This kind of service does have at least one very valuable niche application - armed forces personnel on active deployment. During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, British troops received hundreds of thousands of letters every month through the e-bluey service. Letters could be sent via email (including attachments) and were printed as close as possible to the recipient. It greatly reduced logistics costs and improved speed of delivery, often facilitating next-day delivery to extremely remote Forward Operating Bases.
Why didn’t the service personnel have access to their e-mail?
I was in Afghanistan for a different country. It was my job to keep the satellite communications working, including so people could send emails to their friends and family.
Before long distance phone service was widespread, but local service was becoming common, people often sent a telegram over the phone.
Person in City A would phone the local telegraph office and dictate a message. It would be sent over the telegraph wires to the nearest telegraph office to the recipient in City B, where it would be written down by the operator. Then someone would phone the recipient and read the telegram over the phone to them.
This was in use at least into the late 1940's that I know of.
It would presumably be more secure to have the recipient receive them directly with a cell phone or satellite device. Printing them creates a literal paper trail and footsteps.
There is something like this being used in jails and prisons now. The purpose is to limit the ability of people to sneak in paper bathed in fentanyl or other potent enough substances.
Inmates do not receive originals - incoming mail is scanned at some service provider’s office that a PO Box forwards to, and things are reprinted at the detention center and walked to the inmate. Or people sign up for a faster service where photos / letters are uploaded through an app to skip the snail mail + scanning step.
One of these is called pigeon.ly
At most participating facilities the only exception to get an inmate physical paper from the outside world is legal mail.
>At most participating facilities the only exception to get an inmate physical paper from the outside world is legal mail.
This is how some imprisoned authors have managed to publish their samizdat — by sending thoughts/outlines to their lawyer [under the pretense of legal mail] — when their written ramblings might otherwise have been destroyed [as contraband].
> The purpose is to limit the ability of people to sneak in paper bathed in fentanyl
Or is it to make even more profit on the backs of prisoners & their families for companies who win juicy contracts from the government? This was being done by private companies before fentanyl.
Look into Jpay - they do a lot of slimy things and make a lot of money doing so. The free market in action I guess.
What I wanted (and still want) is a secure place to hold statements from banks for savings accounts, credit cards, etc. and brokerages.
I bank with two credit unions. Years ago, they implemented a fee of $2/month for paper statements. I get it, printing and mailing statements costs money. But it also comes to me without me having to log into an account and navigate my way to where the statement is.
I'd prefer to have them send the statement each month to an email address I specify. I get that they should take security seriously, so practically maybe that only means Gmail, Apple Mail, etc. are whitelisted.
I used to think there was a business idea here, that the banks should be willing to pay $.10/statement to save on the cost of paper. I'd be willing to use the service because the statements would automatically go to it and be retained for forever.
The reality is, I'm afraid, that the banks don't want you looking at statements because then you might find errors and dispute them and that costs the banks money.
Yeah I’ve had this same idea for the same reasons, and came to the same conclusions that without legislation, no incentive exists to send statements as attachments in emails or to store them with a 3rd party where they can’t be tampered with when a mistake is discovered
French postal service offers this, which is very convenient for legal letters because it stores a copy of it so people can't pretend they received something else.
I use this constantly when I have an online document I need to send through the mail. I just use the online postal service to send it directly. It's probably a lot environmentally friendly since they can just print as close as possible to the destination. Instead of sending it across the country etc...
We use this for summer camp. The kids aren't allowed anywhere near computers or phones, let alone internet access. So we write them emails and attach photos that are printed out and delivered to their bunks.
I attended summer camps as a kid and worked at one for years as an older teenager. I love summer camps. Looking back, part of the magic for me was being away from my parents for an extended time in a way that wasn't really possible in any other setting. The service you linked (a way for parents to constantly follow along with what's going on at camp) just feels... wrong? unnecessary? detrimental? to me. Do parents really need to be updated all the time with what's going on while their children are away for a week or two?
