December 2024
Some don’t care if you have been naughty or nice. These Grinches want your packages.
It began with porch pirates following delivery trucks or wandering through a neighbourhood. They steal packages from a doorway before they have been retrieved or directly off delivery vehicles. Robbers have become more brazen and openly attacked delivery trucks. Retailers, taking heavy losses from theft, have closed stores in some cities. This all ads to the cost and availability of anything sold or delivered.
Thieves go where the money is, and this is package deliveries as consumers have embraced online shopping.
Package deliveries can end up in condominium lobbies poorly equipped to cope with the influx. Lobby areas become mini-warehouses from the sheer volume of delivered packages. Once accepted, packages need to be stored and catalogued.
Most high-rise buildings were not designed to accommodate package deliveries at current volumes. They contain neither storage rooms or parcel lockers. No thought was given to large numbers of deliveries and packages coming through the front door, or parking space for delivery vehicles. Ensuring residents quickly retrieve their packages so more can be stored was never a consideration.
In the high-rise home, management can ensure that whatever gets delivered is not at risk of theft. Four levels of package management are available.
White Glove Service
Delivered packages are accepted and personally delivered to the door thus maximizing both service and security. Delivery people do not receive building access beyond the lobby. Additional staffing is required year-round to maintain lobby security while items are delivered to a door, with more staffing required during peak delivery periods to handle higher package volumes.
Concierge Service
Packages are received by the concierge and stored in a location that may or may not be secure. Residents retrieve their package(s) from the concierge after being informed of arrival via electronic or paper notification. Condo management software and applications typically include a parcel management component.
Self-Service
Packages are delivered inside to a predetermined location. An unsecure location may be a parcel room accessible to all. Residents rely on package delivery tracking to know when an item has been delivered. A secure location may be a self-locking parcel locker combined with electronic notification of secure package arrival.
Non-Service
Packages are not accepted in the building. Deliveries may be left outside, or residents make alternate retrieval or delivery arrangements.
Liability exists any time a package is accepted from a delivery service at a central location that is not the final delivery address and signed for as accepted. Once accepted by a concierge, the condominium corporation accepts liability for ensuring final delivery. To protect against this communities may implement loss prevention strategies, upgrade insurance coverage, and require residents to sign waivers protecting the corporation and its employees against liability.
Any building failing to protect their delivered packages from being targeted by thieves runs the risk of having items no longer delivered for their residents. Carriers and retailers are not prepared to subsidize the cost of theft after they have left packages at a building.
