Help Your Students Thrive: Install Lockers for Autumn 2025

As students head home for the summer, now is the ideal time to prepare for the influx in parcel deliveries that accompanies the start of the academic year. Back-to-school shopping has become an increasingly significant part of the UK’s retail calendar, with the season commencing as early as the beginning of July.¹ By installing smart lockers this summer, you can prevent package pileups before, during, and after move-in day, ensuring a smoother experience for everyone when students return to campus.

Convenience: the Secret to Successfully Serving Students

Generation Z is currently the largest demographic on university campuses. According to Native, Zoomers make up 63% of the UK’s student population, rising to 79% when including all students aged 29 and under.²  And this generation has always valued convenience – from having the internet at their fingertips to enjoying same-day delivery.

Gen Z’s digital native status means they demand convenience from every aspect of their lives – including their student living experience. Smart lockers help you deliver on this important expectation. Mailrooms and leasing offices can’t match every student’s schedule, but smart lockers can. They can also eliminate the need for students to endure long pickup lines, allowing for package collection in less than 30 seconds.

The University of Northampton discovered this benefit very quickly. Michelle Chodyniecki, Head of Facilities Services at the university, commented on the positive student reaction to Parcel Pending by Quadient lockers on-campus: “We’ve had really good feedback from students, and we’ve had really positive feedback from staff – in fact, to the point where they’re asking for more lockers and for larger lockers to give us even more flexibility. It’s definitely been successful.”

Lockers Boost Operational Efficiency for Staff

Implementing smart lockers allows many higher education institutions to enhance the student experience while also allowing their teams to reallocate resources to higher-value responsibilities, like supporting student inquiries. By removing time-consuming steps from the parcel handling process – like logging deliveries, chasing collections, and managing ad-hoc student queries – lockers help ease the day-to-day workload for campus staff.

At Staffordshire University, staff were spending over six hours each day manually logging, storing, and distributing incoming parcels. “The lockers have cut time spent on parcel management dramatically. Before, we were sorting things twice – when parcels came in and when they went out,” noted Rhys Stevens, Accommodation Officer at the university. Since introducing smart lockers, the team has been able to redirect that time toward supporting students more directly.

At University College Oxford, the switch to lockers brought both efficiency and reassurance. More than 90% of parcels are now collected within three days, and the college has full visibility of every handover. “Now, we have an audit trail from the time items are placed in lockers to when they are retrieved,” shared Michael Park, Head Porter. This not only simplifies the process for staff but also provides greater confidence in the system for students and the wider campus community.

Deliver MORE than Just Packages

Smart parcel lockers can help you deliver more than just packages for your students, staff, and faculty. Parcel Pending’s Campus Hub™ solution helps transform university logistics by establishing a comprehensive distribution network where smart lockers serve as exchange points for all types of items across the entire campus.

This solution integrates Quadient’s Web Tracking System (WTS) with our smart parcel lockers to create complete chain-of-custody tracking for all items flowing through the system. This innovation addresses two critical challenges facing higher education: maximising efficiency with limited staff and resources, while generating additional revenue streams on campus.

Campus Hub’s distinctive capabilities include:

• End-to-end tracking for all campus deliveries and exchanges, including items requiring special handling
• Dual-purpose lockers supporting both pickup and return of parcels and various assets.
• Integrated mail distribution on a unified communication platform
• A campus-wide distribution and return network for documents, IT equipment, library books, move in-materials, and more for limitless applications
• Consistent collection and return processes for users regardless of the specific use case

Your Students Deserve More: How Parcel Pending Delivers

Today’s digital-native students expect convenience at every turn, making smart lockers essential infrastructure to navigate the school year rather than a luxury amenity. These systems not only enhance the student experience with 24/7 package access but also solve critical staffing challenges.

However, even as package volumes continue to surge, we understand that finding room for infrastructure investments may feel challenging in today’s uncertain funding climate. That’s why Parcel Pending offers flexible financing solutions specifically designed to meet the needs of student residents and your budget. Our team will partner with you to find a financially sustainable path toward solving your package and asset management challenges.

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Ready to help your students thrive in the new academic year? Speak with a Parcel Pending representative today to find out how we can help you lock in your package management solution ahead of the new academic year.

Sources:

1. 1. Shopify. Back to School Shopping Guide for Retailers (2024). www.shopify.com. July 14, 2023. https://www.shopify.com/uk/retail/back-to-school-shopping-4-ways-retailers-can-rule-this-busy-season
   2. Native. Gen Z students – the Gen Z market segment you’re sleeping on. www.partner.native.fm. n/d. https://partner.native.fm/blog/gen-z-students-market-segment/