Video: New technology- a “panic button”- will help keep USPS letter carriers safer

postal, postalcrime.com 11 Comments

The unofficial U.S. postal creed says neither rain, nor sleet, nor heat, nor gloom of night will keep carriers from their rounds. Thieves and vicious dogs, however, may be another matter. So the Post Office is delivering a solution.

The Postal Service is shipping all 230,000 carriers new mobile devices with a soon-to-be-activated “panic button.” GPS transmits their location to their supervisors every minute.

The Postal Service is spending $200 million on this. That’s a lot of money, especially for an organization that lost $5 billion last year and wants to cut Saturday delivery. Can they afford it?

“It’s an investment in our future is what it is,” said Dave Williams, the Postal Service COO. “It’s an investment in the growth of our organization.”

And for those who carry that mail, the new devices are delivering a sense of security.

Source: New technology — a “panic button” — will help keep USPS postal carriers safer – CBS News

  • Get the facs straight.

    Postal service made money last year before the 5.6 billion dollar congressional tax. That’s right, it’s a tax. What else do you call it when congress says, hey,,,,let’s make he post office pay 5.6 billion dollars every year into a fund so we, congress, can spend it.

  • RandomThoughts

    Notice the COOs comments never mentioned carriers safety it’s and investment.

    These units are designed to track routes so carriers times can be cut down and sell delivery contracts to the lowest bidder.

    This has nothing to do with employee safety other than a sales pitch .

    Who doesn’t carry a cell phone today lol.

  • Surprise!

    Press the button and find out how long it takes help to arrive.

  • Bob

    They are spending money because it’s contract time, they would rather spend the money then give the employees well deserved raises and they will use the loss created by this to take away their benefits. You watch they will claim a loss because of this!

  • Postal

    Gps transmits their location to their supervisor every minute…..let that quote sink in a moment

  • Bill

    More money misspent by Usps. Give employees a raise.

  • Frank Antinone

    It’s not a panic button. It tells supervisors how fast the carriers are on their routes. DUH!!

  • Lisa Deutch Kashinsky

    We all have cell phones and don’t need this device…PERIOD!

  • Lisa Deutch Kashinsky

    Perhaps management can use them to “do 4584’s” online! Think of the gas they could save….Please, management barely has time to input all of the BS reports they do…It’s no longer about managing people, just number crunching.

  • jonnyohio

    That would be a real investment in the future. See, this way they can waste more money. Next they’ll have management controlled drones follow the carriers around for additional ‘safety’.

  • jonnyohio

    I just can’t wait to get mine so I can feel so much safer when a dog attacks me, knowing any minute a supervisor will show up to keep me from drowning in a pool of my own blood, so that I may live just long enough to be written up for having allowed myself to be attacked by a dog.