Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA, and United Parcel Service, Atlanta, joined forces this week to launch a service that tracks electronic distribution on the Net, allowing users to receive and send e-mail versions of paper documents for a “fraction” of the cost of equivalent snail mail services.
Neither company could specify a price, however both companies cited an Intelliquest survey that projected 35 percent of the overnight delivery market will go online by 2001.
UPS Document Exchange will use HP's 9100C Digital Sender, which sends paper documents electronically. However, the UPS Document Exchange goes one step further: enabling users to send and track digital files securely across the Internet; providing delivery confirmation, proof of receipt and an option to password-protect the data.
This announcement came just after the U.S. Postal Service unveiled its plans to blend traditional mail services with computer communications.
