since the outcode is always 3 characters it ain't rocket science.
You know what... I'm not going to waste further pointless keystrokes with you BOAC.
"outcode is always 3 characters" ... pull the other one ... PAF specs are max. 7 characters for the postcode, and 7 character postcodes are very commonplace indeed !
Royal Mail do know about OCR, afterall, the document I quoted from was entitled "machine-readable mail".
Think of all the possible permutations and scope for error and then perhaps you'll begin to comprehend why they can't just throw OCR at a postcode string that doesn't have a space in it. Also if you've
ever done any work with OCR, you'll know how hit and miss it can sometimes be, especially with handwritten addresses.
All you are doing by not complying with the simplest of Royal Mail addressing guidelines is increasing the risk of your mail being thrown out of the machine for manual checking and hence delaying it on its route.