I don't think it's immoral or unethical to offer this service, I'm sure there's a market for it, but I just don't see why anyone would choose to use it. Let the kids go off to camp and have a good time, and they can tell you about it when they get home. It would really take the wind out of my sails if I got home and my parents already knew everything I had done, instead of getting to tell them all about it myself.
The Polish Post actually introduced a system like this recently.
It serves as boring technical infrastructure for government agencies which still need to send physical mail. Instead of each agency employing their own people to handle printing their mail and stuffing it in envelopes, they can just send it electronically to the post office, which will handle it far more efficiently.
The eventual goal is to move most people to e-deliveries, which you're encouraged to set up when using government services online. For those who haven't done so, the letter will be printed as close to them as possible to save on delivery time and costs, regardless of where in the country the sending agency is located.
On the one hand, it seems like a good public service -- and certainly essential when it was created and up until recently.
But 99% of what comes in my mail box goes straight in the trash. We do everything we can to stop email spam, why not stop postal spam?
If the government offered email as a public service, perhaps there wouldn't need to be any reason for postal mail in terms of ensuring a means of communication that reaches every one.
The Postal Service could still exist but would be quite expensive and only used for things that actually matter (i.e., original legal documents like car title, etc.)
This reminds me of the old FedEx Zapmail service they had in the 80s. They didn't get much traction and the service was shut down after 2 years at great expense.
Not the full thing - but I use Informed Delivery[1] from the USPS.
You get to see a picture of the envelope via email. With a little bit of Multimodal LLM usage I have their email summarized with important mail flagged for me.
I would also go the other way, you have something you want to be sent to somebody via paper, but it's only printed at the last mile in the delivery vehicle.
A birthday card for example doesn't need to be sent across the country or across the world, it only needs to become physical as close to your door as possible.
Maybe this could be a security measure too, you have a document that can only be printed by a secured machine and is only produced at the last mile based on current position. It would reduce the risk of the mail being intercepted or mis-delivered.
The US Postal Service isn't in the business of delivering mail and hasn't been in a long, long time. In the words of a former US Postmaster General, their customers are "the 400 or so direct advertisers who send bulk mail". They're a spam company. Arguably the first spam company ever.
But they do have a 250k strong union which is a very reliable voting bloc, which is the most important thing. New excuses will be invented to keep them around as circumstances require that.
>It would save money on the last mile delivery. And speed up delivery to a matter of hours.
> The Postal Rate Commission took 15 months to review E-COM—long enough that standard postage went up 5¢ in the interim. It barred the USPS from operating its own electronic networks, just in case the Post Office decided to deliver messages electronically and in print. And it raised the price on the service to 26¢ for the first page, plus 5¢ for a second page.
> Sending the messages wouldn’t be simple, either. Customers had to register their company with the USPS using Form 5320, pay a $50 annual fee, send a minimum of 200 messages per post office, and “prepay postage for transmitted messages received, processed, and printed for each transmission,” dictated the 1981 Federal Register.
So that people can discuss the US Postal service intelligently. About 15 years ago, there was a service (Outbox) designed to scan your mail, email anything important to you, and discard junk mail. They were growing, people enjoyed the service, and then they went to Washington DC to talk to the Postmaster General about expanding nationwide.
>When Evan and Will got called in to meet with the postmaster general, they were joined by the USPS’ general counsel and chief of digital strategy. But instead, Evan recounts that Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe “looked at us” and said “we have a misunderstanding. ‘You disrupt my service and we will never work with you.'” Further, “You mentioned making the service better for our customers; but the American citizens aren’t our customers—about 400 junk mailers are our customers. Your service hurts our ability to serve those customers.'”
That's the US mail. Can we all please stop pretending that any actual human needs the US mail to continue? No one's paying their bills through the mail... you can't even really write checks. Hell, given how international mail works, it's the US government subsidizing Aliexpress and Temu. No one should be defending the US Postal Service.
The USPS does a lot more than ship junk mail. It's a fun joke but it's super ignorant. It speaks to idiots, everyone else rolls their eyes and thinks you're not very bright.
It's a public service. It doesn't need to turn a profit because every dollar put into it generates economic activity.
[+] [-] jdietrich|10 months ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Forces_Post_Office#The...
