Europe Media 01/20/03
Original Link: http://www.europemedia.net/showfeature.asp?ArticleID=14479
Postal services are under pressure worldwide. With the rise of information technologies, national postal services are increasingly finding themselves having to adapt to new ways of providing service while at the same time balancing budgets. Moreover, a growing number of private companies have entered the postal marketplace, offering similar services, including regular daily mail and parcel delivery.
An Post, the Irish national post company, recently announced that 500,000 mail delivery boxes would be set up across the country. Citizens are to pick up their mail from these boxes when going or coming from work, or during a walk – instead of having their post delivered directly to their home. Canada has had a similar service for many years.
In the UK, the newly re-named Royal Mail Group tried a differential pricing system for those customers wishing to get their mail sooner - for a small fee. However, only one person signed up for the service in the whole of the UK.
The German post office, Deutsche Post, has been moving towards digital services in a big way, providing expanded online services and an online chocolate-purchasing and delivery system, amongst other offerings. La Poste group in France offers a wide array of 'value services' and has over 17,000 outlets nationwide and also provides banking services.
The mail as we knew it has changed dramatically and will continue to change. Post offices are providing citizens new services that are often connected with other well-known private parcel and postal delivery services. So where does telecommunications technology fit into these services? How does the postal business fair in terms of innovation? More specifically, if a message can be sent via SMS - which is basically a postal service - why aren't there more postal services in the SMS marketplace? And why aren’t post offices involved in location based servicing (LBS)?
Some pretty adavanced technologies perhaps offer the answer. The VeriChip has recently become available. It’s a small, implantable chip that provides information about the person implanted with it. This chip is designed for security primarily, to allow entrance to buildings, noting the customer at cash registers, or other similar applications requiring unique personal encoding. It sounds ominous and Orwellian, although another chip called 'Digital Angel' will raise more eyebrows. 'Digital Angel' comes with a GPS locator, making the implant a tracking device. Both chips would be used voluntarily and for a fee.
Now imagine if you were personally identified and wearing this chip. Why deliver mail to your home or office? Why not just deliver the mail directly to you? The device identifies you correctly, the SMS/GPS knows where you are and since the postal service is in the business of postal codes, then the link from postal code to person is a small step. So, if you know you will be having lunch at 1 p.m. somewhere, why not use your SMS, notify the post, and make a date and time to have it delivered
Postal organizations have traditionally provided two services. Contact between individuals or organizations, and speedy delivery for a reasonable price. These are similar services that mobiles, PDA broadband services and other telecommunications now provide. But the connection between national mapping agencies and national postal services coupled with telecommunication providers could provide new synergies and alternative services.
The advent of e-government, which seeks to connect citizens with government, has taken such a route in most cases. In some cases, governments have instituted ‘one-stop-shop’ portals for the distribution of e-government services. Business too has historically communicated to customers through the post, but increasingly business-to-customer communications are increasing via electronic mechanisms.
Are we far from the day when the postal branch is called the ‘e-government’ branch – delivering both hardcopy and digital services? Moreover, given that postal services have largely entered the internet realm, how long will it be before they enter the short messaging and location-based servicing world? Are postal services about to become the true ‘info-mediaries’ of our time?
Think of the postal service as one would think of a librarian – knowledgeable about subjects and titles, where to find them and where to go. The subject matter is any information, originating from individuals, businesses and government t– local or distant. Couple that with location-based servicing and the possibilities and services are considerable. There is room for the postal service in the telecommunications market.
"Would you please deliver my mail on the twenty-third, at 2:00 pm at the coffee shop, and, by the way, bring a newspaper and the latest stock market indices – I’ll be billing it to my implant chip."