A Startup Promises Faster Snail Mail. Its Couriers Are Still Snails.

A young delivery company says it has done what many believed couldn’t be done: made snail mail faster without replacing the snails.

The trick, according to its founder, is routing. Instead of sending couriers across open ground, the company maps out the dampest path between two points each morning, using a network of observers stationed under leaves.

“Snails aren’t slow,” the founder said in an interview. “They’re careful. We just give them better information.”

The company claims average delivery times have fallen by about a third since the system launched in the spring. Customers interviewed for this article said they had not noticed a difference but liked the stamps.