It isn't an entirely novel idea - during the Second World War, mail was often sent to very remote destinations on microfilm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-mail
[+] [-] Gud|10 months ago|reply
I was in Afghanistan for a different country. It was my job to keep the satellite communications working, including so people could send emails to their friends and family.
[+] [-] reaperducer|10 months ago|reply
Person in City A would phone the local telegraph office and dictate a message. It would be sent over the telegraph wires to the nearest telegraph office to the recipient in City B, where it would be written down by the operator. Then someone would phone the recipient and read the telegram over the phone to them.
This was in use at least into the late 1940's that I know of.
[+] [-] dheera|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] floam|10 months ago|reply
Inmates do not receive originals - incoming mail is scanned at some service provider’s office that a PO Box forwards to, and things are reprinted at the detention center and walked to the inmate. Or people sign up for a faster service where photos / letters are uploaded through an app to skip the snail mail + scanning step.
One of these is called pigeon.ly
At most participating facilities the only exception to get an inmate physical paper from the outside world is legal mail.
[+] [-] ProllyInfamous|10 months ago|reply
This is how some imprisoned authors have managed to publish their samizdat — by sending thoughts/outlines to their lawyer [under the pretense of legal mail] — when their written ramblings might otherwise have been destroyed [as contraband].
[+] [-] robobro|10 months ago|reply
Or is it to make even more profit on the backs of prisoners & their families for companies who win juicy contracts from the government? This was being done by private companies before fentanyl.
Look into Jpay - they do a lot of slimy things and make a lot of money doing so. The free market in action I guess.
https://theappeal.org/prison-tablets-ipads-jpay-securus-gtl/
[+] [-] citizenfishy|10 months ago|reply
We used Yellow Royal Mail branded envelopes to gain attention.
[+] [-] maguay|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] jdeibele|10 months ago|reply
I bank with two credit unions. Years ago, they implemented a fee of $2/month for paper statements. I get it, printing and mailing statements costs money. But it also comes to me without me having to log into an account and navigate my way to where the statement is.
I'd prefer to have them send the statement each month to an email address I specify. I get that they should take security seriously, so practically maybe that only means Gmail, Apple Mail, etc. are whitelisted.
I used to think there was a business idea here, that the banks should be willing to pay $.10/statement to save on the cost of paper. I'd be willing to use the service because the statements would automatically go to it and be retained for forever.
The reality is, I'm afraid, that the banks don't want you looking at statements because then you might find errors and dispute them and that costs the banks money.
[+] [-] ivan888|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] franga2000|10 months ago|reply
What does that have to do with security? Geniune question. I really don't see what attach vector this prevents
[+] [-] BiteCode_dev|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] Sadzeih|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] tantalor|10 months ago|reply
The service is https://www.bunk1.com/
[+] [-] vaindil|10 months ago|reply
I attended summer camps as a kid and worked at one for years as an older teenager. I love summer camps. Looking back, part of the magic for me was being away from my parents for an extended time in a way that wasn't really possible in any other setting. The service you linked (a way for parents to constantly follow along with what's going on at camp) just feels... wrong? unnecessary? detrimental? to me. Do parents really need to be updated all the time with what's going on while their children are away for a week or two?
I don't think it's immoral or unethical to offer this service, I'm sure there's a market for it, but I just don't see why anyone would choose to use it. Let the kids go off to camp and have a good time, and they can tell you about it when they get home. It would really take the wind out of my sails if I got home and my parents already knew everything I had done, instead of getting to tell them all about it myself.
[+] [-] hoseyor|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] miki123211|10 months ago|reply
It serves as boring technical infrastructure for government agencies which still need to send physical mail. Instead of each agency employing their own people to handle printing their mail and stuffing it in envelopes, they can just send it electronically to the post office, which will handle it far more efficiently.
The eventual goal is to move most people to e-deliveries, which you're encouraged to set up when using government services online. For those who haven't done so, the letter will be printed as close to them as possible to save on delivery time and costs, regardless of where in the country the sending agency is located.
