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We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

royalmail.com

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Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#91

Post by ale42 »

mbtwl wrote: post #80

German mail system got rid of the need for stamps a while ago. Using this ever since. You can buy a stamp via app and the stamp is just a code you write with pen on the letter. Link unfortunately in German: https://www.paketda.de/frankieren/mobile-briefmarke.html

Swiss post has a similar thing, you can buy a stamp (on the form of a 9-letter code) via SMS. Never used but seems it works. No barcodes for regular stamps for now, but datamatrix barcodes are used since more than 15 years for bulk mail and print-at-home stamps.

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#92

Post by ale42 »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #57
Someone1234 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone was curious why Data Matrix instead of QR Code this article goes into detail: https://www.laserax.com/blog/data-matrix-vs-qr-codes Looks like Data Matrix has higher error correction (per size) and better data density (at every size). QR Code has a higher theoretical storage capacity, larger maximum size, and multi-byte data support (rather than limited to alphanumeric), none of which applies to this use cas…

I think the only relevant thing about any kind of scannable code is reliability. QR Codes are widely used and seem to work fine with just about any smart phone. So, they are good enough. Maybe Data Matrix is slightly easier to scan. But it's not really a problem with QR Codes.

But AFAIK you can't do non-square QR codes. Plus, at small sizes, you lose a lot of space for the alignment marks.

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#93

Post by Tangurena2 »

londons_explore wrote: post #79
nicky0 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brilliant. If I was looking to hire an ideas guy I would have you.

I suspect part of the downfall of postal mail services worldwide is lack of them having an ideas guy on staff... Postal mail services have a massive advantage when expanding into so many fields of business - (eg. ecommerce, anything that involves having a network of people who travel every street every day). Yet none have capitalized on it.

In America, much of the downfall is due to Congress prohibiting innovation. Or fouling things up, such as requiring USPS to fund all retirement expenses 75 years into the future. Which is why - on paper - it looks like the USPS is bleeding money; it has to pre-fund pensions for people who have not been born yet. My theory is that there will be an attempt to privatize the post office (selling it to some campaign contributor for $1) while carefully ignoring the $56B pension fund that Congress required.

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#94

Post by isp »

londons_explore wrote: post #52

There are so many features royal mail could add to letter/parcel delivery that users might want to pay for, and would cost them nothing. Eg. * See what mail is headed your way. They could have email/text/app notifications of mail that's headed towards you, including a picture of the outside of the parcel and estimated delivery dates/times. * The ability for the receiver to pay to prioritize incoming mail. Sometimes y…

Two of these already exist:

> Allow adding delay. 'Im on holiday, don't deliver any mail for me this week, I don't want someone breaking into my house to steal it'.

"Royal Mail Keepsafe" - https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/keepsafe

> Super express services

"Royal Mail Sameday" - https://www.royalmail.com/sending/uk/sameday

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#95

Post by addicted »

Tangurena2 wrote: post #93
londons_explore wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect part of the downfall of postal mail services worldwide is lack of them having an ideas guy on staff... Postal mail services have a massive advantage when expanding into so many fields of business - (eg. ecommerce, anything that involves having a network of people who travel every street every day). Yet none have capitalized on it.

In America, much of the downfall is due to Congress prohibiting innovation. Or fouling things up, such as requiring USPS to fund all retirement expenses 75 years into the future. Which is why - on paper - it looks like the USPS is bleeding money; it has to pre-fund pensions for people who have not been born yet. My theory is that there will be an attempt to privatize the post office (selling it to some campaign contr…

The U.S. also has an additional problem where it doesn’t really agree on what USPS is supposed to be.

Half the country believes it should be a public service and therefore it should serve everyone even if they’re unprofitable subsidized by government money.

The remaining half believes it should be a self sustaining service that can compete with the likes of UPS and FedEx. However, they’re unwilling to accept the necessary destruction of mailing routes this would require (its hard to see how shipping letters to any non urban core would be profitable and/or how shipping prices wouldn’t rise to far above what FedEx/UPS charge today, for all the services, because of the next group).

