Is your building’s reception cluttered with packages, causing security risks and inconvenience for residents? Or do you let couriers wander aimlessly around the building to deliver the parcels? A wrong approach to delivery and parcel management can lead to serious security risks, dissatisfied tenants, and higher labour costs from manually managing parcels. If you are looking for how the Apartment Locker System can solve the problem and benefit residents, landlords, and any CRE projects, this blog will cover:
- Common Delivery Challenges for Apartment Buildings
- How do Apartment Lockers work?
- What are the Benefits of Apartment Locker Systems for landlords and residents?
- How to Implement Parcel Lockers in Apartment Buildings?
- Vpod’s Apartment Locker Solution
- Key Takeaways
Vpod’s Apartment Lockers
Common Parcel Delivery Challenges for Apartment Buildings
People shop online more than ever – in August 2022, 24% of retail sales happened online. For the sake of convenience, most prefer to have their online purchases sent straight to their homes rather than to a post office or depot. Due to last-mile delivery challenges, apartments face multiple issues, such as capacity and disorganisation due to the volume of packages received each day.
CRE projects require a thorough needs assessment to make sure that the most crucial goals are met. Being aware of the delivery challenges for apartments can help you to prevent security issues, inconvenience, and inefficiency.
1. Security & stolen parcels
1. Security & stolen parcelsIf no one is home to receive a parcel when it arrives, the courier might leave it at the door or simply at the front desk. This can lead to parcels being stolen: during the lockdown in 2020, when everyone bought everything online with contactless delivery, more than 7.5 million parcels got stolen in this manner.
If parcels often get left in unsafe places due to ineffective parcel management, tenants are likely to feel frustrated. Stolen or missing parcels are tough to deal with: without witnesses or camera footage, it’s hard to prove that anything was stolen in the first place.
2. Inconvenience
Post offices have the limitation of only being open during working hours, which makes arranging pick-ups inconvenient. Apartment buildings with a reception area can at least prevent the parcel from ending up at a depot.
However, receiving a large volume of deliveries every day can quickly result in a disorganised reception area, which means parcels can get mixed up, forgotten or, in the worst case, lost.
3. Take up the concierge’s valuable time
3. Take up the concierge’s valuable timeIf your residential building has a concierge service to manage the building’s reception, they will likely also be responsible for receiving and organising residents’ deliveries. The number of parcels arriving in an apartment building per day has been proven to be high, which means the concierge staff is spending valuable time on deliveries instead of other important tasks, such as building maintenance and cleaning.
You should always ensure that your property manages parcels safely and effectively in order to keep residents satisfied. You might want to look for a cure – a bigger mailroom, more reception staff, or security cameras – but every doctor will tell you that prevention is always better than a cure.
What are Apartment Lockers & How do they work?
Apartment lockers use smart locker technology to provide a secure storage box where packages can be left for collection by couriers or residents in apartment complexes. They help to prevent stolen packages and make the home delivery process easier. With apartment lockers, the parcel delivery process looks like this:
- The courier types the name of the recipient at the locker terminal, chooses the locker size and drops the parcel into the chosen locker compartment.
- The moment the door is closed, the recipient gets a notification saying that there’s a delivery ready for them to pick up from the locker bank.
- Once the recipient has scanned the QR code or typed the PIN code that came with the notification, the appropriate locker will pop open.
- The recipient takes their parcel and closes the locker door so the locker is again ready to be used.
Lockers for package delivery are rising in popularity as they are useful for many industries. The same solution has been applied to retail click-and-collect, pharmacy prescription lockers, and more. Their utility is quickly making them a popular amenity for progressive and modern residential buildings as well.
Benefits of Parcel Lockers in apartments for landlords & CRE projects
Managing CRE projects can be challenging when deciding whether new technology is worth it for the property. Here are some of the direct benefits of apartment delivery lockers for landlords/building managers.
Increase security
Thanks to their sturdy exterior and built-in smart technology that ensures that no one can access deliveries without the right authorisation, parcel lockers for apartments are a smart solution to prevent the chances of theft. Landlords and/or building management will always be able to monitor user activity, ensuring that all deliveries are received and distributed correctly.
Save space
How many parcels does your property handle a day? Rather than having a whole mailroom to store and organise deliveries, apartment lockers for packages take up considerably less space and can be customised to fit anywhere.
Save time and money for staff and management
With apartment lockers, concierge staff can focus on important work tasks without being disturbed by deliveries. By eliminating clutter and frequent interruptions, you can increase productivity, thereby saving time and lowering the cost of running the reception.
