Text and landmark serve the courier on site; the point serves the zone, the fee and the round; and the point recorded at hand-over replaces the customer's for next time.
Is the customer's GPS point reliable?: Not always, which is why its accuracy is stored with it. Under open sky, a phone typically locates itself within five metres; between buildings, indoors or from a desktop computer, the error can reach tens or hundreds of metres. Below a written threshold, the application asks for a landmark; hand-over corrects the point.
What is geocoding for if addresses are not standardised?: It helps when the text contains a known street or place, by proposing a point the customer confirms, and it always gives a point's commune. It never decides alone. Free public services have strict usage rules, at most one request per second, no autocomplete, mandatory caching and attribution; the application goes through a caching proxy, or a paid service sized for its volume.
How do you set the delivery fee per zone without argument?: By drawing zones as polygons in the application and attaching a fee, windows and couriers to each. At order time, the application tests which polygon the point falls in and shows the fee and window before confirmation; outside every polygon, it proposes a pick-up point or a carrier. Changing a fee means redrawing a polygon.
How do you avoid the three calls before the door?: With a WhatsApp confirmation before departure: the map, the landmark and the window, and a closed question. You only call if the answer is “no” or does not come. During the window, the courier's position is shared. At every new order, the known address is confirmed in one word, and a new record is created if the customer has moved.
Does the courier need a native app?: Often yes for the courier, because they need continuous GPS, a timestamped photo and all-day operation without network; the customer places their point from the site or an installable web app. The detail of the choice is in our PWA or native guide.
How long does it take to set this up?: Six weeks in the typical calendar: one to draw the zones and write the rules, one for the address record, one for capture and map, one for zones and dispatch, one for confirmation and hand-over, one for measurement. The duration depends on the number of zones and the state of existing addresses.