How the Post Office killed digital mail

[Markbnj]

Interesting article on the demise of Outbox...

http://www.insidesources.com/outbox-vs-usps-how-the-post-office-killed-digital-mail/

US Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe “looked at us” and said “we have a misunderstanding. ‘You disrupt my service and we will never work with you.’” Further, “‘You mentioned making the service better for our customers; but the American citizens aren’t our customers—about 400 junk mailers are our customers. Your service hurts our ability to serve those customers.”’

 

[SaurusX]

Oh. This was the secret NSA program to open and scan all of your physical mail so you wouldn't be "inconvenienced" by walking out to your mailbox. No thanks.

 

[waggy]

heh i remember when leros was going to use it http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2287770&highlight=outbox

most thought it was silly and wouldn't work.

 

[Markbnj]

heh i remember when leros was going to use it http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2287770&highlight=outbox

most thought it was silly and wouldn't work.

Yeah I recall having the same thought, but at the time I put them more in the category of those home grocery delivery startups that obviously weren't going to scale. I thought the interesting part of this story was the attitude of the USPS leadership (as reported in uncorroborated statements that, as far as I know, they haven't denied).

 

[manimal]

disruptive technologies or ideas are always shunned by competition. film at 11

 

[Markbnj]

disruptive technologies or ideas are always shunned by competition. film at 11

Except when the competition is a huge, bloated, inefficient government bureaucracy they can just wave a finger and kill your company.

 

[Aharami]

interesting read. govt bureaucracy at its best!

 

[soccerballtux]

USPS is a bloated government bureaucracy? They ship cheaper than FedEx UPS to destinations neither will go to. The only reason they're having trouble is Congress forces them to prefund the retirement pensions of all employees into a fund that Congress gets to spend, like what Congress does to Social Security.

Republicans hate that USPS manages to do a decent job without making a profit. Stop listening to them.

 

[natto fire]

That was a great read, thank you.

I really liked their spiteful reaction to the backwards decisions by the USPS:

So instead of shutting down their operations they decided to hire a team of drivers to “un-deliver” mail out of customers mailboxes – of course with very explicit contractual permission. If the Post Office wouldn’t cooperate with them by forwarding the mail, then they could physically get the mail from users’ mailboxes and carry on their operations. They called their drivers the “Unpostmen”: reflecting a completely economically inefficient impediment created by government regulation. The government would deliver the mail, and Outbox would un-deliver the mail, to provide a service, digitization, that the Post Office should have been providing a decade ago.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

I check my mailbox about once a week. Look through everything to make sure there isn't a jury summons or other relevant piece of mail. Anything with my name on it goes into the shredder then trash. Everything else goes straight into the trash.

 

[Jeff7]

According to Evan, the Chief of Digital Strategy’s comments were even more stark, “[Your market model] will never work anyway. Digital is a fad. It will only work in Europe.”

That thinking also worked out well for Kodak.

US Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe “looked at us” and said “we have a misunderstanding. ‘You disrupt my service and we will never work with you.’” Further, “‘You mentioned making the service better for our customers; but the American citizens aren’t our customers—about 400 junk mailers are our customers. Your service hurts our ability to serve those customers.”’

So their primary business comes from wasting the time and resources of US citizens.

The Postal Service is focused on providing an essential service in our mission to serve the American public and does not view Outbox as supporting that mission. We do have concerns regarding the destruction of mail—even if authorized by the receiver—and will continue to monitor market activities to ensure protection of our brand and the value and security of the mail.

Uhh.....

As one customer, Marcia Navratil, explains “I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t get their mail this way, unless you just really like having paper delivered to your house.”

Oh, I know a guy....
He prefers paper to digital things. Newspaper for news, comics, stock information, and letters to the editor (P&N, on paper). Printed bill receipts, cash and checks. Ick.

In tech vernacular, “disruption” is an extremely positive term for when an old market model is displaced by a new market model that is better for the consumer and often cheaper to provide.

CAN BE a positive term. And not always better for the consumer.
No more net neutrality? Great news, but only if you're one who's controlling the tubes.

I check my mailbox about once a week. Look through everything to make sure there isn't a jury summons or other relevant piece of mail. Anything with my name on it goes into the shredder then trash. Everything else goes straight into the trash.

Junkmailers that are so kind as to send postage-prepaid envelopes along will receive back their materials, with "REMOVE" written across at least one page. Hopefully that'll at least waste a bit of their time and money.

 

[feralkid]

That thinking also worked out well for Kodak

Is this service offered in any other countries?

 

[WelshBloke]

Is this service offered in any other countries?

I've never heard of it.

It sounds like an idiotic idea to me.

If I want to converse electronically I'll use email, I don't need a third party opening my mail and transcribing it.

 

[shortylickens]

The reason the postal service is losing money is BECAUSE of those fucking junk mail companies. They should be charging them a premium instead of running their mail for a discount.

God damn how can such a large organization not know anything about economics.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I've never heard of it.

It sounds like an idiotic idea to me.

If I want to converse electronically I'll use email, I don't need a third party opening my mail and transcribing it.

And you get to pay 5 dollars a month for this feature. :biggrin:

 

[OutHouse]

Except when the competition is a huge, bloated, inefficient government bureaucracy they can just wave a finger and kill your company.

yea more USPS hate on OT!!

i love the USPS, its cheap and reliable.

 

[OutHouse]

So their primary business comes from wasting the time and resources of US citizens.

time of tossing junk mail in the recycle bin? what resources are getting wasted?

 

[OutHouse]

The reason the postal service is losing money is BECAUSE of those fucking junk mail companies. They should be charging them a premium instead of running their mail for a discount.

God damn how can such a large organization not know anything about economics.

fail

they give them a discount because the mail house did the sorting/sleeving and postage for the post office and saved time and labor cost for the USPS. its called PRE SORTED mail.

my first IT job was in a mail house and know more about the subject than i want to. but if you dont belive me here is a link

http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/sorting/presortingMail.htm

presorting can get complicated and there are expensive programs out there that mail houses use that help sort the mess out. one of our biggest clients was http://eas.com/ Bill Phillips was a huge beliver in bulk mail and that dude spent millions just in postage I saw the checks and sometimes had to drive to EAS HQ in Golden to pickup a mailing list or postage check and seeing a check for $40,000 only for postage for one job was very common.

 

[jagec]

time of tossing junk mail in the recycle bin? what resources are getting wasted?

It costs real energy to produce the paper, print it, ship it around the country, then drive around to each neighborhood and deliver it. Recycling barely makes a dent in this.

 

[KeithTalent]

heh i remember when leros was going to use it http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2287770&highlight=outbox

most thought it was silly and wouldn't work.

Ahhh, yes, I thought this sounded familiar!

KT

 

[Dari]

Except when the competition is a huge, bloated, inefficient government bureaucracy they can just wave a finger and kill your company.

Even if the PM General agreed with Outbox, fighting the unions would've meant the end of him. Also, laws would have to be changed to make the system more efficient. Finally, as teh PM General so eloquently put it, he's looking out for his own survival, which means no Outbox. But, maybe, once Outbox goes out of business, they can buy the technology and just use it.