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?

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.

The Quotas team

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.

On the remote country of Tonga in the South Pacific, there's a very special island. It's name is Niuafo'ou, but it's most commonly known as Tin Can Island for the way mail was delivered and sent for many years.

The concept of Tin Can Mail started in 1882 in this island when William Travers, a plantation manager, found himself without a way to receive mail from the rest of the world. The island had no harbour and was very steep so ships wouldn't go there. So he came up with the idea that mail could be delivered inside of the ships biscuit tin cans that would be thrown overboard when they were passing by! He proposed this to the Tongan postal authorities and soon mail started to be delivered this way. But, don't think this was an easy feat! With strong sea currents and distances of over a mile, this meant that to retrieve mail they could have to swim up to 6 hours!

Eventually the Tin Can Mail became extremely popular and also a tradition and soon ships started to come with passengers just to watch this incredible way of mail delivery. In 1928, Walter George Quensell produced rubber stamps saying "TIN CAN MAIL" that started being applied to all outgoing letters - over one million and a half, Quensell claimed.

This method of mail delivered continued for over 100 years and it only ended in 1983 when a small airport was built in the island. Nonetheless, the Tin Can Mail history will live forever with special Niuafo'ou stamps - created by the Tonga postal services -, and on the hands of many collectors who are lucky enough to have a letter with the "TIN CAN MAIL" stamp.

Oh, and if you want to learn more about Tin Can Mail, be sure to check this page where you can find a lot more details about it.