8 ms·

Yeah, we had a package stolen off our porch, so we did that. It's a bench with a liftable top. The plan was to put a padlock on it. All of our packages are addr

• nzealand 8y ago
  We have a foot high fence in front of our door. That plus a grassy slope is enough to hide the packages from street view. Our neighbor across the street gets their packages stolen often. I have never had any package stolen, and I order 100x times as many packages.
• apricot 8y ago
  To be frank, I had to read it a couple times before parsing "Place in Bench - Code 1234" as "Delivery person, please put this parcel inside the bench, using the code 1234". We expect addresses to be data, not executable code.
  • shaftway 8y ago
    Refactoring suggestions welcome. I don't think there's enough room for an if-clause, definitely not a for-loop.
• tivert 8y ago
  They key is to put yourself into the mindset of a hurried deliveryman and design your system around that. I have a sign low on my door right where a deliveryman would leave a package that asks him to put it in the box (with a simple message in big text, a big red arrow pointing towards the box and a photo of it with a package inside). There's no lock to get in his way. Deliverymen from all carriers use my box about 90% of the time they want to deliver to my doorstep. For Amazon specifically (since their deliverymen are gig workers), I entered address-specific delivery instructions into their system, mainly so I could complain about their performance more effectively. I think the actual, physical sign is more effective. I have a camera watching the porch and have a few videos of deliverymen doing a double-take on the sign, then putting the package in the box.
• tlrobinson 8y ago
  I used to write delivery instructions in the address, but some delivery companies would pretty consistently cross out that line with a black marker.
• topspin 8y ago
  They get it all the way to the porch? I've had USPS people leave packages in the driveway because walking the 25' feet from the vehicle to the porch is too much to expect.
  • stouset 8y ago
    I honestly don't blame the drivers. It's not just your house. Consider the number of packages they have to deliver and the cumulative amount of time this adds to their route. I've seen estimates that a typical residential driver delivers something like 150-200 packages per day. Even an extra 30 seconds per package adds up to over an hour of additional time to complete their route. The incentive structure simply isn't set up to reward a delivery driver taking that extra effort. In fact, it explicitly punishes it.
    • PSZD 8y ago
      150-200 packages is a really light route, 150-200 stops and 300-400 packages is more accurate. This time of year, 250+ stops for a residential route isn't particularly unusual. Biggest reason to leave a package at the driveway is a fence/gate. A fence keeps stuff in or out, either way, not respecting that is how you end up with stories like this: https://www.khq.com/news/responders-ram-driveway-gate-to-save-ups-driver-from-dogs/article_52539485-f8ae-5357-a0c2-8c2455e65ac1.html https://www.khq.com/news/responders-ram-driveway-gate-to-sav...
      • wcoenen 8y ago
        That link is the first time ever I've gotten a HTTP 451 response. Interesting.
  • sjg007 8y ago
    Yeah this is really annoying.
• kirykl 8y ago
  Train them with a small post it note + incentive small candy "Carrier Service - Place package in box, take a candy, and remove this note."
• dr_orpheus 8y ago
  I have had good experiences with people delivering packages and caring about how obvious it is that there are packages out. When I lived a row of townhouses, the front doors of the houses were very exposed and visible from the street. So if we didn't answer the door when a package was delivered, they would bring it around to our back porch and set it over the fence. However, this did result in one of the delivery drivers not correctly counting how many from the end our townhouse was and put it on the wrong porch...
  • c22 8y ago
    One time UPS left a 2ft x 3ft x 1ft box under my doormat. I appreciated the effort, but the package was not inconspicuous.
    • jjeaff 8y ago
      I've seen that a few times too. I wonder if it is actually to try to protect it from rain?
      • user5994461 8y ago
        It's for both really. That's the best one can come up with given the circumstances.
• chocolatebunny 8y ago
  Putting a note on the inside of the bench with the bench lid already open seems like a pretty good idea. having a bench with a liftable top is also pretty good since having a bench outdoors is pretty nice too.