[+] [-] insane_dreamer|10 months ago|reply
On the one hand, it seems like a good public service -- and certainly essential when it was created and up until recently.
But 99% of what comes in my mail box goes straight in the trash. We do everything we can to stop email spam, why not stop postal spam?
If the government offered email as a public service, perhaps there wouldn't need to be any reason for postal mail in terms of ensuring a means of communication that reaches every one.
The Postal Service could still exist but would be quite expensive and only used for things that actually matter (i.e., original legal documents like car title, etc.)
[+] [-] Ancapistani|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] anotheruser13|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] exabrial|10 months ago|reply
1. diesel needed to cut the trees down
2. diesel needed haul logs to saw mills
3. natural/gas/coal needed to make the water to turn logs into paper
4. diesel needed to haul paper to printer to make spam
5. diesel needed to haul spam to post office
6. diesel needed to haul spam to to your door
7. diesel needed to put spam in the landfill
[+] [-] oldpersonintx|10 months ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nashashmi|10 months ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jacobr1|10 months ago|reply
You get to see a picture of the envelope via email. With a little bit of Multimodal LLM usage I have their email summarized with important mail flagged for me.
[1] https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm
[+] [-] abtinf|10 months ago|reply
I’ve had great experiences with https://www.virtualpostmail.com. They filter out all the junk, open and scan the rest, and email a pdf. It’s nice.
The only real downside is payment validation issues, when your parcel delivery address doesn’t match billing address.
[+] [-] antics9|10 months ago|reply
Costs nothing extra.
[+] [-] bArray|10 months ago|reply
A birthday card for example doesn't need to be sent across the country or across the world, it only needs to become physical as close to your door as possible.
Maybe this could be a security measure too, you have a document that can only be printed by a secured machine and is only produced at the last mile based on current position. It would reduce the risk of the mail being intercepted or mis-delivered.
[+] [-] malfist|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] titizali|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] NoMoreNicksLeft|10 months ago|reply
But they do have a 250k strong union which is a very reliable voting bloc, which is the most important thing. New excuses will be invented to keep them around as circumstances require that.
>It would save money on the last mile delivery. And speed up delivery to a matter of hours.
Delivery of what?
[+] [-] _mlbt|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 months ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bee_rider|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] dmix|10 months ago|reply
> Sending the messages wouldn’t be simple, either. Customers had to register their company with the USPS using Form 5320, pay a $50 annual fee, send a minimum of 200 messages per post office, and “prepay postage for transmitted messages received, processed, and printed for each transmission,” dictated the 1981 Federal Register.
Almost sounds like a parody
[+] [-] unknown|10 months ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] calvinmorrison|10 months ago|reply
[+] [-] j_w|10 months ago|reply
Yes, currently the service is expected to fund itself. This is short sighted and has progressively made one of the greatest public services worse.
[+] [-] kotaKat|10 months ago|reply
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/06/mule-ma...
https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.theatla...
[+] [-] NoMoreNicksLeft|10 months ago|reply
https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/outbox-vs-usps-how-the-po...
>When Evan and Will got called in to meet with the postmaster general, they were joined by the USPS’ general counsel and chief of digital strategy. But instead, Evan recounts that Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe “looked at us” and said “we have a misunderstanding. ‘You disrupt my service and we will never work with you.'” Further, “You mentioned making the service better for our customers; but the American citizens aren’t our customers—about 400 junk mailers are our customers. Your service hurts our ability to serve those customers.'”
That's the US mail. Can we all please stop pretending that any actual human needs the US mail to continue? No one's paying their bills through the mail... you can't even really write checks. Hell, given how international mail works, it's the US government subsidizing Aliexpress and Temu. No one should be defending the US Postal Service.
[+] [-] ProllyInfamous|10 months ago|reply
This is exactly how I pay all my non-cash invoices — via USPS, sending checks. I don't even use email anymore (freedom!).
Ironically, I lost access to online banking a few years ago [which I'd really love to have, but US banking has ridiculous "security" infrastructure].
[+] [-] chneu|10 months ago|reply
It's a public service. It doesn't need to turn a profit because every dollar put into it generates economic activity.