TransLink pilot project battles porch pirates with smart lockers at SkyTrain stations
Credit to Author: Harrison Mooney| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:48:12 +0000
Smart lockers are coming to SkyTrain stations as the transit authority explores new services to offer customers.
TransLink announced Tuesday that it has selected PigeonBox, a smart locker service, as the first winner of its open call for customer service innovations. Beginning this spring, Vancouverites can have deliveries sent to lockers at three SkyTrain stations: Joyce-Collingwood, Stadium-Chinatown, and Commercial-Broadway.
“We are always looking at creative ways to utilize our transit spaces” said TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond in a news release. “Having secure lockers for pick-ups at transit stations will reduce unnecessary trips and simplify the lives of our customers.”
Mounties in British Columbia warn residents about package thieves often, especially over the holidays, as direct-to-doorstep orders spike and direct-from-doorstep thefts also increase as a result. Suggestions to deter such criminals include choosing a delivery spot that’s not visible from the street, requiring a signature for delivery, or having packages sent to a friend or neighbour likely to be home during the day.
“If the packages are visible from the street, you face a much higher risk of having them stolen,” North Vancouver RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Peter DeVries said last month.
Some Vancouverites aim to deter porch pirates with front-door security cameras, many of which are Wi-Fi enabled. But thieves are brazen. Often all these cameras do is allow residents to watch from work in real-timeas their stuff gets stolen.
Vancouver resident Ken Szeto recently shared footage of one such incident, which occurred last week outside his Shaughnessy home. He was stunned at the shameless, midday theft, in which a young woman climbs his front steps, snatches the delivery, and continues on her way, all in full view of Szeto’s camera.
“My surveillance camera is not discreet,” he said. “I purposely bought something that’s very easy to notice.”
The crime itself was not as easy to notice, however. It took Szeto, who didn’t realize he was expecting a package, over a week to realize he’d been robbed. Szeto said a friend of his niece, who is staying with the family while she attends UBC, asked about a package she had ordered — about $12 worth of cosmetics — after receiving a delivery notice. They reviewed the video and soon discovered where it went.
“We were just speechless and couldn’t believe it. I think the majority of the people, when they approach our front door door, they can see the surveillance camera,” he said. “She’s from Hong Kong — something like this is unheard of for her,” he said.
Incidents like this, which demonstrate a need for more secure delivery locations, have fuelled the development of smart locker solutions like PigeonBox.
“The PigeonBox dream is to make every online delivery experience as seamless as possible,” said PigeonBox CEO Seunghwan Son. “We’ve built our smart lockers for those who want to protect their online orders and pick up their packages with ease. When we first launched PigeonBox, our customers told us they wanted to see us grow and expand at our transit stations. We are excited to finally launch this partnership with TransLink.”
Rather than having items shipped to their home, customers can sign up for the service, then use the provided PigeonBox address as their mailing address when making an online purchase. Once the order is delivered, PigeonBox will send the customer a locker number and access code, and they can visit that SkyTrain station to retrieve their package.
Admittedly, leaving one’s home to pick up a package sounds a lot like the exact opposite of online shopping, but one imagines Vancouverites will still find this service useful.
We’ll know in the spring of 2021. The pilot project will last one year, after which time TransLink will continue and expand the service if it proves popular.
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