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Rethinking The Postal System
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Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#2The post office already offers a lot of the services you described:
"You could specify the to and return adress, you could pay with a credit card, and you could add whatever options you want."
What would the point of obfuscating your address with a 16 digit ID number be? You'd be adding another layer of complexity to an already simple system of names and addresses on a designed letter carrier's route. If you want obscurity you can always register a PO box.
Your solution also relies on other businesses easily and quickly adopting your idea, which in reality is never quick and easy unfortunately.
Truth be told, the mail system isn't perfect, but USPS has done a lot in the last 3-4 years to innovate their own business. I don't have to wait in line anymore because I can print out postage and tape it to my package and leave that at the post office.
Unfortunately a lot of post office customers don't seem to realize the online system exists.
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#3SilkRoad customers and merchants would love this!
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#4That's smart! But if you get the number wrong, there might just be no way to link the package to whoever was sending or tracking it. Well, then at least the problem will be on the end of users other than what we currently have.
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#5The post office already offers a lot of the services you described: "You could specify the to and return adress, you could pay with a credit card, and you could add whatever options you want." What would the point of obfuscating your address with a 16 digit ID number be? You'd be adding another layer of complexity to an already simple system of names and addresses on a designed letter carrier's route. If you want obs…
I totally see where you're coming from, but since the system is mostly automated (as far as I can tell), it'd be just as easy for them to grab from a DB than to try and parse out an adress and postage.
I didn't really start mailing things until the last 3-4 years, so I must admit that I don't know how the system worked previously.
While I agree that it wouldn't be immediately adopted, I don't think it would require too much work on their end to make it work. It's probably naive, and I don't fully understand the system now, so I may be totally wrong, but this was just my idea.
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#6That's smart! But if you get the number wrong, there might just be no way to link the package to whoever was sending or tracking it. Well, then at least the problem will be on the end of users other than what we currently have.
Thanks!
Yeah, I'm not quite sure how to prevent human error without everyone having barcode sticker printers, which seems extremely unlikely.
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#7SilkRoad customers and merchants would love this!
Well, maybe... If the police were to work with the postal service, they could find the originating post office.
Then again, they could more or less do this now, and they don't.
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#8SilkRoad customers and merchants would love this!
Is that actually true? If some police organization actually does a honeypot on SR, they would presumably be able to get the address from the USPS easily. SR getting raided or hacked is alleviated by public key encryption, and this couldn't replace that since the USPS would presumably keep historical records that would be accessible to law enforcement.
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#9IMO it would be pretty easy to change the USPS to be profitable or sustainable, but politically difficult. Preserving universal service (expensive rural routes and facilities) should be done via direct government subsidy, vs. commercial cross subsidization.
Reducing or contractorizing staff (to cut medical and retirement costs) would have been done already by a really private company, but would have political and economic consequences given the size of USPS and government affiliation. It is probably easier to cut facilities and routes, lower delivery frequency, vs change employment terms.
The USPS is increasingly b2c and spam delivery service; used a lot less for b2b and c2c, so reducing frequency to even twice a week would be fine.
Re: Rethinking The Postal System
#10The post office already offers a lot of the services you described: "You could specify the to and return adress, you could pay with a credit card, and you could add whatever options you want." What would the point of obfuscating your address with a 16 digit ID number be? You'd be adding another layer of complexity to an already simple system of names and addresses on a designed letter carrier's route. If you want obs…
I totally see where you're coming from, but since the system is mostly automated (as far as I can tell), it'd be just as easy for them to grab from a DB than to try and parse out an adress and postage. I didn't really start mailing things until the last 3-4 years, so I must admit that I don't know how the system worked previously. While I agree that it wouldn't be immediately adopted, I don't think it would require t…
Realistically too, the post office is running on a shoestring budget. I don't quite understand their biggest overhead costs (beyond paying out salaries and pension benefits to postal employees) but there has to be a way to make the mail system work the way it's worked but at less cost to tax payers.