XYO Network Use Case: eCommerce + Porch Theft
You’re waiting patiently for the latest tech gadget you ordered online as a gift for your partner’s birthday, until you get the email that it’s shipped. Suddenly, you get to track its movement, every check-in at facility, and even see an estimate for when it will happily be placed on your doorstep. You can’t wait.
Suddenly, you realize that the ETA has come and gone. No package. You check your email, and the package has been stuck in a facility three states away for FIVE DAYS. What is happening?! Your partner’s birthday is in two days, so you buy another gift as a back up. You angrily email support, and they apologize, and ask you to wait. You wait another week, but it seems like the package has been lost in the mail. They apologize again, and send out a new package. It finally arrives, but partner’s birthday has past, and you end up returning the product anyway.
So how many packages REALLY get lost?
We’ve all experienced the joys of tracking numbers, ETAs, delayed packages, and gifts that have magically lost themselves in the mail system. It’s frustrating, a waste of time, and brings out your bad side. But across the United States, what are some of the numbers?
- In 2014, the United States Postal Service’s Mail Recovery Center (MRC) received 88 million items. They were able to return only 3% of those items.
- In 2017, all 15 Return Delivery Units (RDU) visited by an Inspector General did NOT in the Los Angeles District did not properly scan or offer the proper authorization documents for “Parcel Return Service” (PRS) mail. In fact, the report stated:
These conditions occurred because management did not implement sufficient controls to adequately secure and account for PRS mail. As a result, the Postal Service and PRS partners had an increased risk that theft or loss of PRS mail could occur and not be detected.
However, the reports merely suggested that the units should “Improve Parcel Return Service mail scanning procedures”. It did not offer a specific tool or company to use, or any sort of insight into interpersonal tactics to improve human error throughout the process!
That’s where XYO Network comes in.
Universal: We all have our favorite shipping companies, but we also tend to balance price, timeliness, and previous experiences when choosing a shipping method. XYO Network would allow all companies to use the SAME tracking network across the world. Imagine FedEx boxes verifying the locations of DHL packets, or creating bound witnesses with a UPS truck driving by! When tracking becomes universal, it means that all the components can contribute to a better, verified, XYO Network.
Automatic: A huge issue with current mailing industries is that it requires active human effort to scan each individual item! One of the benefits of the XYO Network is that XYO Sentinels create bound witnesses automatically with each other. They don’t need to wait on a human to confirm their locations, they can simply create those ledgers on their own. So when the Inspector General asks a unit to “Improve scanning procedures”, units can instead just implement an automatic method that will be able to do the job.
Decentralized: Packages travel all over the place. Sometimes they’re right outside your doorstep, and other times, you’re tracking something that’s halfway around the world! XYO Network hinges on the decentralized nature of the blockchain, which means the decentralized nature of the mailing industry would be able to work perfectly.
Immutable: The blockchain is immutable and keeps a clean and precise record of information. Having packages tracked using an unchangeable, exact, and organized ledger tool is incredible, because it means that companies will be able to see exactly where a package last was, and who is responsible for losing it. This method of accountability will allow these companies to improve efficiency and know which employees are doing their best to make sure packages arrive on time.
Curious about how we’ve been trying to make this use case a reality? Check out our partnership with FedEx’s Institute of Technology!
