The Last 50 Feet: The Delivery Problem
from the new-delivery-technologies dept
There are lots of stories about logistics problems of e-commerce companies, but how about logistics problems at the customer's end? Getting the package to the customer. Here's an article about a company that is trying to create smart boxes (larger than a mailbox and including some serious computer smarts) for accepting package deliveries when customers aren't home. There are some cool ideas in there, but it seems like a fairly expensive proposition to build and install all these boxes.
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Their next product, "Front Porch 2000"....
The situation for selling this to consumers is even worse. Normally I just have things shipped to work. There are only a few situations where this isn't practical (if I had firearms shipped to me under my federal firearms licence, for instance, I wouldn't have them shipped to work). But there's no way I'm having a dog-house sized mailbox stuck on my lawn for the few times when I receive packages.
Jon
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