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Is Courier Work Set To Disappear?

Written by Gertie | 09-Apr-2014 10:35:00
A 3D printer. ‘3D Printer At The Fab Factory’ (c) 2011 Keith Kissel. Used under a Creative Commons license. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode)

Hello dears!

Whoo! We made it through that spell of bad weather at long last, didn’t we? I must confess, while it was going on, I feared for the safety of some of you – I do hope your employers did not force you to do any courier work during that week when Old Albion turned into a gigantic pond! (For those of you who are self-employed, I hope you did not have the ‘brilliant’ idea of going on any delivery runs, either – safety first, my dears!)

Me? I was cooped up indoors with a nice cup of tea or cocoa and a good Jackie Collins novel. (I do love her books - I suppose I just dated myself awfully, didn’t I?) The novel was set a few years ago, and there was no mention of things like mobile phones or computers, which we take for granted nowadays. That started me thinking about how different our society is now as compared to just a few decades ago – I remember a time when we did not even have televisions in every home. (Okay – now I am definitely dating myself!) Now here we are with computers and cable channels and phones that do everything - and fit in your pocket!

That, in turn, got me thinking about a couple of news items I had seen on Google recently. One of them had to do with something called 3D printing, which apparently will let you print your own clothes and shoes and things from your computer – there was even someone saying you could make guns with it! Goodness me! Another one had to do with the already famous Amazon ‘drones’, which are apparently little robot planes that can deliver your package to your door from anywhere in the world. It seems this plan is still in the works, as I saw something about it on the news the other day.

That is what eventually (in a very round-about way) made me think of the topic for today’s post: with all these advancements in technology and whatnot, do you think there will still be a place for courier work a few decades from now? I mean, today this is still quite a popular and necessary occupation – we do need someone to bring us our parcels and packages from Amazon and eBay and whatnot – but with all these new-fangled robot planes and things popping up – not to mention printable clothes and cars and such – do you think the days of courier work are numbered?

Today, I am not even going to give you my opinion, as I genuinely don’t know what to think about all this - technology baffles me slightly. Stevie was also not available when I called him to ask what he thought, so unfortunately we don’t have his opinion to go on either. So it’s up to you lot to give me your views on this – I expect a full inbox so I can have an excellent post for everyone next week!

Until then, take care!

Ta-ra!

- Gertie
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