very true, but if they said somebody SIGNED for it, shouldn't there be a time stamp??? very true, but if they said somebody SIGNED for it, shouldn't there be a time stamp???One very important question that an engineer would ask right away is this. "Where is the time coming from, and how do you know that it is correct, and how do you know that the record hadn't been altered?"
With FedEx and UPS the answer to that is relatively simple. Their portable tablets are communicating with the mothership wirelessly, whenever they are in range. Time in tablets is periodically synchronized; but the very fact that a tablet reported delivery around, say, 3:45pm, indicates that the transaction was at least marked as completed by the driver around that time. The time comes from the central mainframe at UPS/FedEx HQ, and it can be trusted to be correct within microseconds (NTP etc.) As soon as the record lands into the database, it's there for good. You can't even delete it if there are dependencies.
USPS has no such technology. All they have is various handwritten cards and other pieces of paper that are worthless as proof of anything. But why should USPS change if they can always ask legislators to authorize another rate increase, while reducing the services? Life is good in USPS land.
Admittedly, UPS and FedEx processes are not entirely secure either. A driver can scan a package, draw some chicken scratches on the signature pad, and then throw the box into a ditch. Once a UPS driver claimed that "nobody was at home" - but I was at home, and the gate was open, and the camera was continuously filming the driveway, and there was no door tag, and there was no truck... I called UPS immediately and let it be known that I am displeased. They apologized and delivered on the next day. I cannot imagine the driver getting off scot-free if he continues to falsify company records. But USPS? I'd expect just that from them, and nothing less. You can't even complain because there is nobody you can call and be heard. Occasionally a mail carrier is arrested because a nosy neighbor, or a fireman, or a police officer finds, entirely by accident, tons of undelivered mail in his garage. How many carriers are lazy *and* smart enough to use recycling bins instead? How many deliver to remote locations only every other day? There is no way to know.