Key:operator

+/- operator Description Useful to describe that a certain map object "belongs" to a company or corporation in any way. Group Properties Element help Useful combination Implies Used combinations in World Australia/Oceania Europe (list) Asia (list) Central America (list) South America (list) Africa (list)

The operator tag is used to name a company, corporation, person or any other entity who is in charge of the operation of a certain map object.

Usage

Often it's useful to describe that a certain map object "belongs" to a company or corporation in any way. For example: With the emerging of private postal service providers, it may be of interest for the map user which postal services provider operates a certain post_box. For example, in Germany there are already some private companies like PIN or Stadtbrief who install their own post boxes. Who wants to ship a letter has to choose the post box of "his" postal service provider. Other examples are pubs, restaurants and hotel chains, maybe also streets maintained by private companies where a fee is required. Here are examples where the operator key can/could be applied:

• tourism=hotel
• amenity=restaurant
• amenity=car_sharing
• A section of road operated my the national highway authority, a public private partnership by by a local authority
• Ferry terminals, bus stations, rail stations, metro stations

If the vast majority of a certain object in an area is operated by a certain organisation and only very few by others then it may be sufficient to only tag the exceptions. For example is nearly all roads in an area are managed by a local authority then it would be sufficient to only tag those that are not with an operator tag.

When choosing the appropriate text field it is beneficial to use exactly the same text, including capitalisation across all entries. the title of the associated Wikipedia article for the same organisation may usefully be used as a reference for this.

Example

• tourism=hotel
• name=Le Méridien Piccadilly (the name of the specific hotel)
• operator=Le Méridien (the name of the company that runs the hotel, and which maybe run other hotels too)

Proposals

A relation, Relations/Proposed/Operators has been proposed an alternative for way of tagging operator where all facilities are gathered together into a single relation with a single name and possibly also other information, including websites and Wikipedia links. This avoids confusion between different facilities with very similar or identical names that are not related.

See also

• brand=*