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Comment by pythonaut_16 | Hacker News Reader

If this kind of service becomes common I could see homes being built with or retrofitted with "airlocks" so that you can give delivery services access to a secure area to deliver packages without gaining access to the whole home.

I wonder if you could outfit the smart lock on a shed or secure package box and let them deliver to that?

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You mean a porch with a porch door? No need for a fancy name like "airlock" ;)

How does a porch look on an apartment (building), then?

Lots of apartments already have airlocks.

Very similar to an airlock

Lots of options.

My apartment and several in the area, have a concierge, and they’ll act as a “porch” and even deliver it to your door later in the day

Some apartments have mail rooms, some with automated entry based on if you have a package or not

It’s largely a solved problem

Not on manhattan. There are a lot of issues in older building complexes as they werent build for the amount of deliveries we see today.

probably had more deliveries:

dairy man

mailman

seltzer water man

whomever else delivered stuff man

but, they also probably had someone at home all day.

It's a real problem. People getting giant boxes, rooms not being big enough. Delivery is very different than it used to be.

A standard little lobby where people leave their shoes and whatnot, except normally the inner door doesn't have its own lock.

That was the main thing I was thinking of. Even on homes that currently have this, or a mudroom, normally the inner door is not secured or strong in anyway.

I also think having a general unlocked mail or package slot is problematic these days, as bad actors could use that to insert all kinds of nefarious and damaging items into your home.

For apartments, amazon has a different approach. https://thehub.amazon.com/home

We call that sort of thing a catlock.

Indeed, we've been planning to screen in our front porch for a while just so we have some security when opening the front door while the cats are on that side of the house.

It would also provide some security by obscurity for any packages we get; according to UPS, right now I've got three packages totaling about $500 of equipment sitting on my front porch in plain view to anyone going past the house. Thankfully the house sits nearly half an acre off the main road, with no sidewalk and in a semi-rural area. Still, Murphy's law dictates that today will be the first time I have a package stolen. I'll find out when I get home in a few hours, I guess.

(My regular UPS guy normally doesn't deliver to me until after 6pm, he knows my schedule and it lines up well with his driving route most of the time. I'm guessing this is a new driver, or else a really light day for my regular guy.)

Sounds like a job for Milk Chute!

http://www.eureka4you.com/home/MilkChute.htm

I would not give Amazon access to my home, but I would purchase the equivalent of a small Amazon locker to be bolted to the concrete walkway on the side of my house.

EDIT: @vidarh: I was unaware. Thank you! Going to look for one that is weatherproof and I can paint Amazon Locker yellow.

You can already get that. Search for "delivery box" etc. and you'll find large steel boxes, at least some of which have locking mechanisms that lets the delivery person pull it shut to lock after putting a parcel in,.

Sort of like library drop boxes.

Maybe for people who don’t get large packages we can make a smaller version of this.

It’ll even be a convenient place to put letters and other small deliveries.

I guess since most mailmen are men and they will use it the most often, we can call it a malebox.

Like a mud room or an enclosed porch? Lots of houses already have such places.

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