I’m gonna go with both. Deliveries made without a signature required cost less because throwing a package on a porch and driving off is much faster and more efficient than waiting getting a signature - that takes time even if a person is home, and wastes time if they are not. Amazon transfers that cost they don’t pay to their customers by just leaving packages where they can be stolen.
I do use Amazon lockers whenever possible. No cost to me and the hours for the stores they are in are very good, open late. But that is just more Amazon lock in, and Amazon making me drive to get my package. Not something smaller competitors can do.
I think this would be a much less expensive thing if it were just a large stationary container on the porch – even if you still wish to use that keypad.
But the point of this thing isn’t to actually be useful, it’s to extract money from the kinds of folks who have more money than sense, like shiny new gadgets, and are terrified of the totally fictional rise in crime.
Only by request. As long as I’ve been around it’s always been a separate optional thing with the Post Office. And I’ve never shipped anything through UPS, FedEx or DHL where it was the default, just like the post office you had to check that box for “require signature”.
It used to be much more common when receiving packages through the private shippers. But if it’s not done it’s on the person shipping, I’d guess it has to do with the volume of packages we ship now. The low cost deals for big e-retailers just don’t seem to include that, and they don’t let you select it as an option. It all ships as “can leave” by default.
The Post Office will do that here if it’s a class of mail that doesn’t allow them to leave it or it doesn’t fit in a mail box or something. Cause your Postal Carrier will know and care whether the neighborhood is OK for stuff to be left.
Thing is with private shipping companies that ain’t the case. They don’t tend to have a “depot”, and to the extent that they have retail spots. That’s not where the package returns to.
When I was living in Brooklyn if you had a package that couldn’t be left, and you weren’t around for delivery.
You were going out to LaGuardia airport to pick it up. Which pretty much requires a car.
My BF sometimes has packages delivered to his workplace instead of the house. I wish everyone had that/a similar option.
We often get those ninja delivery folks who leave boxes sitting where anyone can see 'em, which is a really stupid thing to do in our neighborhood. Hell, I’d be pissed about that even if I still lived in the burbs.
It’s not “could have”, it’s “will have”. If the delivery driver of even 5% of packages even tries to use this it would be amazing. People installing it should expect it to never get used.
This, without the code, doesn’t need to be locked down either. But, to actually work it needs support from the shipping companies and Amazon (since they’re a shipping company here).
There’s a couple of options here.
Shipper sells a service for a monthly fee (or per package) to put stuff in your box. They make extra on each delivery to “cover” the cost of putting it in the box.
Amazon just gives out plastic boxes as part of the Prime cost, one box only not yearly. Probably with a big logo on it. And then they use it as part of Prime membership, only if you’re currently active.
No codes needed. Just a plain deck storage box that’s large enough.
The goal isn’t to create a super secure storage, it’s to create delays, time, and friction to the theft. What’s needed is a box on every (or as many as possible) houses. Up by the door/garage/whatever away from the street. Volume is the answer, since this means most boxes will be empty on any given day.
Today, a thief drives down the street, sees a package, get’s out and takes it. Lots of houses, little time. If everyone had a box, driving down the street would be useless, each house (or ones that look likely) would need to be checked for packages. This slows down the process and time is money.
Doesn’t solve the guy following the delivery van, but that’s less often than someone cruising the block afterwards.
Making it difficult, unique, or extra unfunded cost to use just guarantees that it’ll never get used.
I think the design problems with this package portal are easily solvable. Put an enclosed box behind the door so it doesn’t give access to the interior. That kind of thing.
What I wonder about is the time it would take to punch in a code. Even assuming the driver is trained to look at the label for the code, they’re on very tight schedules, and they don’t have an incentive to do anything but leave the package in the most convenient spot possible (I remember seeing a TV box that had been thrown over a fence). The delivery companies need to prioritize the proper receipt of the package and give the drivers a little slack.
That’s the goal. Anything that will make a package out of sight creates the extra theft friction.
If that’s putting stuff behind some barrier or inside of a package box that’s always there and mostly empty it’s the same result. It makes the thief stop and check each location individually instead of while cruising by. The difference between half a second (if that) and 4 seconds to check for treasure per house is huge.
