Signed, Sealed and Delivered: Package Delivery in the New Millennium

If you live in an apartment building, you probably know what a headache package delivery can be.

Stolen boxes. Miscommunications between building management and residents. A huge demand on management’s time.

These are all problems that continue to vex many apartment dwellers and managers alike. But the paradigm may be changing as the use of electronic delivery kiosks begins to increase in the industry.

One Hoboken apartment building, Observer Park on Garden Street, has already made the switch. The building’s management now uses Package Concierge, a manufacturer of e-locker kiosks marketed towards the apartment industry.

According to Michelle Gallagher, Observer Park’s property manager, the 115-unit property gets around 70 packages every day, a number that’s increasing as online shopping becomes more popular.

“It’s extremely time consuming to manage this daily influx of packages,” Gallagher told Patch. “The time we spend logging, sorting and delivering packages is really disruptive and makes it nearly impossible to keep up with all our other important responsibilities.”

In addition, security was an important factor in their decision to switch to an electronic package kiosk at Observer Park, said Gallagher.

“We’re in a busy, urban environment where there are only a handful of managed buildings,” she continued. “Most others are walkups or have an unstaffed lobby. Packages that are left on the front steps or unattended can go missing. Once that happens, resident trust starts to erode and no property wants that.”

Photos courtesy of Package Concierge

Photo caption: The Observer Park apartment building in Hoboken recently switched to an electronic package kiosk system.

Send Hoboken news tips to eric.kiefer@patch.com