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Over the last few years, receiving parcels has become a big part of the job for a concierge at a residential building. Due to the growth of e-commerce purchases, as well as the stay-at-home orders that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, the reception and organization of parcels has become increasingly difficult to deal with after the increase of packages coming through residential lobbies. With residential buildings often home to hundreds, this can be not only challenging for the concierge, but also extremely disorganized – especially during holiday seasons, like this month.
With e-commerce consumer spending likely to continue growing at its current rate, mailroom systems are at risk of being overwhelmed, with parcels being lost, stolen, or damaged. Pre-pandemic lobbies were designed to handle much lower volumes than what has since become normal, and concierges can easily become overwhelmed, unable to tend to their other duties – resulting in other issues arising. Snaile Inc. is hoping to make this process a lot smoother, with the implementation of its smart parcel room system – which features many qualities of a good parcel locker system.
Not all parcel lockers are created equal, and there are some main features that should not be overlooked when choosing a locker system for use in Canada — such as carrier delivery contracts. When choosing a smart locker provider, it is a good idea to choose one that has official contracts in place with all major carrier companies. That way, it is not left to chance as to whether or not a carrier will use the system as carriers who have a contract are contractually required to do so for each and every delivery. The agreements also ensure that the carrier companies have tested and approved the system, and share in parcel liability that they are aware of each site even before it is launched, and will direct their carriers accordingly.
It is also important to make sure that the data collected by the locker system is hosted by the country that the locker is located in. The preservation of personal data is another crucial component, and therefore makes the cloud data hosting location an important factor in choosing a parcel locker system. In Canada, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is strictly protected under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), but data must be hosted in Canada for PIPEDA to apply. It is important to make sure the chosen supplier can prove its data hosting location — this should be kept top of mind when choosing a locker system.
For a parcel locker to send out pickup codes and reminders to end-users, they will require access to PII. If the building's parcel lockers are integrated, usually by API, to the property management or building automation system, only the building software will need to be maintained. The building's parcel lockers will simply sync with the resident management software at regular intervals for updates. If software is not integrated, two software systems will need to be maintained — both the property management software and the parcel locker resident roster.
Canadian Cyber Insurance is also an important part of choosing a parcel locker. Cyber insurance is used to protect the company, its end-users, and the parcel locker provider in the event that anything goes wrong. The parcel locker supplier will need the following insurance policies that pay out in Canada: Commercial Product Liability Insurance, Cyber Insurance, and Professional Liability Coverage.
A parcel locker company should have a multi-tiered approach to data security and privacy, including ISO-27001 information and security certification to ensure compliance with industry-leading standards set by subject matter experts, as well as SOC 2 compliance from a SaaS provider, an auditing procedure that ensures service providers securely manage a company’s data to protect the organization’s interests and its client’s privacy.
The locker company should also have ongoing third-party penetration testing in which an ethical hacking company attempts to break into the parcel locker supplier’s software. The third party would then provide remediation reports according to what issues they find.
Finally, it is important to have a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) — a dedicated, seasoned executive abreast of legal and best practice requirements for data privacy and security compliance in Canada.
It’s best to deal with the company that owns, develops, hosts, and maintains the software and the hardware of the locker system so that there is never an issue with service and fixing problems that may arise: choose a locker supplier with Canadian staff with adequate experience to provide the hands-on help needed to install smart lockers and deal with any issues, and be sure that support is not outsourced outside of Canada, because this can cause issues and inconsistencies down the line.
The composition of the compartments is another important factor, especially to avoid theft. More important than the thickness of the metal is the construction of the doors. The best lockers have an inset compartment door design, which has the door sit within the frame. An inset design is preferred because there is no lip to pry the door open from underneath. Locks are another way to prevent theft — look for a parcel locker supplier that uses motorized locks as opposed to solenoid locks. Motorized locks have a motor to open and close the lock, which has much more power to release the latch, even when there is pressure from inside the locker, such as an oversized package.
All parcel lockers should also have content detection. This is technology that resides inside each compartment of the parcel locker so that the locker computer knows whether or not there is an item in the locker. This guarantees that a delivery was physically dropped off and picked up, and not stolen.
Over 350 developers and landlords across the country have already signed contracts for Snaile systems. Developers including Concert in British Columbia, Saroukian Group in Quebec, and Minto, Starlight, Oxford, Tridel, and Menkes in Ontario, have all joined the movement towards efficient and secure parcel delivery.
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