3 ms·

America Is Drowning in Packages

8 points by marban 3y ago

pierat 3y ago
Well, yeah. Wal-Mart was the first wave, to destroy local, small, and boutique stores: in favor of crap chinesium that is sold 'slightly cheaper'. Amazon moved in, used the agreements with USPS and China to cheaply (read nearly 100% subsidized) agreements to bring dangerous shit. But hey, with Scamazon Prime, it's 'free shipping' (somehow free and $140/yr are the same thing). A package hub would be better. When I can order things to the store, is a lot easier and also has better security than "on front door". But people demand convenience. And naturally there's the climate devastation these millions of miles driven to deliver shit. And that's also exacerbating the workers with trucks that had intentionally ripped the AC system out. But the ones making decisions aren't for doing the good and smart thing. They're just for doing the profitable thing.
- cocoa19 3y ago
  Nah, thanks. I'd rather have one person drive one truck efficiently than 50 people drive an SUV. Sounds more climate efficient to me. I also prefer my mailman to deliver mail than dozens (or hundreds?) of people driving and cramming the postal office/parking lot/roads.
RGamma 3y ago
I feel there's an interesting business opportunity for sturdy, reusable, general-purpose transport boxes (out of e.g. high-quality plastic). You could add a deposit-refund system on top so they are treated well. This way one could also reuse filling material. Presumably you could also integrate an RFID chip for identification or maybe to reduce the need for paper labels.
- lockhouse 3y ago
  I feel like we could do this with food containers as well. It used to work great with milk bottles. There is a crazy amount of single use plastic used in this space.
- galleywest200 3y ago
  As well -- how about we just slap the shipping labels on the box the item comes in? Why do we need to put a box inside of a slightly larger box? This is wasteful in my opinion.
  - hairofadog 3y ago
    I always thought there was big efficiency to be gained from standardized shopping box sizes for packing into trucks, but I could be wrong about that.
  - Nasrudith 3y ago
    "Display boxes" aren't shipping grade perhaps? Product boxes are usually notably far thinner unless they are already meant to bear a heavy load. Manufacturers of direct to consumer goods seem to generally eshew "display boxes" anyway, at least in my experience. But it could imply retail packaging and package packing for others.
- mbg721 3y ago
  The filling material in a lot of stuff I've ordered is tailored to the size of the object--think styrofoam bricks with a laptop-sized indentation on the side--so there might be some additional challenges pairing reused filler with the right sized thing.
  - moritzwarhier 3y ago
    Or additional challenges for the companies to comply with regulation, if there is any
Blueskytech 3y ago
I work at USPS and rural carriers are paid on evaluated time. While some locations don’t get many packages because Amazon has taken the load off with their own contractors, many offices have to make multiple trips because of the package load which essentially means USPS workers in those rural offices are working for free on those second trips. The package load is a real problem.
- supportengineer 3y ago
  Can you explain “evaluated time”? Where does the unpaid labor come in?
  - patmorgan23 3y ago
    Each route is given an estimated time to complete. The postal worker is paid based on that time, not the actual time worked. If they take less time they go home early for the same pay, if they take longer...
Tiktaalik 3y ago
> You might only really notice the handful of packages that come to your home each week (three to four in an average household). 3-4 a week is average? holy shit man that's an incredibly high number.
- pixl97 3y ago
  I only wish that was a high number for my household.

8 points by marban 3y ago

Well, yeah. Wal-Mart was the first wave, to destroy local, small, and boutique stores: in favor of crap chinesium that is sold 'slightly cheaper'. Amazon moved in, used the agreements with USPS and China to cheaply (read nearly 100% subsidized) agreements to bring dangerous shit. But hey, with Scamazon Prime, it's 'free shipping' (somehow free and $140/yr are the same thing). A package hub would be better. When I can order things to the store, is a lot easier and also has better security than "on front door". But people demand convenience. And naturally there's the climate devastation these millions of miles driven to deliver shit. And that's also exacerbating the workers with trucks that had intentionally ripped the AC system out. But the ones making decisions aren't for doing the good and smart thing. They're just for doing the profitable thing.

cocoa19 3y ago
Nah, thanks. I'd rather have one person drive one truck efficiently than 50 people drive an SUV. Sounds more climate efficient to me. I also prefer my mailman to deliver mail than dozens (or hundreds?) of people driving and cramming the postal office/parking lot/roads.

RGamma 3y ago

I feel there's an interesting business opportunity for sturdy, reusable, general-purpose transport boxes (out of e.g. high-quality plastic). You could add a deposit-refund system on top so they are treated well. This way one could also reuse filling material. Presumably you could also integrate an RFID chip for identification or maybe to reduce the need for paper labels.

lockhouse 3y ago
I feel like we could do this with food containers as well. It used to work great with milk bottles. There is a crazy amount of single use plastic used in this space.
galleywest200 3y ago
As well -- how about we just slap the shipping labels on the box the item comes in? Why do we need to put a box inside of a slightly larger box? This is wasteful in my opinion.
- hairofadog 3y ago
  I always thought there was big efficiency to be gained from standardized shopping box sizes for packing into trucks, but I could be wrong about that.
- Nasrudith 3y ago
  "Display boxes" aren't shipping grade perhaps? Product boxes are usually notably far thinner unless they are already meant to bear a heavy load. Manufacturers of direct to consumer goods seem to generally eshew "display boxes" anyway, at least in my experience. But it could imply retail packaging and package packing for others.
mbg721 3y ago
The filling material in a lot of stuff I've ordered is tailored to the size of the object--think styrofoam bricks with a laptop-sized indentation on the side--so there might be some additional challenges pairing reused filler with the right sized thing.
- moritzwarhier 3y ago
  Or additional challenges for the companies to comply with regulation, if there is any

Blueskytech 3y ago

I work at USPS and rural carriers are paid on evaluated time. While some locations don’t get many packages because Amazon has taken the load off with their own contractors, many offices have to make multiple trips because of the package load which essentially means USPS workers in those rural offices are working for free on those second trips. The package load is a real problem.

supportengineer 3y ago
Can you explain “evaluated time”? Where does the unpaid labor come in?
- patmorgan23 3y ago
  Each route is given an estimated time to complete. The postal worker is paid based on that time, not the actual time worked. If they take less time they go home early for the same pay, if they take longer...

Tiktaalik 3y ago

> You might only really notice the handful of packages that come to your home each week (three to four in an average household). 3-4 a week is average? holy shit man that's an incredibly high number.

pixl97 3y ago
I only wish that was a high number for my household.