Our vehicles are in many neighborhoods, often driving down nearly every street.
Once man, Michael Ravnitzky, a chief counsel at the Postal Regulatory Commission, told Federal News Radio that he thinks our vehicles could be outfitted with sensors.
The sensors would have radio links and could gather and upload data of all kinds from "weather and pollution, air quality, homeland security information like radiation levels," he said. "They could measure cell phone and broadcast signal quality to make sure that the broadcast networks are operating properly. they could assess road quality so we know which roads need fixing first."
He also suggests meter readings, meth lab "sniffing," and natural gas leak detection.
Ravnitzky talk abouts potential revenue from such a deployment.
His paper on the subject is found here.
What do you think about this? Comment here.
12 comments:
In Los Angeles, the highway traffic operators do not give access to the police department. No footage, no crime detection, nothing... This keeps them from getting their cameras vandalized. If you have USPS trucks doing the bidding of other agencies... then you'll be sure to endanger the lives of postal workers. Either they will be attacked directly or their vehicles disabled.
USPS Workers will also likely object that big brother is constantly looking at where they parked. Part of the perk of the job is not have the office manager breathing down your neck.
Governments have done more idiotic things, but I'm sure it won't go down without a big fight.
With all the associated equipment to go along with these "sensors", where are we supposed to put the mail?
If it can be done without interfering with delivery, it should be. It would provide additional services to the public; plus, we could use the money!
who is going to fix all this stuff when it breaks down. There are a lot of things to consider. Maintainence and repair is only part. How the public preseves this "snooping,sniffing" could not all be benifical. Think hard on this one before we no longer deliver just mail.
I love that 'verge' innovation type of thinking--we need more of that.
The Post Office is looked at through a microscope by the public. This would make our public wonder what we really are about, customer service oriented or militant oriented.
I personally think it's a great idea for generating some revenue. We're not talking about collecting private, sensitive information here. They are talking about collecting information on weather conditions, cell phone signal strength, road conditions and the like. There are already sensors mounted on buildings and poles collecting this data, but to have nearly every mile of the US covered would be beneficial to companies requiring this information for their businesses. As long as the equipment necessary does not interfere with the carriers, I don't see a problem with it.
If it generates revenue and does not interfere with delivery then go for it. However will this equipment lead to Postal Vehicles being broke into?
Oh for heaven's sake. Get over the "Big Brother Is Watching" mentality, will you? They're doing it everywhere else, so why not let the USPS benefit financially from it?
It's annoying that we have people say they don't want to be tracked by management, especially since they're already being tracked anyway! This is the way of a technology-driven world. Get use to it, get over it, and think outside the box. Imagine all the possibilities of what we can do as the USPS to generate revenue AND assist our communities.
I love this idea. It takes "Carrier Watch" to a whole new level of service.
I think this is a great idea. The only people that would be against it would be the people that profit from anonymity.
Don't forget the paranoid conspiracy theorists!
The first thing they'll do is to blame the carrier - that is an important step in being a supervisor.... ooops a paranoid conspiracy theorist...
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