3 cities get paperless postal service

San Francisco, Newark and New York sign on to Zumbox to provide paperless municipal mail.

Thu, Oct 01 2009 at 9:45 PM EST

Image: Zumbox

When I first heard about Zumbox, the world's first paperless postal service I was both excited and skeptical. Skeptical not because of the technological achievements requires to pull off such a feat -- essentially a free, secure mailbox for every residential address in the U.S. that somehow emulates the easy and convenience of paper mail.

That was a daunting task which (based on my experience opening my first piece of paperless mail) I believe Zumbox has pulled off brilliantly. Really, my main concern was how they would get people to transition to paperless mail when the habit of postal mail is so deeply ingrained in the American psyche.

9 months later their strategy to transition people to zumboxes is clear. They went for the jugular -- municipal mail.

Municipal mail accounts for a staggering amount of postal transactions. In New York City alone, 15 million pieces of mail from the City are sent out on a typical day. So Zumbox targeted the mayors of some of the biggest cities in the U.S. -- San Francisco, New York and Newark -- and invited them to become the premiere partners of the paperless service.

Now all 3 cities have signed on and are sending correspondence to city residents via Zumbox. Hopefully the strategy will pay off as people realize how easy the software is to use and how much fuel and trees can be saved in the process.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg explains his rationale for joining:

Every day, new technological innovations help make information flow faster, systems work better and our lives a little easier, But often, when it comes to adopting new technology, governments lag behind the private sector and even the casual consumer because they are unwilling or unable to try something new and change the way things have always been done. That’s small-minded thinking. In serving the public, government should constantly be looking for new and better ways to provide information and services. The City’s pilot program with Zumbox will give us yet another means to get information to New Yorkers.

Kudos to Zumbox for moving so quickly into the public sector. While their work in transitioning people onto paperless mail is only just beginning, this is a major step in the creation of what could be the USPS of the 21st century.

Previous Post
Travel with Buddy the Bison

Next Post
Sting's SOS to the world

Comments

Follow this conversation

Add your comment

View:

All (19)

Real News 10/27/2009 05:04 AM

Could it be that Bloomberg, the mayor, sees this a a good business opportunty to get his Bloomberg´s, the company, content distributed via another channel. Hmmmm

Guest 10/08/2009 16:18 PM

This article doesn't explain the concept very well. Does this service require a computer and an internet connection? If so, what are those without one supposed to do? I'm sure the majority of municipal mail probably goes to seniors and low-income households.

Mark 10/07/2009 14:37 PM

I send out promotional materials for my business, I make efforts to use eco-friendly printing from companies like http://pixxlz.com If this catches on it may help me save on printing cost but I don't see this having far reaching effects for marketing purposes. I remember when e-mail was going to be the end of print mail promotions, years later I still find that snail mail marketing campaigns are VERY effective.

MeganW_24 10/07/2009 14:05 PM

what about other online post office versions? like http://www.earthclassmail.com
who will monitor all the different sites?

Juan Chaparro 10/07/2009 12:27 PM

As owner of Gmaids we belive in going paperless, we have implemented the same system, running our maid service, without paper & everything online and it has only improved it....we understand that paper mail it's part of the economy, but as email never destroyed these USPS, FEDEX nor UPS, it just improved them, I think it will be a new trend and new oportunities will arise for those who care more about our planet than the economy, we can't have an economy without a planet.

Rich 10/05/2009 06:42 AM

As the While House just appointed another Czar to be in charge of the internet, this is just another way for Government to control us. By just "pulling the plug" everybody's lines of communication would be "turned off". This is a control effort and the stupid blind sheep will fall for it as they always do.

hack attack 10/04/2009 22:03 PM

can't wait till someone hacks NYC zumcrap and sends out tons of nudie mail so everyone can read it, and then their computers go bonkers because of a virus. Official government documents I thought still had to be mailed so whats the use.

Drewk86a 10/04/2009 13:35 PM

As Senator Susan Collins (ME) likes to point out the mailing industry is a $900 billion industry and makes up a large part of our economy. This doesn't only hurt the USPS, but also the printers, envelope manufacturers, paper manufacturers, loggers, etc...

By the way, people deride junk mail for killing trees, but studies show we have more trees now in this country than ever thanks to harvesters who plant trees for each one they cut

MARK 10/04/2009 11:32 AM

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT THE CITIES ABILITY TO RECEIVE PRE-SORTED DISCOUNTS SINCE THE VOLUME THEY ACTUALLY MAIL MIGHT BE BELOW THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF PIECES. AND, WHAT ABOUT THE COMPANIES THAT DO THEIR MAILINGS FOR THEM? WILL THEY GO OUT OF BUSINESS?

Guest 10/04/2009 01:48 AM

Today on my postal route a customer asked me if I had heard of this new company trying to put paper mail to an end. Of course I had not. When I handed him his mail, he said, "oh here is the LETTER THEY SENT ME to confirm my enrollment." DUH Even Zumbox needs us!! This may catch on but the posal service will never go away. It may shrink, but there will always be a need. Not everyone in the US has accses to a computer or the internet, but the mail is delived to every house every day. Every single.... More

juli 10/03/2009 20:41 PM

I opted out of junk mail ten years ago (had to insist with a few companies but eventually they stopped). My only junk mail now is addressed to "postal customer" and I have argued with USPS for years about it. In the other hand there are the flyers stuck at the door by different junk companies, which keep increasing every week. In short, what needs to happen is that businesses need to respect people's rights to refuse to trash the planet.

john 10/03/2009 16:56 PM

I would never use it,plus its like email u just delete it but if you have it sent to the house you will open it, what about people jobs delivering mail....this is america lets not lose any more jobs... plus I wait for my mailman tooo..THERE BILLLION OF PEOPLE ON SECTION 8 AND LOW INCOME THEY CANT AFFORD COMPUTERS

Bill 10/03/2009 10:25 AM

Stats like those are meaningless. They also say that 100 WW 2 vets are dying every day. We would have run out of WW2 vets long time ago. Glad someone ran some figures.

Drewk86a 10/03/2009 05:39 AM

What about people who don't own computers or have internet access? What about people who move and Zumbox doesn't update it's address database? What about hackers?

Can't force people to use it.

Rob Reed 10/03/2009 10:11 AM

Zumbox is optional. The City will still send paper mail to whomever wants it. But if even a small percentage opt for exclusive paperless mail delivery via Zumbox, it will reduce the City's waste stream and mailing costs by a meaningful amount.

Bob 10/02/2009 20:34 PM

You think maybe some of the mailings are going outside of the city? It is a distinct possibility.

norm scherstrom 10/02/2009 15:46 PM

Is this statement true? “In New York City alone, 15 million pieces of mail from the City are sent out on a typical day.”
According to the NYC planning department, which cited Census Bureau numbers, the 2008 population of New York city was a bit under 8.4 million persons, about half the entire population for the state.
If the city works a five-day week and we knock out 10 holidays, the city is mailing 250 days a year. At 15 million a day that is 3.75 billion pieces, which.... More