Tuesday, January 10, 2012

LLV Potential

The U.S. Postal Service possesses the largest civilian fleet in the world — more than 200,000 vehicles.  And those vehicles cover 1.25 billion miles each year. This huge component of the postal infrastructure could represent an untapped resource.  Imagine if some of those vehicles were doing something else, automatically, at the same time they were moving the mail.

That’s just what Michael Ravnitzky envisions in an article entitled “Offering sensor network services using the postal delivery fleet.”  The paper was presented at the 18th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics, in Porvoo, Finland, in June of 2010.  It was also included in the book Reinventing the Postal Sector in an Electronic Age, edited by Michael A. Crew and  Paul R. Kleindorfer (2011).

Ravnitsky wonders, what if these delivery vehicles were fitted with sensors to collect and transmit information about weather or air pollutants?
As the Postal Service maneuvers through changing modes of communication, are postal delivery trucks positioned to fill a new role of information gathering besides delivering the nation’s mail?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/opinion/18ravnitzky.html

7 comments:

Grannybunny said...

Good idea!

Benny the Blogger said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

LOOKS AS THOUGH YOU DON'T WANT COMMENTS. IS THIS CENSORSHIP? WHAT IS THERE TO BE AFRAID OF.

A Postal Clerk said...

This really does sound like an idea that should be explored. I'm guessing the comments removed were negative and/or derogatory and we in the Postal Service really need to stop thinking that way and try to think beyond "status quo" and think towards the future for all of us.

Robert said...

Selling advertising space on these vehicles would drum up revenue very quickly. The sensors may have potential, but require costlier startup and I assume maintenance. I guess the question would be: is there a demand for this data by the free market?

FrancisSA said...

I already saw many metrolink vehicles(metrobus,trains) in St Louis already have advertisements and I am sure they are paid to metrolink department. Postal can also get similar revenue. Also there are lot of cellular and radio providers that need wifi enabled and probably we can tie-up with them and expand their network and our revenue. Also sensors and security alerts, weather alerts is a good tool too. Maybe vehicle has the ability to detect and operator just text to appropriate department to notify.

Anonymous said...

Big Brother will be watching you.