In the rapidly ever-changing landscape of urban living, apartment buildings are grappling with a host of challenges that have emerged in tandem with the online shopping boom and the rise of the digital age. The once simple process of receiving and managing parcels has evolved into a multifaceted challenge for apartment buildings that demands innovative solutions. From failed deliveries and messy lobbies to the rising threat of parcel theft and the intricate nuance of building security, the problems faced by these buildings have never been more complex.
The fast-approaching festive season will only exacerbate these issues, as Australia Post estimates that they will deliver more than 52 million packages in December alone. This surge in deliveries places an unprecedented strain on urban living communities that are already grappling with the recent influx in parcel numbers.
With the average Australian receiving 40 packages a year lobbies around the country have started to succumb to the clutter of parcels. During the peak parcel delivery period of November and December, no lobby is immune to this phenomenon as even the most beautifully designed lobbies may be littered with packages left on the floor due to a lack of secure storage space. These unattended parcels have, in many circumstances, acted as a magnet to opportunistic thieves. Australia currently has the second highest growth in parcel theft globally, with 1 in 5 people reporting that they have had a package stolen from them this year alone. A recent study notes that almost a third of Adelaide’s residents have had a parcel stolen from them in the last year.
Failed deliveries introduce a cascade of problems to residents, beyond the simple inconvenience of having a missed package. The time and effort required to retrieve a missed delivery from the post office, or arrange for redelivery, is not insignificant and may disrupt residents’ schedules and contribute to a sense of frustration. Moreover, the environmental impact of failed deliveries cannot be understated, as the repeated attempts to deliver a package result in further carbon emissions. Notably, a comprehensive study conducted by the University of Melbourne sheds light on the magnitude of this environmental impact, revealing that within the Melbourne CBD alone, the process of package redelivery generates a staggering 89,000 tons of entirely preventable CO2 emissions annually.
Consequently, the role of accepting and managing deliveries has fallen onto the shoulders of the building staff, further amplifying the time-consuming nature of their duties. It can be a 4 or even 5 minute process for the building staff to accept, store, log, and notify the parcel owner, and with burgeoning package volumes, this practice is quickly becoming unsustainable for buildings.
For almost a decade now, cities across Europe, Asia, and North America have been adopting the use of parcel lockers to alleviate the aforementioned implications of a burgeoning e-commerce revolution.
GroundfloorTM’s parcel locker offering removes the complexities of last mile delivery through its innovative parcel tracking technology. Whilst its sleek Italian design ensures that the lockers never look out of place in any lobby. The modularity of the system allows it to be placed almost anywhere, meaning it can be tactically positioned to improve both security and delivery efficiency.
Further, the unique digital signature that is generated for each individual delivery allows for first time delivery, every time, meaning that the days of picking up a parcel from the post office are over. The delays and hassle of the redelivery process have been replaced by a simple 6 digit code that opens the door to your parcel at your leisure. Consequently, building staff are relieved of their time consuming duty of tracking and storing parcels, and are instead able to better fulfill their other duties.
In addition to these benefits, the aforementioned modularity of the lockers allows GroundfloorTM to offer both refrigerated lockers for food delivery and a dry cleaning service. Through our integration with iBag Dry Cleaning residents are able to simply pay via the iBag app and drop off the dry cleaning into the GroundfloorTM system in their lobby and within 48 hours it will be returned to you.
As apartment buildings struggle to keep up with the complex era of convenience in a sustainable manner, GroundfloorTM’s lockers are able to simplify and streamline the challenges of today, so that everyone can move beyond their parcel woes.
