Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Once again the conversation veers to a topic that I actually know something about. Air transport. The world's air travel systems x-ray at the edges. Once a bag has entered the system, it is in general not x-rayed again. There are exceptions, but they are minor. This system works because there is a small number of entry points (about 1000 international airports). The world's package express systems (FedEx, DHL, UPS, AirBorne, etc) also do edge control; once a package is in their system, they know where it is and where it is going until it leaves their control. But there are hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of edge points. If package express companies were going to start x-raying packages, they would have to change their internal routing structure so that all packages routed through a hub that could could x-ray. If you have ever seen the FedEx hub in Memphis at 2:00 a.m. you will have a very vivid understanding of just how impossible this is. The need to x-ray each package would slow things down by a factor of 100, and the price of package express would have to climb. Right now, society believes that affordable package express systems are important cultural necessities, ranking right up there with CNN and nonfat latte. Until that changes, nobody is going to be able to implement x-raying of express pacakages. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html