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NEWS > BUSINESS > U.S. POSTAL SERVICE TO TEST EMAIL DELIVERY SERVICE
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE TO TEST EMAIL DELIVERY SERVICE
December 28 2009
Washington, D.C. – For at least 2500 years the mail has been delivered through rain, sleet, snow, warfare, civil unrest, and all other sorts of challenges. While today, most mail consists of coupons and bills that has hardly been the case for most of its life. 
Seen as a fundamental part of the organization of a society, the mail system has been fought over and protected for centuries with both the people and the government using it and abusing it for gain and for control.
The last decade though has seen an erosion of the power of mail that once held over society. The rise of email, instant messaging, SMS, and special delivery services such as UPS has taken the power from postal services around the world and put it back in the hands of the individuals. While such power can result in positive social consequences – such as the Twitter inspired outcry during the Iranian election crisis – it has steadily eroded the viability of the postal business which has struggled to pull profit from a realm they once had exclusive domain over. In order to combat that decline the United States Postal Service is reportedly considering a new and altogether radical way to reinvent the mail system in order to keep up with the times, by delivering emails directly to customer’s doors.
“People don’t realize how bad it’s really gotten in recent years. The profits are way, way down and they are having to actually lay off people which is something that no one ever thought would happen. Even the unions are a little taken aback by the decline and have been asking for less and less when contract negotiations come up which is really a total about turn,” said a postal insider. “Basically this new system would allow customers to forward any emails they receive to the post office which would in turn print them out and deliver it to people’s mail box. They have to work out the finances of making it work but it would likely be similar to what people are already paying for traditional mail.”
Apparently the plan has been in the works for a number of years and was supposed to be implemented in mid-2008 but ran into technical obstacles.
“There’s little doubt that things have been tough for mail services everywhere as technology has advanced but that has been that case everywhere. The music and movie industries have also been faced with major challenges in the digital age but instead of trying to work with the medium they have been fighting against it, something the postal service obviously realizes is a fight not worth making,” said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “If I recall correctly there was some talk a few years back of postal officials trying to fight email and punishing ISP’s that provide the service but those arguments fell on deaf ears for all kinds of reasons but this is a really innovative way to play the game.”
It’s not clear how many people will be willing to pay for mail they have already read but the post office is reportedly counting on the joy associated with receiving packages in the mailbox.
“It’s an almost primordial thing to receive mail, something that adults and children just absolutely love that hasn’t changed even with the growth of email. Reading mail twice will be an issue so perhaps they can eventually have email addresses simply forward to the post office directly, but for now this could be a revolutionary start,” continued Green. “It will definitely take a lot to get the word out but once it is I imagine there will be a lot of people taking advantage of this service, particularly older users who still prefer getting mail the old way.”
The music industry is reportedly pondering a similar scheme which would see them selling blank CD’s.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
NEWS > BUSINESS > U.S. POSTAL SERVICE TO TEST EMAIL DELIVERY SERVICE
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