A modified iPod and printer that lobby assistants in 50 retail facilities are using to test the Mobile Point of Sale system
USPS is testing a new mobile point-of-sale (POS) technology designed to reduce wait-time-in-line for most routine retail transactions.
The new technology — Mobile Point of Sale, or mPOS — uses a modified iPod hand-held device and printers. With mPOS, lobby assistants can scan and accept prepaid packages, scan package pickups as delivered, or sell stamps, ReadyPost and other retail products. Retail associates also can use mPOS to sell Priority Mail flat-rate postage.
During the holiday season, the 50 facilities testing mPOS processed more than 102,000 transactions using the technology. A retail associate can accept payments with mPOS by swiping credit cards and non-PIN debit cards. A customer can choose to accept a hard-copy receipt or have one emailed to a personal email address.The mPOS system consists of three pieces of equipment — the iPod hand-held device, a portable receipt printer and a postage printer. With mPOS, lobby assistants can greet and assist many customers with simple transactions, allowing them to “swipe and go.”
Retail Channel Operations VP Kelly Sigmon says mPOS is the latest example of how USPS is taking advantage of technology to improve the customer experience. “We’re now in the process of updating many of our retail technology platforms,” she says. “New technology will make it easier for retail associates to better assist our customers.
via USPS News Link
It is a clever little secret to get your e-mail address so the post office can sell them to the public.
If the window was fully staffed PLUS having a lobby greeter then great. At our local po they literally shut down a window to send out a lobby greeter. I say lobby greeter as we didnt receive this new equipment just the directive to make sure there was a lobby sweeper, it was the new knee jerk reaction of the season.
Why not return to tried-and-true, old fashioned technology that has been proven to work and does not require any staffing? I’m talking about vending machines of course.
We tested these at my office this Christmas. Not very effective, in fact the congestion was as bad if not worse than any other Christmas season. And don’t get me started on the level of confusion it created in our lobby. The only good thing was it got some desk sitting loser from downtown to actually do some work for the po for a change, even though he was not the least bit happy about it! He clearly didn’t like being forced out into the field to deal with actual people/customers after being in a job where he just shows up and does nothing for several years. PRICELESS!!!!!
What mgmt. employee owns this company, thus insuring the usual kickbacks, etc. ?
Sounds good in theory; but in reality the obvious problem is staffing. I don’t see how it will cut down on the wait time in line. If you sell stamps or accept packages on a POS or a mobile pause. It’s like saying a laptop is faster then a desk top. No logic whatsoever.
Yep, USPS certainly uses a lot of POS technology…..