The Great Evolution of Deliveries

A HISTORY OF THINGS BEING DELIVERED Formal delivery services evolved a bit after caveman times with the advent of writing. HISTORY OF DELIVERIES The word mail actually comes from the Medieval English word male, referring to a bag or pack carried by someone making a delivery. • The earliest recorded organized delivery service: Egypt ~240o BC The first documented organized mail delivery system: During the reign of Cyrus the Great ~550 BC ROYAL MAIL EST. 1516 FedEx FIRST USPS POSTMASTER GENERAL BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1775 Modern fast package delivery - 1973 The USPS started Express Mail service shortly thereafter. JAPAN Today's package delivery options include private courier, federal programs like USPS, national or international parcel carriers, and even Amtrak or Greyhound. DISTANCE OF DELIVERIES A Greek soldier-messenger happily bearing the message of the Greek victory over the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 BCE for Furthest Pizza Delivery: Capetown, South Africa to Sydney, Australia 4okm. This is the origin of Marathon, ATHENS 12,000 km Although on a much smaller scale, the longest mail delivery route in the United States is 187 miles long. COMMON & UNCOMMON DELIVERY METHODS THE MOST COMMON DELIVERY METHODS ARE Foot Car Bike Boat Train Plane LESSER KNOWN DELIVERY MECHANISMS INCLUDE Horse Both as riders and as Dog stagecoach/cart/chariot. They are still used in some remote Mainly used as part of dogsled teams to pull deliveries over frozen terrain. areas such as Tibet. Reindeer In 1899 the USPS actually used reindeer to complete part of their delivery routes in Alaska. Carrier Pigeon While mostly for sport these days, carrier pigeons were widely used in medieval times and during WWI. Camel Were used in Australia, but were put out of business when the railroad reached the cities they serviced. Delivery could take up to four weeks. Rocket Rocket-delivered mail was first suggested in 1810. It was unreliable at first, but thanks to amateur rocketeers, the USPS delivered mail by unmanned rocket in the 1950s with the aid of a submarine. FUTURE OF DELIVERIES Deliveries are moving more swiftly in the digital age. The cost of these new forms of delivery is still to be determined as they are not available to the public yet. Amazon has a special research project that would deliver packages to your door by octocopter in roughly 30 minutes. They are calling it Amazon Prime Air. UPS is also testing drones for swift delivery service even though the FAA currently doesn't allow the commercial use of drones. On the other end of the spectrum, for six months Google will be testing a same-day delivery system in the San Francisco Bay Area called Google Shopping Express. Google is partnering with 9 retailers to get the job done. SOURCES endicia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_delivery http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/delivery-monday-through-saturday.pdf http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/o,9171,1969717,00.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_delivery_by_animal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_ mail http://www.pizzadelivery.com/funstuff/records.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-unveils-futuristic-plan-delivery-by-drone/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ups-also-testing-drone-delivery/ http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-going-into-the-delivery-business-2013-3