With the growing popularity of online shopping and the subsequent surge in parcel deliveries, the landscape of shopping and receiving goods has undergone a transformative change. This shift has presented a big challenge for multi-tenanted properties, where tenants share a common front door. The burden falls heavily on the concierge and reception staff, who face immense pressure in managing the influx of deliveries, locating tenants, ensuring security, and preventing parcel misplacements, among other tasks. Compounding this challenge is the projection of exponential growth in global parcel deliveries, further exacerbating the situation.
In response to these challenges, an innovative solution has emerged: the Parcel Access Room (PAR). PARs are dedicated spaces within multi-tenanted buildings specifically designed to streamline the parcel delivery process. These rooms provide a centralised location where delivery couriers / drivers (many of whom are self-employed), can securely drop off parcels, ensuring their safe storage until tenants can retrieve them.
Table of Contents
Overview
Parcel access rooms are dedicated spaces within multi-tenanted buildings specifically designed to streamline the parcel delivery process. These rooms provide a centralised location where delivery couriers can securely drop off parcels, ensuring their safe storage until tenants can retrieve them.
Property managers and tenants alike are increasingly recognising the need for a more efficient and convenient parcel management system. Front property staff in apartment developments are overwhelmed with an influx of inbound parcels that must be dispatched efficiently to tenants. And tenants are growing dissatisfied with the inconvenience and suboptimal experience of relying on front-office personnel for parcel receiving.
“I was always worried my parcel might get misplaced as there were so many parcels, and sometimes I had to wait for them to try to locate them… since the parcel room was available this is much safer and easier as I get a notification and images of my parcels to collect” Tenant Nina Peltzer.
Implementing a parcel access room has quickly become a favoured solution, transforming the way goods can be tracked and managed. This relatively new technology not only enhances security and convenience for parcel deliveries but also improves overall property management efficiency. By providing a fully linked system, parcel rooms enable property managers to deliver rapid access to delivery data, eliminating the paper trail and saving on labour expenses.
In this article, we will explore the benefits and uses of a PAR in multi-tenant buildings, highlighting its role in enhancing security and convenience for parcel deliveries.
By delving into the features and advantages of PARs, we will uncover how they are revolutionising the parcel delivery landscape, offering a seamless and efficient solution to address the growing demands of online shopping while providing tenants with greater peace of mind.
#1 What Is A Parcel Access Room?
A parcel access room is exactly what it sounds like, a room dedicated just to parcel deliveries, complete with sophisticated hardware.
A parcel room protects against theft by ensuring secure parcel delivery with technology that streamlines the entire delivery process. But how precisely? What, exactly, is a “parcel room?” Isn’t that just a mailroom? Doesn’t a mailroom also keep mail and shipments safe? Continue reading to discover.
With the development of e-commerce and the volatile circumstances around parcel delivery, parcel delivery rooms have emerged as one solution to rising worries. Several companies began developing smart parcel room systems in 2017 with the goal of solving the aforementioned problem.
The approach is straightforward. All parcels are delivered by the delivery couriers directly to the access-controlled parcel room in a property.
The parcel is placed on a dedicated shelf in the parcel room and the system sends a unique one-time access code to the tenant. After getting a notification that a delivery has been delivered, the tenant will proceed to the parcel room, enter their code, and retrieve their parcel.
#2: Three Security Benefits of Parcel Access Rooms
1) Controlled Access and Admission via Monitoring and Surveillance Systems
As above, when the parcel is delivered, the recipients get a text or email, they are notified immediately and can pick it up using the unique code supplied in the notification, or by utilising the dedicated Apudos mobile app.
Apudos parcel access room handle everything, from signing for items to assisting with the sorting and distributing them to recipients. The Apudos parcel room has built-in security cameras, remote real-time video surveillance, and AI analytics.
2) How Do Smart Parcel Delivery Rooms Keep Your Items Safe?
In order to ensure a smooth parcel delivery process for every delivery driver, today’s parcel access rooms combine cutting-edge software and hardware technologies.
To allocate a delivery to the suitable-sized parcel box, couriers can deliver directly to the room using the self-service kiosk outside the room.
The courier scans each parcel at the kiosk and deliver a parcel to the allocated shelf in the parcel room.
Tenants receive notifications with a secure one-time access code. After getting the notification the tenant will proceed to the parcel room, enter their code, and retrieve their parcel whenever they want 24/7 and 365 days a year.
3) Reducing The Need For Parcel Delivery Couriers To Enter Individual Units
Apudos technology streamlines parcel delivery by logging, retrieving, and distributing parcels promptly and efficiently with little to no interaction from the property staff.
