The Pakman Parcel Delivery Box is the latest attempt to break into the home security locker market. It allows postal workers to securely deliver parcels without the need for a signature, with enough room to store a standard A3 box or a crate of wine. The recipient also receives an automatic email or SMS to inform them that they have received a parcel.
One of the chief frustrations of home delivery services is the need to sign off on large parcels — if you’re at work or otherwise indisposed, the item usually ends up languishing in a post office storeroom. In worst case scenarios, it could even end up being returned to the sender. We’ve looked at solutions to this annoyance in the past, with the most recent being the My Parcel Box Vault.
Now, veteran security supplier Mayo Hardware has entered the fray with a parcel delivery box of its own. The result is the Pakman; a metal safe with a three-way locking system that has been designed to be placed at the front door or fence line of residential homes.
The unit comes with a scannable barcode fixed to the parcel chute which is registered to the owner’s address. Couriers can then use their PDAs to scan the code on delivery to confirm the address and unlock the parcel door (this will also send the customer a confirmation message). The Pakman unit has been specifically scaled around Australia Post standard parcel boxes to ensure the majority of deliveries will fit.
“More and more people find themselves setting aside time to collect their parcels or sending their online purchases to their workplace. The Pakman Parcel Delivery Box is designed to save online shoppers’ time and money by ensuring all packages are delivered safely and securely to residential properties,” Mayo’s national marketing manager Mark Thame said in a statement.
“For added security, the owner can also periodically update their combination lock code online.”
Fastway Couriers are currently on board with the service and the system will be available to all national parcel delivery operators.
The Pakman retails for $299 and can be snapped up at Bunnings stores, nationwide. Customers can also pick up matching wall frame kits and mailboxes for $79 and $94-99, respectively. The Pakman is $50 more expensive than the aforementioned My Parcel Box Vault — however, Mayo Hardware has assured us that there are no additional costs for its service. My Parcel Box requires the user to pay a $1.10 “service fee” per week. The Pakman is available in a choice of white, charcoal and sand, which apparently match the COLORBOND colours used in homes.
As we noted in our My Parcel Box coverage, the success of this kind of thing is largely dependent on the support of courier services as well as the intelligence of individual delivery workers. We’ve all been home during an allegedly “unsuccessful” delivery before — can we really trust these people to use the box properly when even a doorbell gives them trouble? That said, anything that saves you an unwanted trip to the post office is obviously worth considering.
Comments
5 responses to “Pakman Is A Letterbox Safe For Secure Parcel Delivery”
Very interesting. Might have to check it out. However our postie doesn’t even try and deliver parcels, he just leaves a note in the box saying “to early to knock” [sic], even though he delivers at 7:30am on a weekday — a time when I would assume a number of folk would be awake and getting ready for work or school.
Agreed. This only works if the courier or postie bothers to use it. I have had too many packages dropped in the driveway or doorway, or ‘hidden’ behind my postbox (but effectively in view from the street). That’s because the courier is usually a subcontractor and wants to minimise the time spent actually delivering each parcel. Pakman may be an admirably secure postbox, but it won’t work unless there is an incentive for the courier to take the time to use it.
I’d much rather them drop stuff off than just taking it back to the post office without even stepping foot on our property. We live in a court, and to get to our front door, you have to walk down a path to the side of the house and into a little alcove, making hiding packages there ideal.
The Pakman would at least be an easy to use box that would ensure that the postman has no reason to take the parcel back (unless it needs to be signed for, and 90% of our parcels don’t, as they’re inexpensive eBay electronics (cables, cheap camera gear etc.)
I don’t understand how scanning the barcode unlocks the unit?
Looks like you register that barcode with Pakman, and courier companies partner with Pakman. When the courier (Fastway Couriers only at the moment?) uses their PDA to scan the barcode, the details are sent to the Pakman’s servers (?) and a signal is sent back to the Pakman which will unlock itself, allowing the package to be put in. When it’s shut, it locks until next time it’s scanned by an approved courier service
Only issue with all of this is, if a company doesn’t partner with Pakman, they can’t drop your parcel in. And if Pakman goes belly up, what do you do then?
Good idea. But why is it so expensive ? $329 plus the mailbox $99. Total $428 at Bunnings. It is, after all, made out of sheet metal. Cost to manufacture would not exceed about $70.
I put a wireless doorbell on my letterbox as apparently the intercom was too much of a problem. Star track couriers rang the doorbell, Auspost contractors didn’t and would just card me.
I watched one of them, they pulled up they wrote a card and dropped it off, they didn’t exit the vehicle with the parcel at all. The contractors get paid the same whether they card or deliver the parcel.
I don’t think they would use these boxes either. Now I send anything that does not fit in the letterbox to my local LPO and keep an eye on the tracking.