We have a covered porch, with a hedge in front of if right next to the 3 wide steps up. Drivers could put packages on the porch 1 foot to the left of the stairs, probably even without going up them, and they almost never do. Maybe once a month or less. Instead they drop stuff at the top of the steps, right in the center, without going up them, in the most visible spot possible, since it’s the fastest way to leave them. They don’t even set off the doorbell person detection. At least it’s out of the rain.
Hence the need for shipper support. UPS must have data that says they wouldn’t make enough money to make it worthwhile to do. They already let you pay to have a package diverted to a drop off location.
Amazon giving them out as part of prime is probably the best hope. Likely dependent on the cost of replacing stolen packages people say they never got. Of course, the photo proof they do now may have already cut that cost.
Maybe for a camera or something I wouldn’t mind trying to figure out the signature stuff but I ain’t wading through signature requirements for a package of screws or a new shower rod. That seems silly to me.
Most people work during normal delivery times so a large percentage of people would be missing deliveries. Sure that’s a cost to the retailer but it’s also a major headache for the buyer in these buy everything online times.
Just a few years ago I received maybe 2 or 3 packages a year so making arrangements with a neighbor to sign wasn’t much of a problem but nowadays I get several packages a week and sometimes a couple in one day. My neighbor, who is very nice, might not be so nice if they became my package receiver every few days.
I’m not sure what the solution is but it ain’t gonna please everyone. It sucks that things left on someone’s porch can’t be left alone.
There are quite a lot of these sorts of things here in Philly. Though giant, open door hatch isn’t a common format.
They get used a lot.
You can change the code. Seems relatively common to use a code once or rotate them to prevent it from just becoming common knowledge.
And the assumption that larger packages will just get left out. Assumes the person ordering just doesn’t make any effort or plans for larger packages.
Like you’re not gonna ship bigger stuff, or stuff you’re more worried about to your office, or an Amazon locker/delivery site. Do in store pickup. Or plan to be home for that one.
The big issue I see with this is it could easily let some one into your house.
Some one looking to straight up rob you that way is going to be willing to put in a lot more effort than some one opportunistically snatching small boxes.
Before the internet pretty sure all packages I mail ordered with expensive stuff, such as cameras, were always signature required. It may have cost the shipper more, but that was package “tracking” back then. The signature. (There might have been some other USPS “proof of delivery” or some such, but with UPS it was the signature IIRC). So signatures were, best I can recall, the default for any significant mail order/phone order packages .
Yeah from what I understand that was down to the shipper shipping it that way. I can certainly remember growing up in a place where you didn’t even know where your door key was we were commonly surprised when anything required a signature.
It just wasn’t considered necessary. Although small towns being small towns the Postal Carrier tended not to leave anything if no one was around.
It’s also worth noting how week sauce a signature requirement is as theft prevention. It’s usually quite literally anyone can sign. I’ve had issues before where a package goes missing, and it was delivered with a signature. A signature from “Seymore Butts” or “John Johnson” situation. Also once or twice a FedEx or UPS seasonal employee just signing for packages and keeping them.
I live in the 'burbs and have the nicety of a garage. Our new Chamberlain garage door opener has a feature to allow Amazon to access your garage and drop packages there. It’s part of their myQ app, which may be a service you pay for, but either way I don’t need all that fancy stuff. Open and close with a button works well enough for me. That and I don’t want a random Amazon driver in my garage, even if I lock the inside door to the house, I have plenty of nice tools in there.
I recently bought a PS5 online, and was instructed that the delivery would require a signature. I left a note out on the porch to let the delivery driver know I was home, and kept checking the status of the package so I would be ready to receive it.
The package was left without so much a doorbell ring.
It just works…
…until evil intended delivery person takes note of the code to break in
…until sloppy delivery person just throws the package at the porch and another evil intended person uses the code to break in
…until the master code or another vulnerability leaks online and mass break-ins occur
Thus, my skepticism that a driver would determine a code, then punch it in, then put the package in a box. Even just putting the package in a box is a bigger step than pressing the doorbell. A feat that’s beyond most delivery people.
Side note, the FedEx app notification of delivery sound is a doorbell sound. Which makes me think they did press the doorbell when it updates, at least until I realize which notification it is. There is never a real doorbell press.