#3: What People Say About Apudos Smart Parcel Solutions
“I would recommend Apudos to any business who wish to upgrade or find a reliable, all-round parcel management service,” said, Jason Osborn, The Bank Birmingham Building Manager.
“As a 324-unit residential site handling circa 3k parcels a month, the team needs software that is simple and accurate to use and Apudos does just this,” said Jane Yates, THE CARGO BUILDING Manager.
#4: Four Key Benefits Highlighting The Convenience and Efficiency of Parcel Access Rooms
1) Improve The Tenants’ Experience
Before the introduction of smart parcel rooms, property staff had to be available throughout the day, from 9 AM to sometimes 10 PM, to handle Amazon deliveries, which often arrive late in the evening. This puts immense time pressure on property staff, requiring additional resources to manage the influx of incoming parcels and collections by tenants. As a result, this often leads to organised chaos, stressed staff, and impatient tenants. [Source]
With property staff on different shifts, locating parcels stored by another team member is also often a challenge, and the time taken handling parcels multiple times adds up.
Apudos supports courier/delivery companies in helping streamline the whole delivery process in multi-tenanted properties by providing a secure dedicated room for parcel management. It efficiently handles the logging, retrieval, and distribution of items without relying on property staff.
Tenants value parcel management systems as an important feature within the property, and they get the most from a parcel access room.
Parcel access room improves the experience for tenants by:
- Allowing tenants to receive deliveries at any time
- Allowing access to couriers to avoid missed deliveries
- Keeping parcel theft at bay
- Ensuring that tenants can still get parcels even when they’re not home
When a delivery is made, recipients are immediately notified via text or email. Once the parcel is delivered, the recipient can pick it up using a unique code.
No property staff are required to sign for parcels, process them, or deliver them to recipients because the nature of the Apudos self-service parcel room takes care of everything.
2) Maximising Storage Space
PARs offer plenty of designated space for storing parcels, reducing congestion in lobbies and freeing up space in other area of the property.
3) Reduce Time And Money Spent on Parcel Management
As the saying goes, time is money, and a lot of time (and cost) is spent on parcel management.
Consider the following: you’re paying someone to accept and sign for deliveries, organise and store products, and distribute them to tenants. This procedure is time-consuming and takes away valuable time that could be better spent on more pressing matters.
A parcel room relieves your personnel of the responsibility of managing each delivery. Couriers can enter the room on their own, and tenants can receive automatic delivery alerts and pick up parcels at any time. You won’t even need a mailroom attendant, if you use the Apudos access control system.
4) Allow For Deliveries During Busy Delivery Periods
If you’re used to manually managing deliveries at your building, you understand how time-consuming it can be, especially when dealing with the high volume of deliveries during holiday seasons or events like Black Friday. It’s not unusual for parcel delivery volumes to double or triple in November and December. Having a parcel access room is a solution that relieves the pressure on property management during these demanding periods.
#5: Let’s Summarise The Primary Advantages of a Parcel Access Room
- Save your personnel time: Save more than 90% of the time spent on parcels, as it is now automated, allowing your staff to focus on delivering services and attending to more important tasks rather than mundane parcel scanning.
- Maintain parcel security: The recipient will receive a secure one-time access code through text or email, which they may enter at the parcel room whenever they want during the day.
- Make better use of available space: Apudos smart parcel rooms offer ample space for storing parcels, allowing for efficient organisation and reducing clutter in common areas.
- Additional comfort for your tenants:
- Allowing tenants to pick up parcels at any time.
- Providing courier access to avoid missing deliveries.
- Preventing parcel theft.
- Ensuring that tenants can receive parcels even when they are not at home.
#6: Enhance Your Tenants’ Living Experience Today
Effective parcel management is no longer a luxury for multi-tenant properties; it has become a necessity. However, it is often overlooked as a vital aspect of tenant satisfaction.
Perhaps you haven’t fully recognised just how much your tenants value your assistance with the receiving of their online orders. While amenities like gyms and TV rooms are commonly considered important, convenience and practicality are what truly matter to tenants.
However, you can’t market what you don’t have, and if you find it challenging to keep track of the increasing number of daily parcels, a fresh solution is required. The Apudos Team understands the importance of seamless parcel management. Our parcel access rooms offer a multitude of advantages that enhance the living experience for tenants and streamline operations for your team.
If you have yet to implement a parcel access room and would like to experience its true benefits in action, Apudos can help with a range of innovative parcel management solutions for all incoming deliveries. We invite you to get in touch with the Apudos team to discover how Apudos can transform your parcel management process, elevating your tenants’ living experience to new heights!
