Designing a Successful Mail and Package Center

architecture - engineering - construction

Designing a Successful Mail and Package Center

August 24, 2022

With a drastic increase in consumer demand for mail and package delivery — paired with labor shortages, transportation issues, supply chain bottlenecks, and rising material costs, with scarcity thrown in the mix — the best time to streamline your mail and package process is now.

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To keep up with demand, package room management is already becoming a top priority for building owners and developers. And considering that package management solutions are one of the most important amenities for potential residents, architects will need to focus on optimizing mailroom layout design.

We’ve worked with hundreds of architects across the country to design seamless package and mailroom retrieval spaces, and we can help you design the best space possible. To help prevent the inevitable chaos, we’ve put together a guide on how to best prioritize mail and package room designs.

Benefits of Including a Pre-Designed Mail and Package Room

There are many benefits to including a pre-designed mailroom in your commercial or multifamily project plan. Building a mail and package room in apartment buildings from the get-go is a fairly inexpensive way to increase rental income immediately.

Designing a package room that is safe and secure is also incredibly important for the long-term occupancy of multifamily and commercial properties. Residents and building tenants want their packages to be safe and secure behind a locked door, but they also want to retrieve their packages when it’s most convenient for them. So, what’s the best solution?

Selecting the Right Solution

When looking at mail and secure package solutions, you will want to decide between package lockers vs. mailrooms, manual solutions vs. automated ones, and standard models vs. customization.

Package Lockers vs. Mailrooms

A traditional mailroom can be a great option for a smaller facility, but if you’re designing a large commercial, corporate, or multifamily building, then your mailroom may be busy enough as it is without contending with personal packages. Installing technology like smart automated lockers is a great way to save space and reduce clutter.

Users are given a certain number of days to pick up a package after receiving an automated notification with a unique barcode. Because of this modern technology, smart lockers practically run themselves. Compared to traditional mailrooms, which often need to be staffed and organized by an employee, lockers require little staff time and operate efficiently.

Manual vs. Automated

If you choose to design a staff-operated mailroom, the property will oversee the labor-intensive work of cataloging, sorting, and tracking packages. Package recipients will have to be notified about deliveries, which can cause a back-and-forth of phone tag, messaging, and endless work. To see an example of this, give our online ROI Calculator a try and learn how much time it will take.

When you design a package-focused room that’s set up to be automated, you make all those tasks simple and efficient with limited labor involved. Package management software sends an automated email to each package recipient when their delivery is ready for them to pick up, freeing up building staff to focus on other high-value activities.

Standard vs. Customized

Once you’ve decided to automate your package room, the decision between choosing a standard model solution vs. a customized package solution is ultimately going to come down to the desires of the property management company or developer. There are plenty of standard options that can meet the needs of residents but finding a package system provider who can provide customized designs or branding is great for extra name recognition and meeting unique aesthetic specifications.

Ideas to Inspire

Check out some of these mail and package rooms to get some inspiration for your next project.

Chelsea Place in Boston, MA

Chelsea Place complex in Boston, MA is an apartment building with high student occupancy and no full-time management staff. Knowing that their package management was going to be a struggle, they partnered with Package Concierge®.

They installed Package Concierge’s® 34-locker system within their entry vestibule, making it easy for delivery carriers to access and providing residents with 24/7 access to their packages. With 10 packages being delivered daily to the property and 20+ during the weekends and holidays, residents can rest assured that their packages are stored securely within the automated locker system.

Cambridge Oxford in New Haven, CT

Cambridge Oxford was seeking out a solution that required absolutely no oversight or manual labor. They were having security issues with their package delivery and knew that they needed a new system.

The property manager, Jessica Molson, saw an automated package delivery system in her local gym and figured that a similar mail option would successfully meet Cambridge Oxford’s needs. Package Concierge® was designed with a focus on the residential, multifamily industry and has a deep understanding of the unique needs of residents and property managers. Impressed by the technology behind the Package Concierge® system, Jessica knew it would be a perfect partnership.

Cambridge Oxford has been delighted with the system’s ease of use and reliability. They customized a 7×13 foot 70-compartment locker system with an L-shape to provide their student residents with a secure, convenient package delivery experience.

Now, with 60 packages being delivered a day, leasing managers are able to focus on managing the property and providing an exceptional residential experience instead of worrying about package security issues.

How Package Concierge® Can Help

Whether you’re interested in a standard model or looking to add custom graphics to your package lockers, Package Concierge® has you covered. If at some point in the future you need additional locker storage, Package Concierge® can help you reconfigure your locker design to meet your property’s evolving needs.

With our ROI calculator, you can figure out exactly how much in operational expenses you can save your clients by automating their package retrieval for your next project. Assuming a package requires five minutes of handling time by property staff working an average of 260 days a year, we’ve consulted with property management clients and jointly identified potential savings of $24,667.50 to $41,112.50 per year. That’s a lot of money your clients could be spending on renovations, upgrades, and remodels to improve resident experience even further.

Package Concierge ® is the partner you’ve been looking for with the ability to deliver both mailboxes and package lockers from one easy, convenient, and reliable source. With the ability to seamlessly integrate into the property’s management system alongside 24/7 US-based support, we’re ready to help you design your mail and package room with ease.

Check out our website to configure your unique system to fulfill all your project’s needs. Request a quote today to get started and check out our architect toolkit to set yourself up for immediate success.

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Company: Package Concierge®