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Postal Service Starting To Use Mobile Point of Sale Tech
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. Postal Service is conducting a pilot test of mobile point of sale technology in 50 facilities, using a modified iPod device and printers. During the holiday season, the 50 facilities testing mPOS processed more than 102,000 transactions using the technology."
As labour becomes more and more expensive due to all of the resource mis-allocation, inflation, taxes, regulations the capital comes to the rescue and saves the day once again. Competition is pushing USPS to reduce costs and in our times the result is obvious - automation. This may be good news actually, of-course it's a government program, so there has to be a level of inefficiency somewhere there, the procurement process, somewhere is getting a nice piece of the pie, but as long as it works out at the end, it should in principle save money and this is due to the competitive pressure from the free market.
You can't handle the truth.
...could do something about those hours...
Seriously, the post office in my wife's old hometown is only open until something like 4pm. We usually need to use it when we're mailing something back from her parents that they've given to us on a trip, something like books that aren't particularly fragile and are very heavy, so shlepping them on to the plane is less than ideal. It's awkward when they're open such a short amount of time, and yes, there usually is quite the line at closing time so they're effectively open until 4:30 or 5:00 anyway.
This quick point-of-sale wireless stuff could be a real boon admittedly, for when customers don't need the parcels weighed in order to pay for them, and might help make getting through line faster. That could mean that they'd need less clerks at the same time, so they could lengthen the operating day by staggering clerks' shifts a little more, allowing them to remain open later without having to hire more workers.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Why not use something nobody will want to take home, like a HTC first?
I finally reach the age of being able to rag on the USPS and they are still delivering things on time. Now I have to hear they are being accommodating too? Dirty roten rat...
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Been using them in Oz for years...
But but... it's Apple man. It's an iSomething product! That's why it's so newsworthy!!
Otherwise yeah, mobile point of sales with portable printers have been around since the Flinstones...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Many USPS locations already have a kiosk with a scale and a vending machine type arrangement to do that, without the need for a postal employee. Or you can get a USPS account (which is free) and print your own bar-coded package labels with postage. Just like FedEx. There's even a discount for that, and you get free tracking.
When you use either of those methods, no postal employee has to do any data entry.
I was wondering why a purchase kept bouncing in and and out of a delivery for two weeks.
I ordered a game from ebay that was mailed first class two day post - and it circled in and out of forest park for over two weeks. I've never had a problem like that before. Now it makes sense.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
Because you can't Instagram your rampage with a mere cash register.
when will their own website notice that 07676 is the Township of Washington in NJ
cause when I sent shit there this summer the website said invalid and I had to take it to the post office only to get screwed another 4 bucks for some drooling flunky to print a label
I recall the customer experience when Apple itself went from the Symbol scanners to the Linea Pro sled + iPod combo as being pretty much night-and-day. The old devices were clunky and slow, and the new were fast and efficient. Being able to sign with your finger onscreen was also a big plus. Paperless receipts are great!
At first I thought TFA was talking about a public outgoing mailbox.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Interesting what makes news in America. Obviously some people haven't eaten in a European restaurant in a very long time. LOL!
On the other hand, I went to a major retail chain (formerly renowned for their catalog) and the guy told me he "had to" use his Apple-powered checkout gadget, because of some kind of quota.
It took at least 5 times longer than if he had use a good-ol' cash register like the one right next to him, on which he still had to type a couple things, and which printed my receipt. Actually, it was the machine 8 feet away which was linked to his toy, making the whole thing patently ridiculous as he went back and forth. He had to scroll on the tiny apple screen to input data which has dedicated keys on the productivity-optimized dedicated hardware.
I'm glad there wasn't a line, because this was a perfect example of not-an-upgrade. As an "extra cashier" tool during black Friday, maybe it's useful, but the place was empty and the registers were running.
I looked at doing something like this at work a while back. It would have been similar to what they have here, an of the shelf touch screen device with some extra hardware attached. One of our competitors used an iPod but it turned out to be to fragile in the field, and because our customers often wear gloves for warmth and safety the capacitative touch screen was annoying.
We considered some rugged Android devices with resistive screens. Development would have been easier too because Android has a better USB stack and more standard hardware (no proprietary interfaces), but in the end sent with a completely custom system.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
a) It's also smaller, so easier for an employee to put in their pocket and walk away with.
b) There is absolutely nothing wrong with a text based OS. As for it being proprietary, well so is iOS outside of a few BSD bits. The point is that it is a small dedicated device and you don't have to worry about some bored clerk cracking it to put his Facebook app on the thing or browse porn on it's built in browser.
c) Lots of handheld scanners used to use Palm devices and I'm sure they'll use Androids too. The lightness factor only matters in if you expected them to be at a station or carting the thing around the store.
"US Postal Service announces trial of a technology in widespread use for many years, film at 11"
You know what? That sounds like a very successful test of using iThings for point of sale. Not that the iThing was successful, but I bet your experience helped the retailer understand that those devices sucked for the task. At least temporarily.