Stay competitive and modern
Smart buildings are becoming increasingly popular and desirable – as most people these days have access to smartphones and other smart home technology, the network of connected homes is ever expanding. Like other ‘smart’ tech, smart parcel lockers use software that can be upgraded and integrated, which means it ensures you the ability to grow and expand in changing times.
Provide a luxury experience
Luxury means ensuring convenience and security for your tenants. Additionally, many apartment delivery lockers can be tailor-made in any style and colour to fit seamlessly into their surroundings. This premium service also increases tenant satisfaction, ensuring more contract renewals.
Benefits of Apartment Lockers for residents
Never miss a parcel
Residents can have peace of mind knowing that their parcels will be handled and delivered whether they are home or not. They won’t have to worry about parcels left in unsafe places for curious bypassers to snatch, and they won’t have to deal with trips to the post depots after failed deliveries.
Instant notification and easy access
Residents won’t have to keep checking the mailbox for any deliveries; with smart parcel lockers, they are instantly notified once a delivery arrives for them. And with this notification, they can quickly and easily pick up their parcel.
24/7 parcel collection
Residents can collect their parcels whenever suits them: 8 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon or 3 o’clock at night – it doesn’t matter when because the lockers are always accessible regardless of who else is home or awake in the building.
How to Implement a Parcel Locker System in Apartment Buildings?
When looking to install apartment building parcel lockers to manage deliveries, there are several things to consider:
Choose appropriate location
The most obvious location to set up a locker bank would be the lobby or front-of-house area which all residents pass through daily. This way, residents will pass by the lockers anyway, which can help them remember to pick up their parcels. However, for buildings that do not have an indoor area like this, the locker bank can just as easily be set up outside by the entrance doors for the same sense of convenience.
Locker sizes
Most parcel lockers in apartments come in several sizes, from Small to XXL+. To figure out what size of lockers you’ll need to meet the need at your building, you’ll need to consider both how many residents live in the building and what the volume of deliveries usually looks like. A typical locker bank will have a mix of small, medium, and large compartments to fit the needs of the building.
Design
You need to decide how you want the apartment lockers to look. Many companies offer cosmetic customisation so that the lockers will fit nicely into their surroundings. Depending on the style of your building, you want the design to fit in well but also stand out enough so that residents won’t doubt what their purpose is.
All of these considerations can seem overwhelming if you don’t know much about smart lockers. For this reason, we always recommend that you find a provider that can advise you and give you their professional opinions on how to best implement a smart parcel locker bank at your property.
This is one thing that Vpod can definitely help with.
Vpod’s Parcel Lockers in Apartment Buildings
Vpod’s intelligent smart locker solution for parcel delivery is a great product fit for apartments and residential buildings. Vpod’s professionals will help you find the best way to solve your delivery challenges so that you can utilise this modern solution in the best possible way.
Vpod’s smart parcel lockers for apartments are able to:
- Be customisable and agile: From colours, design, compartment amount, and size, everything about our delivery lockers is customisable and can be made bespoke to fit your needs. They are individual modules, allowing you to choose how many units you want of each shape and size. This saves initial costs and helps you build a solution that saves space in your building.
- Process multiple workflows: With one locker bank, you can assign workflows for deliveries, asset management, and personal storage. Saving 30% on costs and space.
- Enable integration: If your building uses any other systems, our smart locker software has the ability to integrate with other programs so that managers and landlords can keep all information on one platform.
- Professional consultation: Vpod’s smart locker experts will give you top-quality advice to ensure that you and your residents get the most out of this technology in the most convenient way.
Vpod All-In-One Smart Locker System
Key Takeaways
Issues such as stolen parcels, disorganisation and inconvenient delivery times are common challenges that people face with parcel deliveries. Rather than trying to find a ‘cure’ for each of these issues after it happens, it’s better to simply find a solution that can prevent it from happening in the first place.
Smart parcel lockers for apartments are a modern solution that can help prevent these delivery complications, bringing the following crucial benefits to residential buildings:
- Increased security and convenience
- 24/7 accessibility
- Saving space
- Time and cost-efficient
- Higher tenant satisfaction
If you are interested in installing parcel lockers at your property, Vpod’s experts would be more than happy to advise and guide you through the process!
Further reading
- Why contactless delivery is here to stay
- Do you have a hybrid workforce? 9 Ways Hot Desking Storage Lockers can help
- A guide to choosing the best office lockers
Vpod’s other smart locker solutions:
