We’re gearing up for the holiday season, a time when parcel shipments go crazy. Last year, in the three months leading up to December 2023, the U.K.’s Royal Mail—the country’s equivalent of the USPS—handled 387 million parcels, up 36% from a year before. Every day, the service saw more than 4 million items going through its system, including a good number of those internationally. This year volumes are expected to be even higher as more of us turn to e-commerce websites to fill Santa’s sleigh.
While Royal Mail has been criticized for poor service in parcel and letter deliveries in recent years, it’s hoping that the Christmas rush will go more smoothly this year thanks to more than 2 million tiny internet of things (IoT) devices that will help keep track of how parcels flow through its complicated network.
Royal Mail has partnered with Wiliot, the makers of Wiliot IoT Pixels, postage-stamp-size smart tags similar to AirTags that can track the progress of items as they work through systems. WIliot was named one of the five next big things in computing, chips, and foundational tech in 2023. The company says its systems provide “ambient IoT,” or the ability to always analyze items using the internet of things, wherever they’re encountered.
“They’re the first postal service to deploy ambient IoT, which is today a Bluetooth thing, but will over the next couple of years become part of the core Wi-Fi and 5G advanced standards,” says Steve Statler, chief marketing officer at Wiliot, which has rolled out 2.5 million of its devices across the Royal Mail network in the past few months. “They can help the mail be delivered on time and help make an institution that has a very long history competitive and strong.”
For sure, Royal Mail needs help. The organization is struggling to meet minimum standards, and is currently being investigated for breaching requirements set out by Ofcom, the U.K. regulator that oversees it, for minimum delivery standards. A spokesperson said in written responses to questions (a live interview was not made available) that “the technology deployed is designed to improve efficiency 365 days a year but of course our top priority is the service we deliver to our customers. At Christmas the importance of these factors magnifies greatly.”
The IoT Pixels won’t be attached to individual parcels; rather, they have been installed on “Yorks”—the name Royal Mail gives to rolling cages that are used to transport groups of parcels as they make their way from one sorting office to another throughout its network. More than 850,000 rolling cages are operational across the Royal Mail systems in the U.K., with the low cost of Wiliot devices—currently around 30 cents each—meaning the company has installed three on each cage for redundancy.
“When they sent the Apollo up to the moon, they had three computers in the nose for failover and redundancy,” Statler says. “Same thing here.” He points out that the York rolling cages can receive plenty of wear and tear while they’re in operation, meaning it’s better to ensure always-on access to Wiliot’s systems by installing multiple Pixels on each cage.
The idea is that the IoT Pixels will enable Royal Mail to seamlessly and simply track where any single package is in its national and international network based on which rolling cage it has passed through, helping lower the risk of misdeliveries or lost parcels at a time of year when every package has to be delivered on time and to the right address. “We’re continually looking for ways to modernize and improve our services,” a Royal Mail spokesperson wrote. “Digital transformation is a key aspect of future-proofing the organization.”
Wiliot declined to share details of the contractual terms with Royal Mail, or the likely level of improvement to delivery standards its systems would provide, but Statler tells Fast Company that “the payback period is sufficiently small that there’s been changes in [Royal Mail] senior management, and everyone has greenlit this.” He adds that Wiliot tends to look to provide a payback period of less than a year on investment in its devices.
While the current system attaches Wiliot’s postage-stamp-size Pixels to the cages that carry parcels, Statler anticipates a future where the company can provide Royal Mail with individual Pixels that are attached to individual parcels and letters. “That is their intent,” he says. “To have a postage-stamp-size computer which is effectively a stamp or label going on letters and parcels.” One way that future could happen is that Wiliot plans to release a new generation of its Pixel next year that will halve the 30 cents-per-item cost of the device.
“Ambient IoT is really delivering omniscience,” Statler says. “What Royal Mail is doing is, at one level, very simple. They’re doing something that makes them competitive and hopefully delivers the mail on time, and saves them money.”
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