Big monopoly muscles out innovation

[Quantum Windbag]

I wonder how all the usual suspects will react to this.

They believed that their technology could actually save the Post Office money. If consumers started to opt-in to Outbox, or other services like Outbox, then the Post Office could receive the full benefits of the stamped envelope but never have to deliver those packages, which is one of the biggest costs for the Post Office. In fact, if properly implemented, when a customer sends a letter from Austin, TX to Alaska, if the Post Office knew that they weren’t going to receive the letter anyway, then the Post Office could forward the letter from Austin directly to Outbox, and never have to ship the letter across the continent.
Thus digitization of mail could actually save the Post Office a large amount of money, but that wasn’t how the Post Office would see it.
When Evan and Will got called in to meet with the Postmaster General they were joined by the USPS’s General Counsel and Chief of Digital Strategy. But instead, Evan recounts that US 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.”’

How The U.S. Postal Service Crushed an Innovative Startup | The Fiscal Times

 

[Mr. H.]

They are perfectly free to compete with the USPS.
Fed Ex and UPS do so.

 

[srlip]

yep, junk mail is what makes snail mail what it is. If those pos's had to PAY FULL PRICE for mailing that crap, it wouldnt exist.