[treehau5]

Well, I will preface and just say it's my own opinion, and I don't know too much, but my thinking goes something like this -- as you said, the innovation has already happened. There's really nothing left to innovate. As far as I see, FedEx and UPS aren't working on driverless technologies or drone delivery, that would be Google, Amazon, etc. Also, because we have 3 or 4 select giant online retailers, and then the giant big box stores that have the onus to pressure the USPS to innovate. It would drive down costs for everyone on a whole, as well as the retailers. Anywhere up to 80% of the cost of physical goods is transportation, and about half of that is on that last mile. The added benefit of the USPS being a federal agency (well maybe not so much with Trump), we could pressure the politicians to ensure customers are getting good service.

[ghaff]

Now I have to assume you're just being funny.

"The added benefit of the USPS being a federal agency (well maybe not so much with Trump), we could pressure the politicians to ensure customers are getting good service."

No, the innovation hasn't already happened. Just because UPS and FedEx aren't doing PR stunts like Amazon's 60 minutes advertorial built around drone delivery the day before Cyber Monday doesn't mean they're just sitting still.

As for autonomous vehicles. Lots of people are working on the tech and once it becomes interesting for last 100 feet delivery in a few decades UPS and FedEx will have plenty of options to deploy it.

[benchaney]

>The added benefit of the USPS being a federal agency (well maybe not so much with Trump), we could pressure the politicians to ensure customers are getting good service.

Please tell me this it's a joke.

[treehau5]

When you start being cynical and think democratic processes are a joke, then yes, they won't work. But I refuse to give in to cynicism. These agencies are to operate for the public benefit.