The final, but probably most powerful, group are private logistics companies that absolutely love the fact that they can offload their unprofitable routes and services onto USPS. USPS becoming a self sustaining service would mean that all the end-user costs would rise for FedEx/UPS as well, since they will no longer be able to offload the most expensive parts of their service to USPS anymore.

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#96

Post by electroly »

adolph wrote: post #24
Symbiote wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Any person importing, distributing, selling or otherwise assisting in the sale of counterfeit stamps is committing offences of fraud and/or counterfeiting" [1] I am surprised there are so many listed on eBay. Just the two "sponsored" listings on eBay for the search "first class stamps" have already sold over £1000 of counterfeit stamps, and about £20 in fees for eBay. [1] https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answ…

The surprising part is that people go to such effort for such a low value commodity. Who is sending 1k worth of Christmas cards etc? Maybe small biz, but again the value added doesn’t seem to match the risk of getting your model train outfit raised by the postal inspector. Maybe anarchists use these exclusively to avoid paying the man?

In the US you can use stamps for Priority Mail packages; they're not just for letters! My dad does this when he sends packages because he can get (legitimate) bulk postage at odd denominations for less than face value. You can use more postage than will physically fit on the box; more postage can go into a shipping label pouch. I imagine the stamps get used up a lot faster when you're shipping packages with it.

A tip to anyone wanting to get into this: legitimate bulk postage is sold by the pound!

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#97

Post by melony »

Symbiote wrote: post #2

At the top: > The barcodes will enable exciting new services by connecting physical stamps to the digital world through the Royal Mail app Then in the FAQ > Why are you adding barcodes to stamps? > > The move is part of the Company’s extensive and ongoing modernisation drive and will allow the unique barcodes to facilitate operational efficiencies, enable the introduction of added security features and pave the way f…

Did the recession chase away the crypto folks and blockchain evangelists? They usually would have crawled out of the woodwork by now promoting their favorite product.

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#99

Post by adolph »

Fezzik wrote: post #37
adolph wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The surprising part is that people go to such effort for such a low value commodity. Who is sending 1k worth of Christmas cards etc? Maybe small biz, but again the value added doesn’t seem to match the risk of getting your model train outfit raised by the postal inspector. Maybe anarchists use these exclusively to avoid paying the man?

Just a random example: I’m involved a bit in the Magic: The Gathering resale market and I know plenty of unscrupulous sellers who would gladly buy fake stamps to send their merchandise if it would save them even a few cents on every sale. Postage adds up when you’re shipping hundreds or thousands of envelopes in a low margin, competitive market. And I imagine there are lots of other collectable and re-sale markets wi…

I hear you and that is why I added the hypothetical small biz shipping model train parts. A visit by the postal inspector would really ruin a low margin biz.

Likewise, I suppose a postal service must weigh the cost/benefit of pursuing counterfeit stamps--it might not be costly enough compared to other forms of problems.

Re: We’re adding barcodes to our regular stamps

#100

Post by neilpanchal »

Someone1234 wrote: post #31
neilpanchal wrote: post #17

For those who are curious, these are 2DID Datamatrix codes, also used in the semiconductor industry extensively to mark wafers and chips. If you pick up an Intel CPU, its going to have a couple of tiny datamatrix codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix

If anyone was curious why Data Matrix instead of QR Code this article goes into detail: https://www.laserax.com/blog/data-matrix-vs-qr-codes Looks like Data Matrix has higher error correction (per size) and better data density (at every size). QR Code has a higher theoretical storage capacity, larger maximum size, and multi-byte data support (rather than limited to alphanumeric), none of which applies to this use cas…

Yea we used Cognex cameras to read millions of chips, trays, heat sinks, carriers, wafers, etc. Datamatrix is industrial grade. Cognex also has proprietary decoding algorithms which would detect the faintest and half damaged codes.
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