Did you know there are companies out there whose job is to measure the efficiency of postal systems worldwide, to help them improve their services?
The Quotas team
Quotas is one of these companies. Based in Hamburg, they conduct international evaluations for the postal services of several countries, including Posta Slovenije, Belgian Post International, Deutsche Post, Post Danmark, La Poste France, Royal Mail and the Universal Postal Union.
But of course they can’t go to every single city or country in the world to send and measure how fast mail is delivered… that’s where you can come in!
Quotas relies on worldwide volunteers for this task: test letters (mostly with real stamps) are sent in batches to the specific areas that they are researching at the moment, and upon reception, the receiver’s job is to go to Quotas’ website and confirm the receipt. For a postcrosser, this should be simple, right? All you need to do is signup and if they need to test your area, they will contact you.
What’s in it for you, you ask? Well, besides contributing to a more efficient postal service, Quotas also gives out small monthly rewards ($7-$20, depending on the amount of letters received). These can be given out using a number of options including Amazon vouchers, Paypal payments or given away to a number of charities.
You can read more about how it works at their website.
20 comments so far
I have registered here before.. but so far, I haven't received any confirmation email or something.
I have also registered there but you must have a very specific mail situation to participate.
I used to do this for the Royal Mail (another group than Quotas though). I had to stop when I moved house, might do this again. I was paid in stamps, I still have lots of free stamps from participating, lol.
It seems cool!
I signed up - let's see if they call me back.
Just Registed. :D
Great post and awesome team!! I'll check this out!
I registered also. Now I guess I just wait. :)
I want to recieve and send more and more cards,but recently ,i have 5 cards ,but only one people recieved
More mail, how can that me a bad thing!
signed up.
Signed up :D
Of course I registered... Let's see what happens next! :-)
Sounds very cool! I registered. We'll see if they contact me... :)
I been doing this for a couple of years. At the moment I only send mail, but back when I received mail, I should send the mail back to the Quotas team. I couldn´t keep the stamps if I wanted to.
But it is really a world wide survey. This week I should send letters to: Eritrea, Singapore, Zambia, Italy and Poland.
I have sent mail to another postcrosser a couple of times.
You have to send the envelopes back to them?
Hope they are helping out Brazil...
Just signup.
hope to improve hong kong post service
Hi Quotas :) I did several surveys for you and loved it :)
I am registered for some years now but they never needed my help... :'(
I registered 2 1/2 years ago in Germany. In this time I only received 4 mailings, yet together with the semiannual questionnaires I got to three paperback books in 2 years (worth € 24.95), a really reasonable reward for so few work.
@MichelleW: No, like with postcrossing you just register them online, answering a couple of questions.
I got my starting-out questionaire today and am so excited to hear from Quotas so quickly. I hope to be able to actually participate actively soon....sounds like fun and by gosh, the service around here needs some surveying LOL
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