BufferBox: Amazon Lockers? We Had That Idea First(blogs.wsj.com) |
BufferBox: Amazon Lockers? We Had That Idea First(blogs.wsj.com) |
(You might think it's only on the German wikipedia, that's why I think this is worthwhile to post.)
If a company can deliver all days in a week (including weekends) and all time in a day (including evenings and nights), and the delivery men really called before they left a note, that company would win the game.
I also imagine customized delivery times would increase costs and make logistics more difficult. The only place I know offhand that has customized delivery times is Tokyo, so I wonder how they manage. Probably more affordable in a high density area with couriers.
I think at least they can first call you before they attempt to deliver the package. If you are not there, then just keep the package for the next day's delivery. This will avoid the delivery failure and save time of both sides.
> To rent a PO Box, two different forms of identification are required. At least one of them must be a valid photo ID. [1]
This way they can actually track you down if you have something illegal shipped to the box.
A service like this where you can easily sign up without properly verifying your identity is just waiting to be used as a temporary drop-box for people shipping drugs from SilkRoad, people shipping goods they bought with a stolen credit card, etc.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-office_box#United_States
E.g. I checked and UPS offers a service called My Choice:
> The UPS My ChoiceSM enrollment process uses public record information to verify your identity.
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/sri/ups_my_choice...
While interested I never did use one when I lived there as they cost much more than a normal delivery to your door and are very limited on for how long they are stored. Useless if you are away for the weekend or week, when such a locker service would be ideal.
http://www.posten.no/17889/postautomat http://www.postennorge.no/nyheter-og-media/nyhetsarkiv/gamle...
http://www.postennorge.no/nyheter-og-media/nyhetsarkiv/nyhet...
The ones here are used quite frequently. The delivery is the same as to your door.
PS: It might be that the writer came up with the word "first" as it is not cited.
But they lend themselves to low weight/high value goods that are easily shipped. And to highly concentrated population centers where the higher costs of same day shipping associated with operating a warehouse or retail store in an expensive environment can be amortized over higher margin goods.
This could still be good for small transactions, Craigslist is just too small.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=...
Unfortunately the guy used the Royal Mail and their daughter TNT for shipping, so no 'PackStation' for me.
Due to the totally useless tracking information I couldn't be at home, the thing was delivered to a nearby (just 200m!) shop. This shop opened at 10 and - due to summer holidays and reduced staff - closed at 15 again during that week. How braindead is this concept? Even a post office is more reliable and I've come to expect the PackStation service. The packet arrives as soon as possible (no 'customer not present' loops, no 'delivered to a neighbor' crap where I need to hunt that guy down and hope that he's home/available/opens the door, no trip to a weird shop (an antique furniture shop in my case), relying on their opening hours), I'll be notified instantly (SMS as soon as they close the door of that locker) and can pick it up whenever I want (like, drunk on a Sunday morning at 4 am - given I remember my PIN).
If you consider that these boxes are available ~everywhere~ in larger cities, you usually can schedule the delivery to a place that is on your way to work, home, the gym or near your favorite restaurant.
tl/dr: The service is worlds apart from 'You can pick up your thing in a shop at this address'.
A locker system is a little like a store - a store that stocks everything [that fits in to the locker] has no warehousing costs and very little staffing overhead, that's accessible 24-7 52 weeks a year, that allows for pseudo-anonymous shopping.
The last miles are hugely costly and certainly within a city it seems a priori that the optimal method of delivery is to require me to shift my arse and pick the stuff up from a mile or two away.
2. You can collect the product whenever you want (24 hours a day)
3. Already paid, no queue
4. Price
5. Speed
- Can communicate in the same language
- Can use a web browser
- Are able to make transactions of some kind (cash, check, Square, barter, CL doesn't care about the specifics)
Which makes their available market a rather large majority of the entire population of the Internet. Each extra restriction or requirement makes it less likely a given person will get involved.
Be very careful about "innovating" away simplicity.
Given this couldn't the central computer take the driver's current location and call/text the customer with an estimated delivery time that's going to likely be within a half-hour error window (closer I'd think in town). The logisticians must have a pretty good idea of the timing for a route after all.
So when you sign up you'd ask to be notified n hours before delivery. Once the route is calculated, with say n=1, if you're first drop then you'd have a call/text (1 hour) - (first leg duration) before the driver starts their round.
Wouldn't such a system reduce delivery failures, anyone know of a company that's tried such automated delivery notifications based on routing data? [and reverted?]
Then they removed the drivers' cell phones as a "cost saving measure", and then the driver instead had to drive out to my place 2-3 times to make a delivery, wasting his time.