[zyx321]

How in the world would Uber threaten the United States Postal Service or Deutsche Post?

Even if that's a typo and you meant United Parcel Service (UPS), even if we examine DHL independent of its parent company, they are heavily invested in international freight and supply chain management. I see no great benefits there from the ability to summon a cargo plane on a whim with your phone, nor from handing it off to someone with no formal training/license/qualifications.

[acconrad]

Because Uber could eventually become a cheaper, easier, crowd-sourced version of "the last mile"[1]. This is a huge threat to the thousands of DHL and UPS delivery folk who make a living shipping parcels in the Last Mile, and to the businesses they belong, which make most of their delivery fees via the Last Mile. Unless Uber (or companies like Shyp) partner with them, it could bring these old business models down.

[1] = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mile_(transport)

[JeremyNT]

I have difficulty imagining any way Uber can compete with an entrenched last mile provider on cost. What possible economic advantage would individuals have in parcel delivery versus an entrenched provider? UPS has massive benefits from economies of scale in terms of route density / fleet maintenance / fuel costs / etc etc, which no individual vehicle operator will ever be able to compete with.

Sure, an Uber driver could charge less for labor, but given that the cost of operating their vehicle will inevitably be more expensive per delivery I expect there is probably no price point at which they can realistically compete.

Perhaps Uber drivers have a path forward in niche delivery services: food, very time sensitive deliveries, rerouted deliveries, etc. But in those areas they will need to compete on quality, and the market for more expensive, higher quality deliveries (while possibly extant) cannot be large enough to represent an existential threat to a company the size as UPS.

Beyond this, I'm curious as to whether it's even in UPS's best interest to continue to service the last mile.

Both UPS[0] and FedEx[1] already have services wherein they partner with the USPS specifically to avoid servicing the last mile. Outsourcing to better/cheaper/more efficient last mile service providers might eliminate a lot of UPS employees and revenue, but the last mile is incredibly expensive to operate. Is the last mile service really a major source of profits when compared to their highly efficient long distance operations?

[0] http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/track/sp_definiti...

[1] http://www.fedex.com/us/smart-post/index.html

[makomk]

There's already a cheaper crowd-sourced version of "the last mile" here in the UK. They're called Yodel (formerly the Home Delivery Network), most of their packages are delivered by non-employees using their own cars, lots of big companies like Amazon use them, and they have a really terrible reputation.

[smt88]

We have LaserShip in the US, and they're also terrible (but not crowdsourced).