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UK Company Wants To Deliver Parcels Through Underground Tunnels
Zothecula writes Drones flown by Amazon aren't the only way we could be getting our parcels delivered in the near future. UK firm Mole Solutions is exploring the possibility of using small robot trains running on underground tracks to manage deliveries, and it's just received funding from the British government to help test the viability of the proposal.
Pneumatic post anyone?
The post office used to have an underground railway in London for shuffling things between some of the major sorting offices. It got closed down because "it was cheaper to use vans".
It was cheaper of course if you considered the roads to be free and the extra traffic to cost nothing (which is how most people operate). Nice to see the government using its vast size to actually take a holistic view and consider all factors for once.
But no, instead they decided it was cheaper to dump a bunch of extra traffic on an area notorious for congestion to save money. Brilliant!
I don't even remember which government and I can't be arsed to lookit up becuse it makes no difference. Both the major parties are as dumb as each other.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Yes.
If it could be done profitably, private enterprise must do it instead
If it is done for a loss, it must be terminated
It it breaks even, mess with it until one of the above rules can be applied.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
And I have to say, the most relevant line on Wikipedia is this:
"Royal Mail had earlier stated that using the railway was five times more expensive than using road transport for the same task. The Communication Workers Union claimed the actual figure was closer to three times more expensive but argued that this was the result of a deliberate policy of running the railway down and using it at only one-third of its capacity"
If even the unions are saying it's three times more expensive, there's a problem.
And, to be honest, I really don't want my post subject to both postal AND train-driver strikes, thanks very much. They already have had several months off for the past few years just by striking over pay while they earn more than I can ever hope to earn.
The beauty of Amazon was that they hired random people to deliver Amazon parcels in their cars late at night and thus avoided the whole Post Office "We tried to deliver your parcel at 9am but, strangely, you weren't home.... you can collect it from the post office 20 miles from you or your workplace at any time between 9-5 Mon-Fri".
Of course, this is the best kind of project.
Where private enterprise is paid by the gov't to determine if a project is profitable.
If it is, great, they'll do it, preferably with some kind of startup grant from the gov't to make sure they can make a go of it.
If it isn't, great, didn't cost them anything and they can spend the last of the money for thinking of some new idea the gov't can pay them to investigate.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
The main problem with freight logistics is not getting all your parcels into a central city depot (this is largely done at night anyway). It is getting the small parcels from the depot to all the various houses and businesses spread throughout the urban area during business hours. Unfortunately the only real solution to that second issue is to have a whole bunch of people hand delivering the packages who can ring door bells, climb stairs etc. But what these mole people have done is ignored this hard bit and said 'hey people can just walk down to the depot and their package will get whizzed away using magnets!'. But I don't want to spend 30 mins walking to and from the depot. I want someone to deliver the package to my door so I can keep working.
Personally I think the most likely solution will be autonomous milk cart type things that drive around to your house and message you so you can go out and retrieve your parcel from them. They don't need to be fast if they can be smaller and there can be more of them. Drones have a lot of issues in urban areas (where are they going to leave your package?) but could be a great solution for rural situations.
Here you go. My understanding is that London is full of all sorts of tunnels built for various purposes. From the huge Victorian era sewage system to the London Underground and various utility tunnels. Chatting to engineers, one of the issues they have building anything in London is that often you'll encounter some uncharted tunnel. Odd though this may sound, I have exploring London's underground tunnels on my bucket list.
Maybe that is where this inspiration comes from. Sadly, they did not get the joke. So they thought it is an idea to implement.
Sometimes government take the risk for experimenting with new technology. You don't always want to wait for investors to come up with the money. Especially when you're going to be drilling holes in people's land, it's good to have government support.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
Well, actually, they do: http://www.flyingmag.com/news/...
However when a plane falls out of the sky in a fiery ball of death, it doesn't destroy the rest of the airspace in the system so badly that all of the atmosphere has to be rebuilt before air travel can be started again.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
How much does a DVD cost to post using the Royal Mail?
Not that much more and they'll send it from London to Scotland on your behalf too. These guys pick up from local warehouses and deliver in their home street and surrounding roads.
I don't argue that it's probably not much more than a minimum-wage job but all the drivers I spoke to were more than happy with it - flexible hours, paid by how many you can take and successfully (and reliably) deliver, can do it after work, with the kids on the school run, throughout the day, etc.
How much does my local paper-delivery boy get per house her delivers to? Probably a damn pittance. But he can do a road on foot in ten minutes and make a wage worth him getting up at 4am for.
And don't forget that before that, from the 1860s in fact, there was a pneumatic parcel delivery railway between Euston and major depots.
http://www.londonreconnections...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company
And they operated into the 1970's.
London is going to be a hard nut to crack, ti's already got several levels of tunnels under the city.
There are some real issues with underground tunnels, especially ones to small to be traversed by people. People are "universal power tools" and can get in there and fix unusual problems. If a rail car the size of a trash can gets stuck in a tunnel you can send a man down.. figuruing out how to get it out is going to be a real trial.
You would have to be crazy to be sane in this world. -Nero
Just like chicago's under ground mail and package delivery system. Also used to cool buildings.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
this is what inspired the Royal Mail company to build theirs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
New York's Roosevelt Island has had underground tubes collecting trash for 30 years. They use a Swedish system of 20" diameter tubes. It's worked well for 30 years and is still maintained. No reason this couldn't be done in reverse to deliver stuff.
http://www.wired.com/2010/08/t...
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