Package delivery for tenants

teamcapitola

Our town has a real problem with "porch pirates" stealing delivered packages in broad daylight right from peoples front doors. I've had a significant number of tenants inquire about having packages delivered here for them.

Anyone out there doing (or planning on doing) package acceptance as an add on service, or even just an incentive to rent?

We have a few business tenants that we "deliver" packages to, and it's worked out well; I was thinking of a few different ways to expand the concept, and wanted to hear other peoples experiences.

Aside from any Legal and insurance potholes (which there are a lot), has anyone tried doing something like this, and if so, what were your feeling towards it?

Has anyone installed lockers for "PO Box" like services? It would be easy to add a bank of secure lockers into Sitelink and "rent" them like a storage unit.

anyway...let me know your thoughts.

i43storage

I always thought having those lockers would be an easy cash cow maker - assuming you have regular office hours Monday through Friday.  If we had office hours, I would be Googling away learning all the pros/cons to do it.

Orkocean

We have 1 tenant we put his items in his unit for as he pays an extra fee. Typically it's small amazon deliveries as they have porch pirate issues but occasionally business deliveries as well which can be up to a printer size box. I personally dislike the idea of having access to customers units as all it takes is one ahole to start problems with accusations. At my first site I ever ran we did it for quite a few business clients but they kept a key in the office which ups/fedex would come sign out and be the ones loading into their units. 

MrFugate

If you have a company unit large enough you could offer a package drop off for your current customers & place the packages in the company unit and set up a log book for what's there. This may be good to bring in new customers as well once people start talking about it. 

DanielD

I have a tenant I inherited that has their packages delivered to us and I have to put it in their unit.  

I hate having any access to their unit, and the added responsibility of having to do this, but because the previous manager did it, I'm now stuck doing it.   

I want to tell them it's no longer offered but I don't want to lose the business. 
I don't think we should have any keys, or any access to a customers storage unit for any reason !

DanielD

I have a tenant I inherited that has there packages delivered to us and then I have to put it in their unit.  
I hate having any access to their unit, and the added responsibility of having to do this, but because the previous manager did it, i'm now stuck doing it.   

DanielD

I have a tenant I inherited that has there packages delivered to us and then I have to put it in their unit.  
I hate having any access to their unit, and the added responsibility of having to do this, but because the previous manager did it, i'm now stuck doing it.   

MamaDuke7

@DanielD - do you have an authorization signed by them that holds the company harmless?  That's your best option in this situation.

Orkocean

DanielD said:

I have a tenant I inherited that has there packages delivered to us and then I have to put it in their unit.  
I hate having any access to their unit, and the added responsibility of having to do this, but because the previous manager did it, i'm now stuck doing it.   

Well you're not "stuck" doing it. Just because it has been going on since before you does not mean you have to keep it going. If you absolutely do not want to do it you could always give the tenant a notice that as of a set date it will no longer be something you are able to do for him. The one person we have kept was getting it done for free before us, we got rid of the others who had it being done and he offered to pay a monthly fee to continue his so he signed a form and pays for the service now.

themage

We have one tenant who has packages delivered directly to his unit. Only Fed-Ex, and they have a gate code and a key to his unit. Not entirely sure how they made that arrangement.

Drawback is once in a while a package meant for the facility office will get delivered to them, and vice versa.

teamcapitola

themage said:

We have one tenant who has packages delivered directly to his unit. Only Fed-Ex, and they have a gate code and a key to his unit. Not entirely sure how they made that arrangement.

Drawback is once in a while a package meant for the facility office will get delivered to them, and vice versa.

That actually sounds like an ideal arrangement. Fed Ex delivering to the unit using a key provided by the tenant, while the facility has absolutely zero liability for the package or the units contents.

Now...exactly HOW they managed to get such an arrangement?!?

Guillotine1

You can buy a large mailbox with a security system and not worry about your parcels, or if you buy something, then coordinate the time with the courier when you will be at home, that's all.

Guillotine13

Guillotine1 said:

You can buy a large mailbox with a security system and not worry about your parcels, or if you buy something, then coordinate the time with the courier when you will be at home, that's all.

You can buy a large mailbox with a security system and not worry about your parcels, or if you buy something, then coordinate the time with the courier when you will be at home, that's all. And with these "porch pirates," the police must fight, and if this often happens in your area, you can ask that your area be patrolled more often than usual. When I had a business selling coffee, I often sent it by mail, which often happened. Someone stole parcels, and the customer did not receive the goods even though he paid for them. And by the way, I advise all people who sometimes send parcels to their relatives or friends via mail to read articles about mailing on this site -- https://mailingfacts.com.

GlenMark

Several years ago, my boss had plans to add mailboxes and parcel drops to our office; both as a package deal for new tenants as well as another asset for members of our community. Customers polled absolutely loved the idea. It could have been a really good moneymaker. However, we shelved the idea for a little while as other things took priority. We may revisit the idea at a later date.

teamcapitola

GlenMark said:

Several years ago, my boss had plans to add mailboxes and parcel drops to our office; both as a package deal for new tenants as well as another asset for members of our community. Customers polled absolutely loved the idea. It could have been a really good moneymaker. However, we shelved the idea for a little while as other things took priority. We may revisit the idea at a later date.

We have a real problem with "porch theft" in our area, and think we could offer boxes for deliveries. We have the wall space for a set of "lockers" but just don't know about security/alarms locks etc.

Can have the tenant simply order things delivered to their name, C/O our facility name and address. Still working through the logistics but I think it could be a decent tertiary income stream for us. 

If anyone is already doing this sort of thing, how is it going?

Dixie1980

We currently offer PO boxes at our facility for less than the post office rates. This does include the customer to have FEDEX, Amazon, and UPS delivery as well. We just send them an email when the packages arrive and hold it in our office so they can pick up the packages during office hours. The holiday season can be a little overwhelming with the amount of packages we receive. However the rest of the year it is minimal. We require 3 months of PO box purchase at a time to prevent people from just renting during the month of December.

LADYLIFT1

Wondering what the added charge would be to accept packages for customers.

Dixie1980

If they pick them up in the office we just charge the normal monthly mailbox rate. If they want them delivered to their storage unit we charge $25 a month additional.