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Weathering 2020 with Smart Campus Mail Services

A perfect storm has crashed into college campuses today. The convergence of online ordering plus back to school shopping, coupled with COVID pandemic fears has led to a hailstorm of packages hitting university mailrooms.
As a facilities manager, how do you manage this deluge? One silver lining trending is the rapid adoption of smart technologies across campuses. For a campus mail center, this includes the installation of smart parcel lockers to streamline parcel management and distribution services.

Leverage Technology to Boost Efficiency

Leveraging technology is the answer to a labor-intensive process that reduces reliance on your mailroom staff. With a variety of sizes and configurations, approximately 80% of all packages can be securely delivered to university smart lockers freeing up staff to focus on other tasks.
With Parcel Pending literally doing the hefty living, students and faculty pick up packages on their schedule thanks to their smartphone. A customized PIN code or barcode affords safe and secure retrieval within 10 seconds. Most importantly, however, your student mail center transforms from a manual operation into a streamlined machine.

The 5-Steps in the Automated Delivery Process

Here’s how the secure package locker system works:

  1. Packages arrive at the on-campus receiving area.
  2. Packages are sorted and coded for smart lockers according to their final on-campus destination.
  3. Packages are delivered to the appropriate locations on-campus and placed into a secure electronic locker.
  4. Students are automatically notified by email or text that a package has arrived and are given a code that they manually enter or scan a barcode for contact-free opening.
  5. Students retrieve the package at the lockers using their unique and secure access code.

Top 10 Benefits of a Smart Locker System for Universities

Available in a variety of sizes and even your college colors, smart lockers transform a logistical nightmare of managing student packages into an efficient operation. Here’s a breakdown of the key benefits of moving to a parcel locker system.

  1. Boosts Productivity – Your workers can focus on their work, not tracking packages. In fact, switching to intelligent university delivery lockers can boost productivity by a startling 30%!
  2. Automatic Alerts – With Parcel Pending delivery lockers tracking and immediately notifying recipients of a package, your team members no longer need to manually manage who picked up what package when. Every package drop off and pick-up is electronically recorded and tracked to ensure accountability. This chain of custody method speeds up delivery time, ensuring that care packages are delivered faster. 
  3. A Variety of Locker Sizes – Remember receiving packages that fit virtually nowhere in your student mail storage room? With multiple sizes and configurations available, we design a package locker system to fit your space and needs. All locker sizes are ADA-accessible.
  4. Improves the Student Experience – With lockers accessible up to 24/7, students no longer need to wait in long lines to pick up packages from the mailroom. Checking in with mail services staff or verifying delivery becomes a thing of the past with smart lockers. Whether students are early birds or night owls, their packages are securely waiting for them when they’re ready. Distribution of key documents, campus passes, and mail can also be delivered directly to the lockers for a better student experience.
  5. Ends “Stale” Packages – Ever have that one annoying package that the owner just doesn’t ever seem to claim? Say goodbye to those headaches as our system automatically sends reminder notices via email or text to let the recipients know that they have a package waiting. The online tracking dashboard also highlights these stale packages.
  6. Lowers Liability & Theft – Take your staff out of the liability loop with our secure method of stowing student packages. With our reporting system, you know exactly when the package was retrieved, limiting disputes and “disappearing packages.”
  7. Strengthens Safety – With COVID concerns continuing to mount, contactless package retrieval is pivotal. Using our locker system not only reduces interaction with package couriers, but with campus mail services staff as well. The customized barcode on smart phones affords easy package pickup without ever touching a keypad.
  8. Real-Time Visibility & Tracking – Since Parcel Pending by Quadient’s locker system integrates effortlessly with its own Web Tracking System (WTS) or existing university mail tracking systems, you have complete visibility into where your packages are at all times.
  9. Exceptional Service – From planning to installation and implementation, our dedicated customer success team will help take away your package headaches.
  10. Brandable Colors & Mascots – Want your tiger mascot growl to greet visitors at their mail lockers? Will Bucky Badger welcome your students? Show your school spirit with custom college colors, logos, and mascots available on our lockers.

Designed with You in Mind

Since every facility is different, we offer a complimentary assessment of your mail and package delivery workflow. This data allows us to recommend the optimum number of lockers and best configuration to automate your mail and package drop offs.

The CARES Act May be Available to Your University

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law on March 27, 2020 and provided colleges with the most direct federal funds in a single year since the Great Recession. Roughly $12.5 billion was allocated to higher education relief. Speak to your administrator about how to tap into these funds for a safer mailroom experience.
Take the crucial step into automating your campus mail services by setting up your complimentary assessment. Call us at 855-450-5087 or learn more about our university parcel management solutions here.