When Your Broke, Spend Another $250 Million

Nearly 250,000 letter carriers will get new handheld scanners, thanks to a new contract between the Postal Service and Honeywell. The agency will pay up to $250 million for the new mobile delivery devices. Post & Parcel reports, the new gadgets will track packages in real time. They will let carriers access and send data on Postal Service networks. They also work as phones, letting the agency replace outdated scanning equipment and mail carriers' cell phones. About 75,000 city mail carriers will get the scanners this fall. Others will get them next year. They could help the agency compete for e-commerce against rivals Fed Ex and UPS.