Australia Post's free Amazon locker-style service | Hacker News Reader

Australia Post's free Amazon locker-style service

auspost.com.au

33 pointsdamian200027 comments

The Danish postal service has these as well. They're aren't great during the winter when the doors freezes shut. It's not to bad when the postman is prevented from loading your packages, they'll just end up at the post office. The real problem is when people have unlocked the door to get their package but then are unable to actually open the door.

Such a service exists for a long time in Germany http://www.dhl.de/en/paket/pakete-empfangen/packstation.html

Also exists in Belgium: http://www.bpost.be/site/nl/residential/parcels/pickup/bpack...

I've been an early adopter of this since May 2012. I've used it quite a lot and it's great. The mileage is going to be on how other courier services are accepted. If you have a package couriered to this address from anyone but StarTrack, it's not going to be accepted. So for national deliveries this service is great, however international shipping (which is generally couriered) ends up being a problem. Either way you should sign up if you're Australian, this is the best thing Auspost have done in years.

Looking forward to some of the major US carriers like UPS, or even USPS signing on to this.

Notice that it's a free* service.

* conditions apply - see Little's Law.

Interesting, because, on a marginal basis, it probably saves Australia Post delivery costs, making this another example of the security/convenience trade-off.

Normally, you want the convenience of home delivery - but this allows you to trade that for security.

> Normally, you want the convenience of home delivery - but this allows you to trade that for security.

That's funny, because the reason I want this is because home delivery is usually anything BUT convenient.

I couldn't find anything that made it free with conditions. I thought there was a catch when they said "free to register" but everything seemed to be legit.

It's not convenient in Australia to have packages delivered, if you're not there when they're delivered then they generally end up either at the Post Office or at some random courier's warehouse in an out of the way part of town.

Wow, your delivery gut checks whether you're there? Most of them have decided that coming to the door is too much work and just drop the "come collect your parcel" card in the letter box.

That used to happen regularly to me too, when I lived in an apartment. I managed to make a complaint about it once to the local postmaster.

They have this in my Apartment building in Japan.

When the postman comes and I am out then there are a series of electronic lockers of varying sizes in the foyer that he can put the package in then leave the key code in my letter box.

Works excellently although I am not sure how they avoid abuse by people.

This service is amazing. I've been using the pilot for about 6 months and it's the best thing they've done. Get an email or SMS about a package and a code, rock up, punch your name and the code, the locker pops open and you get your package!

NZ post is introducing a similar service, currently on a trial basis:

http://www.nzpost.co.nz/products-services/online-shopping/pa...

NZ post also has parcel forwarding service from the United States. It's pretty great being able to order anything from US online stores.

http://www.nzpost.co.nz/products-services/online-shopping/yo...

Oops, this isn't a new service apparently - it has been running since October, 2012.

I've never seen or heard of these before. They have a decent number of locations (one is quite close to where I live). I'm not sure why they are not pushing this harder. Having to pick up a parcel from their stores between 9 - 5, monday to friday is the only painful part of using AusPost.

FYI some post offices, in NSW at least, have an "early bird" collection window for parcels and PO Box holders. My local opens from 07:30 to 08:30 IIRC. Handy for avoiding the queues.

I was one of the early adopters of this service. The trial (which I signed up to) started in March of 2012.

Canada Post put parcel lockers in the lobby of my building before Christmas this year, too.

http://instagram.com/p/TT99kWmyd5/

I used it, but because I didn't collect the item within 2 days it was moved to the local post office :(

Is this basically BufferBox but in Australia?

Looks like it. For reference, Australia Post is the equivalent to the USPS.

except they don't deliver on Saturday, don't pick-up mail from your mailbox and a letter costs 60c instead of 44c

"except they don't deliver on Saturday"

Neither will the US, probably, soon (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/02/06/171264853/rep...). I don't think that includes packages though, which is all I care about. One less day of junk mail is fine with me. Although I guess that just means more crap on Monday.

They also don't deliver most junk mail, and the private companies that do deliver junk mail will stop pretty much entirely if you write on your mailbox 'no junk mail'.

Except MUCH more reliable.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com