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Friday
30th 49F, rain from a very heavy overcast. Expected to rain for the rest of the morning. No walk and it drizzled all day.
I had to make an emergency run in the car in steady rain to the builder's merchant for plumbing parts for the new bath. Rubber gloves and masks firmly in place before leaving the car. I avoided the few browsers and the staff were protected behind clear plastic screens.
The complications arise when deciding when to remove the gloves and mask. And, what of the risk from contaminated shopping? The staff have to handle each item to scan it. I also had to input my pin code manually. Because I'd gone just over the card's security blanket limit. All this handling and personal contact seems very unnecessary in these days of Jinping Plague, wireless labelling and stock control.
As I buy many of our vital items online, these days, there is a regular snowfall of email requests for scoring the dealer's performance. Many online dealers promise and pride themselves on same day dispatch. Many dealers work hard to promote an image of efficiency and customer care. Including track and trace.
Logic suggests that you should score the dealer on their performance alone. What then, if a surly driver dumps your goods on the front lawn in the rain and runs? What then if the freight company falls down on the job and delays your item for another day? Or even longer?
There is a clear need to find a better way of distributing parcels to customers which maintains the ambitions of the online supplier. Amazon is trialling drone delivery. How that works for literally millions of parcels per day is quite another matter. "Air traffic control" and avoiding competitor's flights takes on a whole new meaning. Do we really want creaming drones constantly filling our days [and nights] for every whim?
There is still no standard for public parcel acceptance despite most people being at work during normal delivery times. The US seems plagued by parcel theft judging by all the YT videos. Can a standard security cabinet be developed to allow secure storage until the occupant returns? Cannot the parcel be wirelessly, security tagged to the house? So that removal from the delivery point, without customer intervention, results in a siren?
Danish privacy rules for security cameras mean that the home owner may not survey public thoroughfares. So identifying a parcel thief and quite possibly their vehicle, becomes seriously problematic. No doubt technology will eventually match these demands for security. Or, everybody will work from home in future.
Or, remain unemployed while the AI robots take over literally everything. Where will the paying customers come from then? Dystopian futures ignore the fact that somebody has to make a profit. Slaves don't have the means to buy all the stuff which keeps the world on the daily commuter run. Who else can feed the 1%'s money printing machine, but us?
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