Here’s an interesting application of RFID: Australia Post is using tagged test letters to monitor the performance of its services and to discover potential problems within its delivery network. As reported by the Australian Post and in articles in CNet and ZDnet the Austalian Post system will trace the tagged test letters as they make their way through the various processing systems, allowing for more detailed monitoring.

“Whereas the previous system measured our overall postal performance, RFID technology will also provide intermediate measurement points throughout the journey of test mail items.”

RFID tracking systems have been installed in its nine metropolitan letter processing facilities, as well as in 21 country mail centers, 23 delivery centers and in 16 mobile units.

This is a nice application for RFID in that has few of the problems that come up in many applications. I don’t see any privacy issues. This is not on critical path for the key mission of delivering mail. Tag readers can be deployed in key places, such as letter sorting machines, to ensure a good environment for reading. Relatively large tags can be used. Tags can be recovered and reused, lowering cost. The number of reading systems required in manageable.