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Amazon Expanding Delivery Locker Service

Posted by Soulskill on from the putting-rectangular-prisms-into-other-rectangular-prisms dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The WSJ reports that Amazon's new secret weapon in its fight against other retailers is its delivery locker service. Dropping a package at a customer's door is not particularly secure, so Amazon Lockers were introduced about a year ago to provide a secure location for customers to retrieve their shipments. Now, Amazon is ramping up the service, opening new sites in the San Francisco Bay Area. From the article: 'Users don't pay extra to use the service but the locker program helps Amazon save on certain shipping costs. ShopRunner's Ms. Dias said UPS and FedEx Corp. FDX 0.00% charge retailers as much as 20% more to deliver packages to residential addresses because it is more efficient to deliver multiple packages to a business address. Failed deliveries are also more expensive for online retailers because those consumers are more likely to call customer service, switch to a competitor, or get a replacement item.'"

16 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. The P.O. Box reinvented? by erroneus · · Score: 2

    Uh... nice... I'd just as soon see FedEX and UPS do something similar. That said, I would prefer any option to waiting for Lasership to get their heads out of their asses. If you have not heard of Lasership, consider yourself lucky.

    1. Re:The P.O. Box reinvented? by jyujin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm still stumped at how people manage to actually receive anything sent to their homes to boot. Maybe it's just me, but at my place nobody's at home in that rather... flexible... time span that delivery companies might decide to drop by... ... but then again I find it easier to just have the things I want delivered to either the company where I work rather than to some PO Box workalike where I actually drive by and pick it up.

    2. Re:The P.O. Box reinvented? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's why I have things shipped to my office.

      So does everyone else who works here. There is always someone here, and you can always track down whoever signed for it. It works well.

    3. Re:The P.O. Box reinvented? by vlm · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I find it easier to just have the things I want delivered to either the company where I work

      I purchased a small metal cutting lathe and had it delivered to work... purchasing took one look at the crate and were absolutely mystified, they couldn't even yell at me, they were so distracted/confused/astounded that someone would do that to them. This was at a suit and tie establishment; were I still working at the printing company they wouldn't have batted an eyelash. Getting it home was quite a chore let me tell you, but at least I was hauling it down the stairs, not up.

      My current employer actively discourages people from having personal belongings delivered to them. At work delivery seems to be a perk that is going away. That's sad. Frankly I'd rather have at work delivery than a useless foozball table or nerf products.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    4. Re:The P.O. Box reinvented? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      We need lockers outside our houses. Cryptographic signature to replace signing, with a built in camera that photographs and weighs the actual item deposited.

      In the mean time having a cat flap seems to help.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:The P.O. Box reinvented? by Macrat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uh... nice... I'd just as soon see FedEX and UPS do something similar.

      You can have any FedEx delivery being shipped to your home held at the nearest FedEx-Kinko's location for pickup.

    6. Re:The P.O. Box reinvented? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 3, Informative

      It adds a day to the delivery time. :-(

      No it doesn't. I've done two hold at location packages this year and picked each one up just hours after it arrived at the kinko's store.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  2. Deutsche Post's far ahead by maweki · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In Germany we have a similar but general system called "Packstation" (package station). Everybody can get an access code and everybody and every company can send a package to any Packstation in the country (there's one for every 50.000 to 100.000 people). You can get automated round-the-clock access via electronic card and a pin-code.
    You can also drop off packages. You get an email and sms when a package for you arrived. All in all, pretty nifty system.

    And it doesn't cost a cent more than having it delivered to your house.

    1. Re:Deutsche Post's far ahead by maweki · · Score: 3, Informative

      I live in Leipzig (500.000ppl in Eastern Germany) and we have 18 Packstationen. I think they are pretty well placed and I would hazard a guess that about 80 to 90% of the population would be within 10 bike minutes of one. But since you decide where you want it send, you are usually near one.
      I always let them send packages to the Packstation near my university. So I can get my package during break. Lots of people let their packages being sent to a Packstation near work or on the way between work and home.

  3. Speed! by timeOday · · Score: 2
    If I could get stuff a day earlier by stopping at one of the UPS or Fedex stores on my way home from work, I probably would do it.

    Luckily I've never had a problem with stoop theft though.

    1. Re:Speed! by DanTheStone · · Score: 4, Funny

      Luckily I've never had a problem with stoop theft though.

      That's because they're heavy and generally have little resale value.

  4. What's the point? by skipkent · · Score: 3, Funny

    When there is Amazon Yesterday shipping! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA_gwzx39LQ

  5. Refrigerated lockers by Animats · · Score: 2

    Just before Webvan tanked, they were playing around with a similar concept. In the Webvan system, the lockers were refrigerated, since they were delivering food. The concept was to have locker rooms in large apartment buildings in big cities, so you could order food and have it ready for you when you got home. Great idea for NYC and London, where people try to carry groceries on the subway or are stuck shopping at overpriced local shops with small selections.

    Webvan is back. It's now owned by Amazon. They don't do perishables, and delivery takes 2-3 days, but you can order about 45,000 food-related products. Amazon plans to grow that business.

    This could wipe many more retailers off the face of the earth. If the delivery density is high enough, delivery is cheaper that driving a 2-ton SUV to a mall for 20 pounds of groceries.

    1. Re:Refrigerated lockers by adolf · · Score: 2

      A little bit of faith:

      I'd expect an online vendor to bring me the best produce and meat that they could, in the interest of keeping my business and warding off bad reviews.

      I'm in favor of ridding the shelves of all inedible food to begin with in general, though. Nobody (whether a picker for a delivery service, or a customer inside of bricks-and-mortar) should have to sort through bad food to get to the good stuff.

      Bad food does happen (you cannot tell me that you can see within the steak to know whether or not it has an hunk of knotty connective tissue within, nor can you say that you've never bought a wonderful-looking onion only to find it rotten at its core), but I do not believe that anyone should be in the business of selling it on purpose if they want to stay in business.

      Grocery stores throw out huge amounts of food every day that has turned south, just to keep their offerings fresh for their customers. I do not see any mechanism by which a delivery service would change that at all if there is any desire for the delivery service to be successful.

      (And I'd rather see the best of the less-than-premium selections be donated to food banks, or at least composted, instead of trashed, but that's a different discussion.)

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
  6. One Step Behind Wal-Mart by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The next thing Amazon needs to do is leverage these pickup locations into payment locations. At that point they will be able to do what wal-mart started doing earlier this year and accept cash for online purchases.

    It would be nice if they did a better job than wal-mart and instead of requiring photo-id to pick-up a cash purchase, they will just give you a receipt that can be exchanged for the product when it comes in, regardless of who holds the receipt.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  7. Australia too. by godel_56 · · Score: 2

    In Oz, Air Express couriers will deliver to post offices and PO boxes. Australia Post are trialing the locker delivery system as well, but at the moment there aren't enough sites to make it very useful.

    For anyone building a new home, maybe they should think about putting in an externally accessible lock box as part of the design? Use a combination lock that could be changed for every new delivery. I have found waiting around the house for deliveries that never seem to come when promised to be a right pain.