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http://www.littlewoods.com/web/en/collect-plus.page
Dave
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that it is. There's been a box inside (and now out front) for a few weeks now.
There is now a kiosk outside YC and FedEx and UPS are now delivering to it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is now a kiosk outside YC and FedEx and UPS are now delivering to it.
You should get OnTrac to deliver to it as well, since Amazon often uses them.
this has huge potential if they do it right. Let vendors pay with bitcoin. Let them pre-ship product that can be unlocked with a qr code. suddenly the silk road gets a lot more interesting.
this has huge potential if they do it right. Let vendors pay with bitcoin. Let them pre-ship product that can be unlocked with a qr code. suddenly the silk road gets a lot more interesting.
If you're going to pre-ship products and customers are going to leave home to pick them up, why not just stock them in a conventional retail store?
2. You can collect the product whenever you want (24 hours a day)
3. Already paid, no queue
4. Price
5. Speed
this has huge potential if they do it right. Let vendors pay with bitcoin. Let them pre-ship product that can be unlocked with a qr code. suddenly the silk road gets a lot more interesting.
If you're going to pre-ship products and customers are going to leave home to pick them up, why not just stock them in a conventional retail store?
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.
These lockers are good, but what I think we should really improve is the quality/performance of our mailing/delivery systems. The lockers are just a patch to the existing lame systems. 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 actually think lockers are more convenient because I don't even have to think about the day and time. I just pick up my package when it's convenient. 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.
Presumably the couriers are low paid too.
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One of the major problems with carriers is that they are being pushed to drive costs down from retailers who can demand it. Residential deliveries are costly because 50% fail on the first attempt (this is why UPS charges an extra $1.25 for residential deliveries). Shipping is quickly becoming a commodity. Locker delivery enables delivery density (multiple parcels at one stop), saves huge costs compared to traditional…
Good point. 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.
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?]