  • jedberg 8y ago
    But then the thieves would know if there is a package because the lid would be down.
    • maccam94 8y ago
      Only if they are able to remember which house has a bench with a liftable top. It might not be effective against a thief who lives nearby, but it would keep the package out of plain sight for the ones cruising around in cars.
• lucb1e 8y ago
  > average 3 deliveries per day Wow. I really wonder what the environmental impact is of just one household doing this. I think I order something once every.. two months maybe? Three? And if I could get the desired electronics in a local store, I probably would. Edit: To reply to the three initial comments at once, I see your point. I was thinking "but it's not just about the last mile, it's about getting that package all the way from China or where ever it comes from"... but of course, if I buy it in a store, it still had to come from china. Someone driving to your home all day seems terrible at first impression, but even without grouping the deliveries, I guess it might not be much worse than someone who gets groceries by car. I'd be interested to hear about research that looked into the topic.
  • jjeaff 8y ago
    Assuming there are other nearby deliveries (there always are), then you driving to the local store to buy it would pollute much more.
  • bbarn 8y ago
    Compared to someone who leaves their home by car once per day to get routine items, it's arguably a lot better since that delivery truck makes hundreds of deliveries per round trip. Compared to someone who is super frugal, list driven, plans ahead, has one trip a month to get necessities, and grows their food in their yard, sure, it's more impactful. Perspective always matters.
    • maccard 8y ago
      >Compared to someone who is super frugal, list driven, plans ahead, has one trip a month to get necessities, and grows their food in their yard, sure, it's more impactful. That's being disingenuous. There are plenty of more moderate options which are perfectly viable for the vast majority of households, like planning a small amount know advance and getting essentials twice a week, or integrating it into other trips (commuting, school runs, coffee runs, walks).
      • NullPrefix 8y ago
• sparky_ 8y ago
  I've found it similarly ineffective. I have my packages addressed to "_sparky, Leave at Back Door, 123 My Street". Maybe 5% of them end up there.
• bbarn 8y ago
  I work from home full time, and get typically 1-2 a day. I have a sign that says "Please ring bell for deliveries, home all day!" on my front porch and it's never rung. Packages just tossed on the porch. Amazon I get a notification on Alexa sometimes before the UPS guy is back to his truck though, so that helps. Contrast to that - before I moved to this house, my old UPS guy used to honk and wave if he saw me walking down the street, knew me by name and would knock every time.
  • justtopost 8y ago
    This is one of the things I love about living outside the city. UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx drivers all know me by name, honk and wave, and stash my packages safely 98% of the time. Its as good as it gets. Never miss a pickup, or a sign-for. Magical, yet should be expected. I am still bummed that milk delivery ceased last year. It was like living in a 1950s propaghanda film.
• jiveturkey 8y ago
  > Delivery people don't care. Delivery people don't have time to care. They aren't even reading the labels you know.
• Theodores 8y ago
  That is way too logical, that is where the problem is. The delivery driver didn't end up being a delivery driver by virtue of literacy and logic. You have something tantamount to public/private key cryptography going on there! Back to the video, I observed that a lot of the thieves talk to themselves out loud. They probably refer to themselves in the third person when talking to someone. Clearly they can't think before they open their mouths, something people should master being able to do as a ten year old. Maybe the only time they think is when they open their mouths, thinking and talking being the same thing to them. If the secret shadowy people that rule the world in some conspiracy really had plans to depopulate the world then they should get the NSA to track everyone that talks to themselves, select these folk for the depopulation program and then this theft from doorsteps problem would be gone.
• mcv 8y ago
  How about offering a tip if they place the package in the box? Add instructions: place package in box, take $5 tip from box. Of course that might make a code lock more important.
• tripzilch 8y ago
  Interesting cultural difference? Where I live, packages either: get delivered in person, placed somewhere secure, handed to the neighbours (who sign for it), withheld, or delivered to a service point. They never end up on a porch. And not just because we don't have porches either. Point is, they're not left in public view.