Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Look at How Mail Will be Delivered By Way of Segway
Aired June 04, 2002 - 09:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the mail deliverer's mantra: Neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. And throughout history, from the days of the Old West, when the mail was brought by pony express, to the letter carrier of today, the Postal Service has been defined by its reliability. And this morning, we are getting a look at the how mail will be delivered in the new millennium by way of Segway.
Is that the announcement, Bill Hemmer? You're standing by on the Segway, doing a darn good job, I might add. He's along with Segway's inventor Dean Kamen and Henry Pankey of the Postal Service.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Paula, I literally have been on this thing for five minutes, and it already -- it already makes sense, actually. I'm amazed. Here's Henry Pankey from the post office.
How are you?
HENRY PANKEY, USPS: How are you doing today>?
HEMMER: We appreciate you giving us time, because our viewers have been waiting to find out which major entity in this country is going to use these Segways, and it's now the post office.
PANKEY: Yes, we're very much involved with Dean Kamen, the inventor, and his folks, and trying to see how we can apply this to postal use.
HEMMER: Do you want to go for a walk, or a stroll.
PANKEY: Sure.
HEMMER: You're going to try on an experimental basis, right?
PANKEY: Yes, right now, we've just completed our feasibility studies in Concorde, New Hampshire and Tampa, Florida, and now we are going to move to our alpha test, and we'll do our beta test right after that.
HEMMER: While you're talking, we're going to put up a map of the country to let out viewers know where you are going to experiment.
PANKEY: OK. HEMMER: These cities, why have you chosen them?
PANKEY: Well, we chose them primarily because we want to take a look at the terrain. We want to try them out in the climate, different type of routes that we have out there. And we think if we can do all of those things, then we can find some good applications for...
HEMMER: Take no offense, Henry, but while you're talking, I'm going to give this baby a swirl, OK?
PANKEY: OK.
HEMMER: Do you think it's going to be more efficient for delivery, Henry?
PANKEY: Well, the real thing is here is to extend the work site of our letter carriers, and we're really looking out for their health and safety, and see if we can provide...
HEMMER: Look at that. You're already efficient.
Listen, you are going to have this fitted essentially so mail carriers can deliver mail, right?
PANKEY: That's exactly right.
HEMMER: Does that change the mechanism, how it functions and how it works?
PANKEY: No, no, it does not. Dean and his folks have done a good job in taking some of our suggestions to see how we can apply to the way the deliverers carry mail.
HEMMER: Here is Dean Kamen, the inventor. How are you, pal?
PANKEY: Very well, how are you?
HEMMER: Nice to see you. Doing great.
PANKEY: When this thing first came out, it was thought that major American companies across the country would buy these things up, you predicted they would suck them up literally and incorporate them into their business. Have they done that yet?
DEAN KAMEN, SEGWAY INVENTOR: We are very happy that virtually every place that has had the opportunity to use them has been telling them they're getting substantial productivity gains. Our big goal now is to prove that they belong on the sidewalks of this country, and there is no better place to prove that than the postal service.
HEMMER: Which company have used them so far?
KAMEN: I couldn't give you a list of all of them. But for instance, General Electric has got double-digit gains from everybody that has used them in some of their factories. Walt Disney is now experimenting with them for a number of different applications in their theme parks. There are police departments around the United States, the Atlanta -- the whole city of Atlanta is now using them in different ways, both for police and the downtown business district, the regional development area. So we're pretty excited. And...
HEMMER: Only have 30 seconds left here. Tell me this, you have tried to get laws passed in different parts of the country to allow these to be operated on the sidewalk. What kind of success have you had?
KAMEN: So far, 23 states have looked at them, demonstrated that they belong on their sidewalks and have passed laws that expressly make us legal on the sidewalk, and we're hoping, again, once the United States Postal Service starts putting out there all the states will do that.
HEMMER: How do you things dogs will react to these.
PANKEY: I think they'll probably shy away from it, and it will probably be able to reduce the number of dog bites that we get a year. Because there's certain applications that you can add to this like the high-pitched sound that will carriers (ph) away.
HEMMER: Well, listen, it is no fun just standing here. Let's give it a ride and we'll send it back up to, Paula.
Dean Kamen, the inventor, absolute pleasure seeing you, OK. Henry Pankey from the Postal Service.
We have a crowd over here, too, by the way.
He's doing all right, isn't he? How about that.
Paula, we'll send it back over to you. But I have to tell you it's quite effective efficient, and easy, and Dean is doing the do-si- do over here.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