POS providers are under constant pressure to "put mobile POS systems in my store" or "the Apple store uses iPods, why can't we?" Apparently every marketer associates being cool with the use of iPhones. They parade a profound lack of knowledge of human interface design, usability, workflow, and productivity as some kind of badge of honor, like "we're breaking through traditions and making our cashiers cool." Then when someone finally runs a real-world test and proves that cashiers will slow down by a factor of five; they have no place for shopping bags, hangers, flat surfaces for folding sweaters, or receipt printers; the sleds triple the bulk and weight of the devices; and the customers are pissed off at the long waits and longer lines, the marketer puts his tail between his legs and slinks back into his cubicle, having failed at the task of bringing "cool iThings" into the stores. The marketing executives blame the failure on the project management, on the project team, or on anything that went wrong, but never seem to learn the failure stems from the limitations of the human interfaces required to actually sell stuff.
Twelve months later, the next fresh face in charge of marketing repeats the cycle. It never ends.
Now get off my lawn.
John
I had exactly the same experience at what I suspect was the same retail chain. On the other hand, I myself have developed mobile point of sale apps for my employer. On the rare occasion that the server backend for the standard PoS system has gone down, salespeople have been able to continue to check people out using just the handheld devices. It can definitely be done right, but it doesn't surprise me at all that there are many examples of how wrong it can be done.
Oh! These joke sites like The Onion, and Satirewire are so funny. Imagine an efficiently-run post office with friendly attendents employing modern technology. LOL.
Proverbs 21:19
You've been lied to. Every business in the country pays for their retirement plans while the employee in working. What USPS was doing was promising to pay today's workers 50 years from now, but not setting aside any money to do so. In most cases, it would be illegal for a private company to pull the crap the USPS was. It's fraud, telling employees they have a retirement fund when in fact there is no such fund. Congress had USPS stop committing fraud. Now, when a postal worker goes to work today, they earn retirement benefits today, and that money is set aside today to pay today's workers.
Whats the MOST inefficient way to make a decision? Having millions of people vote on it is probably the least efficient way possible.
The second most inefficient way to make a decision is probably to send it through the US Congress. On the other hand, North Korea makes decisions efficiently - the dictator simply decides. That might take ten seconds, while the same decision by the US government might take years.
The US government isn't SUPPOSED to be efficient. If we wanted efficient, we'd have a dictator.
We don't want efficient government, we want FAIR governance. We want to be sure that all voices are heard and
that everyone's rights are respected. That's incredibly inefficient.
In my small business, when we need a computer we log onto Provantage, Newegg, or Tigerdirect and order it. We know those companies provide good service and good prices. It takes us maybe 30 minutes to select and order a computer. When the government needs computers, they initiate the bid process. The bid process is supposed to be transparent, so that all citizens can see that the government official isn't buying from their brother at inflated prices. It takes a few months. The government process takes a few months, the private business practice takes a few minutes. Obviously the government process isn't efficient - it's not supposed to be! It's supposed to be transparent.
What, if anything, should we do about all of this inefficiency? Well, the inefficiency is how we get fairness, transparency, etc., to the extent we manage to get those things. We COULD give up fairness etc. by choosing a dictator. Laws being made by a dictator doesn't sound like a good idea, so we're probably stuck with government being extremely inefficient. That's okay, though, there is a way to get things done efficiently while still having an inefficient (fair, transparent) government.
To make certain things efficient, we can simply not have them done by the government. Some things, like making laws and courts, need to fair, transparent, etc., and need to be done by the government. Other things don't need to be. For example contrast Google fiber versus the various attempts by governments in the US to provide fiber access. The government run projects mostly failed to one degree or another. Google is getting the job done. I don't CARE whether or not the Google executive is sending contracts to his brother-in-law. There's no need for transparent bidding. Fiber is delivering bytes, mostly porn, not sentencing people to prison, so there's no need for the same guarantees of fairness we demand of the government who runs the court system.
Neither government nor business is BAD. Each have their own place. A court of law should be deliberative, fair, slow. Being sentenced to prison SHOULD be a careful, slow process. Passing laws that drastically effect millions of people should involve public debate. It SHOULD take months or years to figure out a new medical care system and impose it on everyone. On the other hand, laying some fiber so you can stream more Netflix should be quick. You want to launch the new technology today, not three years from now. If Congress were in charge of internet access, they'd probably be approving the DSL standard about this time. It would probably be paid for by taxes on 56K modems. That's as it should be. Careful, fair, deliberative, slow government when you're forcing people to do things and quick, efficient businesses to provide consumer services.
Yah, I admit it, I trolled a troll!
Probably it would require and act of congress.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
It amazes me how little the USPS "clicknship" website has changed over the past 10+ years. A consumer still cannot go online and print out a stamped, first class envelope, let alone an unstamped mailing label. You still cannot fill out paperwork for certified or registered mail online, instead you have to go to the post office and scribble on one of those adhesive-backed green labels with smudgy ink. If you don't want to verify a mailing address or ZIP+4, it's far easier to type it into Google.com than USPS.com because you can't do an unstructured search for an address without tabbing between Address1, Address2, City, etc. Unless you're sending an Express Mail overnight package, there isn't much you can do from USPS.com.
The USPS need a leader who can really embrace technology, deploy more online self-service tools, and more functional self-service kiosks. Maybe they should just buy out stamps.com for a billion dollars and offer it as a free service to everyone.
Mobile point of sale is the future, and this is just another step in that direction. Revel Systems is utilizing customizable mPOS systems for all types of establishments. Check them out here http://revelsystems.com./ -Adam