At too many multifamily communities today, managers spend much of their time receiving, safeguarding, retrieving and tripping over a rising tide of parcels awaiting pickup by residents. A range of cages, lockers and other systems promise to ease the package management burden, but most still require staff oversight and may not securely accommodate bulky items or seasonal surges in deliveries.
“The sheer volume of packages residents are getting has increased, and that has driven a lot of frustration with package management,” says Shelly Peterson of Smart Package Room, which makes precision tracking package management systems.
Multifamily owners and operators have been trying to balance their operating expenses with the expense of possible package solutions, yet many remain uncertain about the best path to improve efficiency.
Peterson is the vice president of Smart Package Room, an all-in-one package management solution that automates package delivery and pickup using AI-powered computer vision technology. Deployed across multifamily, student housing and commercial properties nationwide, the system is designed to provide secure and efficient experiences for couriers, residents and property managers.
Having worked in multifamily leasing, Peterson understands the frustration of owners who can’t seem to stay ahead of package volume. Online leasing, smart building mechanical systems and other technologies have enabled forward-thinking professionals to manage their communities with smaller onsite teams, she observes. However, that leaves even fewer people to manage packages, as the explosive growth in e-commerce has accelerated the pace of deliveries.
Among Smart Package Room clients, mid-sized complexes of around 330 units receive, on average, 68 packages per day, with holiday shopping increasing the daily count to an average of 84 packages. A large, urban complex of 400 units will likely take in 187 packages daily or 208 per day around the holidays, the company found.
Averages are far higher for Smart Package Room’s student housing clients, where high-density communities serve a digitally native demographic that embraces online shopping.
“We’re seeing between 25,000 and 30,000 packages a year go through our student housing sites that have 800 to 1,000 beds — just incredible numbers,” Peterson says.
“Multifamily owners and operators seeking a solution to package problems typically want to minimize space requirements and staff handling time without compromising the resident experience,” Peterson says.
“You may have limited staffing onsite, so any package solution needs to be managed in a way that the on-site team can also focus on their core responsibilities,” she says. “Finding a solution that works with the site operations is critical, especially when the resident experience depends on it. How do you organize packages, notify residents and show accountability as they come in to pick up their items?”
Managing the Flow
The Smart Package Room system is designed to minimize package handling time for everyone in the receiving process, from delivery couriers to property staff and residents, through automated tracking and guided self-service. In a typical scenario, couriers and staff bring all deliveries into a secure room and deposit them on shelves or in specialized holding areas for items like dry cleaning, refrigerated items or oversized goods.
Advanced visual scanners capture label information and log the position of each package, automatically notifying the resident with a photo of the item and a QR code for pickup at any time.
“We want the delivery drivers’ experience to be as efficient as possible, which is why we have everything in one space and have a very quick package registration process using optical character recognition to capture label information,” Peterson says.
Once the resident scans their code to enter the package room, audible instructions and laser guidance directs them to their package. When residents have multiple deliveries waiting, the QR code from the most recent notification guides them to retrieve all their packages throughout the room in one visit.
As the resident leaves, the computer vision precision tracking system confirms that the space their item occupied is empty to resolve the delivery. The system also registers any change in the position of other objects and will audibly tell the resident, courier or staffer who moved the wrong item to return it to its designated spot.
“Residents know that their packages are taken care of in this room, and when they pick them up, they are in and out of our package rooms within just a few seconds,” Peterson says. “The key is having everything in one space and then having technology give full visibility on what’s happening within that space.”
Software Over Steel
The Smart Package Room system provides security via 24/7 monitoring that creates a digital record of each person’s movements while in the room. In most applications, physical security comes from a single access-controlled door instead of multiple steel enclosures.
“For most properties, the system requires less space and structural investment than building banks of steel enclosures,” Peterson says. “Position tracking allows items to be placed next to each other instead of each item taking up an entire locker, effectively tripling the storage capacity of a given space and making the system easily scalable.”
“One of the things we were trying to remedy was overcoming the limitations of lockers,” Peterson says. “When you build out a Smart Package Room system for these big, high-volume sites, it ends up being less expensive because it’s less metal. Why put all that steel in your common areas and rely on so much hardware when you can rely on software?”
— By Matt Hudgins. This article was written in conjunction with Smart Package Room, a content partner of Multifamily & Affordable Housing Business.
Learn more about Smart Package Room systems here.
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