Comment by VWWHFSfQ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by VWWHFSfQ | Hacker News Reader

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I have been very pleasantly surprised by the usefulness of the USPS Informed Delivery [1] program which emails me pictures of the mail parcels arriving in the next day or two.

> Today, the USPS’s OCR technology can read handwritten mail at nearly 98 percent accuracy, while machine-printed addresses bump its accuracy to 99.5 percent.

> [...] it first started using a handwriting recognition tool in 1999. The USPS is currently in the middle of a 10-year modernization plan, which includes investments in technology, such as AI. However, the plan has faced criticism for raising the price of stamps and causing service disruptions in some areas.

$0.78 to send a letter or postcard anywhere in the USA seems so cheap that I don't think the "rising cost of stamps" could ever even cross my mind. I'm aware that it does matter to some people, though.

I will, however, be glad if it becomes too expensive for spam mailers.

[1] https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm

Spam mailers don't pay the first-class rate. They get a discount and they must pre-sort their mail by carrier route. Sadly, junk mail is what keeps the postal service afloat. I note that they are also apparently selling ads on the informed delivery website.

The usps change of address form is a folded pamphlet with one section for the form and 2-3 for advertisments. More ads than paperwork

>I will, however, be glad if it becomes too expensive for spam mailers.

Which I assume still subsidizes first class mail.

Honestly, it doesn't bother me a lot. Some I even find useful and the rest is quick to toss in the trash. There's actually a lot less than there sed to be with the decline in mailed catalogs and the like.

> Today, the USPS’s OCR technology can read handwritten mail at nearly 98 percent accuracy

That seems quite low compared to other uses of AI. Imagine a self driving car taking a decision every second with 98 percent accuracy. After a minute of driving there would be a 70% probability of making at least one bad decision.

Yeah, but my penmanship is awful, and I'm not alone.

However, machine printed addresses are the norm, and address barcodes for large mailers are very common. Manual assistance on 2% of handwritten mail isn't that much manual assistance.

You need not suffer spam in your mailbox if you’ve got $4. Lest I repeat myself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36131222

Actually, now it's now $6. :-)

That seems unbelievablly cheap and it appears to last for 10 years. Thanks for the link.

Whoops, I’ll update my spiel. And you can do it online now! Why, back in my day…

The issue is when you want to send say 120 wedding invitations, that 78 cents adds up. Corpos get Pitney Bowes mail meters which print the barcodes and have a slightly cheaper rate, but the post office doesnt provide this convenience to consumers as far as I know.

Postage price increases over the past hundred years generally match inflation to within a couple percentage points. So agreed: it's a very low price for an impressive and efficient service.

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