Swapbox Lands $800K To Take On Google’s BufferBox And Amazon’s Lockers

The UPS store I use is accessible 24 hours with a key and door code.

We're on it!

One thing that is different is that (with the exception of Amazon Lockers) they basically don't exist if you don't live in San Francisco.

So how are you guys solving the Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) problem?

Congress passed a law in 2001 regarding CMRAs and directed the USPS to establish regulations regarding them. What it boils down to is that in order to receive USPS mail on someone's behalf as a commercial entity, you've got to register with your local post office AND have all your customers do so as well.

http://www.rscentral.org/Programs/USPS-Retail-Programs/USPS-...

If you only accept UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc but no USPS you're in a legally grey area. Most reasonably adults would suggest that FedEx isn't "mail" the same way that what the USPS delivers IS mail. But I haven't seen any case law either way on this but I'm not a lawyer so it could be out there.

The reason this is a problem is that the purchaser (the SwapBox customer) doesn't always have control over how the items he/she purchases will be shipped. Think Amazon Marketplace or eBay; they often go "whatever's cheapest" and you don't get a choice since it's a $10 item with free shipping. When that happens the USPS can't legally deliver the items to the SwapBox and will return them to the shipper.

If SwapBox does go the route of registering with the local post office(s) as a CMRA it gets worse. According to the regs you have to register as a customer at a particular address. So if you want to get mail at SwapBox A you have to fill out paperwork and get it delivered to the post office for SwapBox A. Now if you want to get deliveries at SwapBox B, which is at a different physical address than A? You got it, another set of paperwork for the post office that delivers to SwapBox B.

This is not a trivial problem to solve. I know, I used to work at a mid-sized CMRA and there's no way around it, legally, without lobbying Congress to change the law. At least that I could come up with.

EDIT: Transcript from Congressional Hearing is here http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-106hhrg61646/pdf/CHRG-106h...

EDIT2: I don't want to discourage you guys, there may be a way around this. I suppose that might be some kind of competitive advantage so you might not disclose it publicly. If you didn't know about this already and you want I'd be happy to explain this whole thing in detail and/or give you some things I already looked into as ways to ease the pain. I'm not sure what the proper "get in touch in real life protocol" is here on HN.

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.