2 ms·

Typically with these services they have a central location that they have you ship things to and then the service will go deliver it to the right box. This is h

by bstewr 13y ago

Typically with these services they have a central location that they have you ship things to and then the service will go deliver it to the right box. This is how Bufferbox does it and I assume how these guys are as well.

msandford 13y ago
That makes sense. It doesn't scale terribly well because as you get more than maybe an hour from the central location by car/truck you can't expand further. It also doesn't solve the problem of needing to have the customer fill out the form which scares tons of them away. It's either got to be signed in front of one of the company's employees, or notarized. Neither of which makes it easy for a company to grow. It also means that you're still fairly tied down. Yeah a metro area is much larger than a single zip code, but it's definitely not a nationwide rollout in any kind of reasonable timeframe.
- bstewr 13y ago
  It definitely seems pretty capital intensive as well with all the delivery vehicles and the actual boxes. As for signing - I don't think the delivery guys are as concerned just as long as someone accepts it. For instance in San Francisco roommates usually accept for each other without really needing to sign. I've also heard issues with amazon lockers being full most of the time so people will need to find a different spot and I'm curious if it will be the same for this. Overall I think there are still a good number of problems these guys will need to straighten out to be able to scale. I'd also be curious how much they are paying the stores with the actual boxes.
  - msandford 13y ago
    You're right that the delivery guys aren't too concerned so long as it's non-commercial. So a roommate or neighbor or the apartment front office or whatever is no problem. That's how you can get USPS packages at your work even if it's a huge building; the mail department at your work isn't a separate business that charges you for the accepting your mail. Once it's clear that it's a mail accepting for hire kind of business though the USPS guys will be sticklers about it. Ultimately I expect that these businesses will get bought up by UPS or FedEx for the software, the already designed physical boxes and the small but existent network of facilities. Once that happens they will become a nationwide thing but only in areas where the drivers have to do lots of re-delivery. They will look at it as a cost reduction more than anything else. At least that's my take.

by bstewr 13y ago

msandford 13y ago

That makes sense. It doesn't scale terribly well because as you get more than maybe an hour from the central location by car/truck you can't expand further. It also doesn't solve the problem of needing to have the customer fill out the form which scares tons of them away. It's either got to be signed in front of one of the company's employees, or notarized. Neither of which makes it easy for a company to grow. It also means that you're still fairly tied down. Yeah a metro area is much larger than a single zip code, but it's definitely not a nationwide rollout in any kind of reasonable timeframe.

bstewr 13y ago
It definitely seems pretty capital intensive as well with all the delivery vehicles and the actual boxes. As for signing - I don't think the delivery guys are as concerned just as long as someone accepts it. For instance in San Francisco roommates usually accept for each other without really needing to sign. I've also heard issues with amazon lockers being full most of the time so people will need to find a different spot and I'm curious if it will be the same for this. Overall I think there are still a good number of problems these guys will need to straighten out to be able to scale. I'd also be curious how much they are paying the stores with the actual boxes.
- msandford 13y ago
  You're right that the delivery guys aren't too concerned so long as it's non-commercial. So a roommate or neighbor or the apartment front office or whatever is no problem. That's how you can get USPS packages at your work even if it's a huge building; the mail department at your work isn't a separate business that charges you for the accepting your mail. Once it's clear that it's a mail accepting for hire kind of business though the USPS guys will be sticklers about it. Ultimately I expect that these businesses will get bought up by UPS or FedEx for the software, the already designed physical boxes and the small but existent network of facilities. Once that happens they will become a nationwide thing but only in areas where the drivers have to do lots of re-delivery. They will look at it as a cost reduction more than anything else. At least that's my take.