The Multifamily Package Problem: Why Apartment Mailrooms Need an Integrated Solution?

After the pandemic, apartment mailrooms in multi-family buildings everywhere in the U.S saw a massive influx in packages. According to Supply and Demand Chain, the U.S. parcel volume reached a record high of 21.5 billion in 2021. The latest index reveals that nearly 59 million parcels were generated in the United States every day in 2021, which translates into 683 packages per second.

In 2021, over 2.14 billion people purchased goods and services online, increasing the number of deliveries to the apartments. This massive increase in the package volume resulted in overcrowded mailrooms and mismanaged packages.

For apartment mailroom managers, it is essential to ensure that packages are delivered smoothly to the rightful residents. Digital package management solutions can help ensure your apartment building mailroom is running smoothly by streamlining the entire process. 

Here are a few more reasons why you should invest in integrated solutions for your apartment mailroom:

• Massive Number of Deliveries
• Package Theft: A Growing Problem
• Dedicated Staffing and Increased Costs
• Overcrowded Apartment Package Rooms
• Limited access for tenants
• Residents Satisfaction

1. Massive Number of Deliveries

During the pandemic, people increasingly depended on online shopping, and this change in shopping habits is here to stay considering the level of convenience it provides to the consumers.  As the number of online shoppers worldwide increases yearly, poorly equipped apartment buildings can not deal with the multi-family package problem. 

With the unpredictable number of package volumes, it's hard for buildings to estimate how many apartment parcel lockers they will need. When more packages are stored in package lockers, it leads to a crowded mailroom. A well-integrated package management software can help residents know when their delivery will arrive to pick it up on time and help avoid congestion in the apartment mailroom.

2. Package Theft: A Growing Problem

With millions of packages arriving daily, it's hard for multi-family apartments to manage them securely. Piles of packages are often left unattended at the front door, leading to massive package theft. In 2021, nearly 210 million packages were stolen from Americans, according to a survey conducted by Cove Home Security.

A modern and integrated solution can help combat the package theft problem. Through package management applications, residents can receive notifications when their package arrives at the apartment mailroom. They can then pick it up as soon as possible without leaving it unattended for long periods, avoiding porch pirates.

3. Dedicated Staffing and Increased Costs

Apartment package delivery, retrieval, and storage are time-consuming, with hundreds of packages coming in every day. This takes a toll on your staff's time and labor. These increased numbers require dedicated staffing to handle packages.

According to the National Multifamily Council, 68% of staff spend up to 4 hours weekly on package management. This also decreases overall productivity as other important building management matters are neglected. Resultantly, there is a drain on both time and money for the building owners. With package management software, you can automate the entire process, so fewer employees are needed to manage deliveries, reducing costs and increasing productivity.

4. Overcrowded Apartment Package Rooms

When packages aren't delivered and sent out fast enough, it leads to overcrowding in the apartment mailroom. Overcrowding means packages have an increased risk of incurring damage. Especially, deliveries that contain perishable items can become bothersome. Of course, knowing beforehand when their package is arriving can help residents pick it up upon arrival and stop it from getting stored in the package room.

Quick retrieval can prevent overcrowding in apartment package rooms and minimize damage. Package management software can help you achieve these results by sending automated notifications to users so they are aware of the package's arrival and take action accordingly.

5. Limited Access for Tenants

Once your package is stored in the apartment building mailroom, retrieving it might not be as easy as you think. Residents are sometimes restricted from accessing the building package room. Accessing the package outside operating hours is impossible for people with unusual working hours. Sometimes, the front desk staff is unavailable or busy tackling other issues, limiting the resident's access to their package.

In such circumstances, you need a tech-forward solution that offers self-service pick-up. When residents need to retrieve a package, they can scan the QR code and pick it up without requiring any human intermediary. It also helps you in staffing in case you have a staff shortage.

6. Residents Satisfaction

Resident satisfaction plays a huge part in their retention. Whether or not they will renew their lease at the end of the contract depends solely on their living experience. Poor management of the mailroom in apartment can lead to package theft, damaged packages, and inconvenience for the residents.

If residents feel unsafe and anxious about losing their deliveries and facing losses, they will not stay at the apartment for long. Moreover, low numbers of resident retention can lead to a bad reputation for the condo, resulting in poor prospects.

Package management software helps make the entire delivery process smoother so residents can receive their packages quickly and their satisfaction levels increase.

How Can PackageX Transform Apartment Mailroom Operations & Tenant Experience?

You can increase your building efficiency and staff productivity to deliver a superior tenant experience through PackageX apps and APIs. It is a unified platform that optimizes all the mailroom operations, including package receiving, shipping, internal routing, inventory management, and package tracking for apartments. 

With PackageX Receive, you will never lose a single piece of mail or package. It automates all the package receiving operations such as label data ingestion, notifications, storage, pick-up, and forwarding. It allows the residents to retrieve their packages without a mailroom manager by scanning the QR code. Also, the residents can choose custom actions against their apartment packages through the Receive Connect feature.

PackageX Ship will help you create custom shipping labels for every apartment package delivery at discounted rates. Moreover, it allows residential building owners to verify tenants' addresses with its smart address verification tool.

Inventory is another application that streamlines inventory workflows for your residential building to increase productivity, efficiency, and visibility. It provides live inventory insights that you can share with your team through a comprehensive web portal. Also, you can keep a visual record of any damage by taking and attaching pictures. PackageX also allows you to build custom apps for your residential building logistics operations using our APIs.

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 Conclusion 

Observing the growing numbers of parcel traffic, it is safe to say that package volumes in apartment mailrooms will not lessen anytime soon. The increased number of deliveries is hard to deal with and often results in poor management.

Poor package management leads to damage, package theft, high costs, and resident dissatisfaction. Moreover, building owners have to bear extra costs for dedicated staffing for package management and still have other building upkeep tasks neglected.

There is a simple solution: investment in a good package platform that can streamline your logistics operations and help you increase efficiency in the mailroom in apartment.