Wait a minute Mr. Postman

Email, texting, evites, online bill paying...Sure it saves us money on communications (44 cents at last count), but it's killing the US Postal Service.  And we wonder why the price of a stamp keeps going up.  They have lost $8.5 billion in 2010 alone and mail volume decreased by 17% from 2006-2009.  A proposed solution is explained in April's issue of Popular Science.  The chief counsel at the Postal Regulatory Commission has suggested an innovative concept to boost revenue for the USPS, however it doesn't involve paper communications.

The proposal is for installing monitors on mail trucks that could gather data and sell it to private companies.  Likely information could be air pollution measurements, traffic conditions, ozone levels, or reporting Wi-fi coverage areas or dead zones for cellular service.  (And you thought you were paranoid about the postman reading your mail!)

The concept is not quite original though.  Some Greyhound buses already have sensors which track atmospheric weather information for the National Weather Service.

It appears the USPS, which has been in place since 1775 (another invention courtesy of Ben Franklin) will need to evolve to meet the current needs of our digital society.