One of the questions that we get a lot is "Why do you offer free services? What's in it for you?"
We offer a handful of free services to our local community. If you have a package delivered to our site we will accept the package on your behalf and keep it safe until you are ready to pick it up (with some limitations). We also upcycle packaging materials and make it available to future customers for their outbound shipping.
This helps the community in several ways:
- Decreases 'porch pirates' and opportunity thefts of unattended packages.
- Decreased irritation for people who could have had their delivery stolen.
- Real Estate & Home Values: Lower crime rates are correlated to better home sales and home values.
- Fewer thefts mean fewer thieves? Fewer opportunity for thefts means fewer thieves will be floating through the neighborhood looking for their next score. They will hopefully stop trawling through the neighborhoods once they realize the opportunities are decreasing.
- Better for the environment: fewer delivery trucks trekking through the neighborhoods making multiple attempts to deliver a single package that requires a signature or otherwise can't be left unattended.
- Reduced road congestion: improving public transportation timeliness, emergency services timeliness and reducing public transportation costs. Fewer trips on the roadways can also reduce the amount of maintenance required for the roads themselves.
- Condos and Apartments: Many times the courier cannot access the building to drop off a package and are unable to use existing mailslots. Packages can be left in a pile outside the entrance which can be a trip or fire hazard as well as inviting thefts. Most condos and apartments don't have the facilities to be able to keep up to the increasing volumes of online shopping and are turning away deliveries.
- Workplaces are inundated: Some people are redirected their purchases to be delivered to their workplaces. In some cases, the workplaces accepted the additional deliveries in the beginning. Now that the volumes are increasing, more employers are putting policies in place to prevent or penalize employees for having packages sent to work.
Most deliveries don't have a lot of monetary value. They tend to be small impulse buys from late-night online shopping. Some thefts can be catastrophic.
"Caught on Video: Police Searching for 'Porch Pirate' After Package Stolen in Mississauga"
https://www.insauga.com/caught-on-video-police-searching-for-porch-pirate-after-package-stolen-in-mississauga
“Video shows porch pirate stealing Nevada teen's $40K cancer medicine” https://globalnews.ca/news/4948138/porch-pirate-cancer-medicine/
“While there are no Canada-wide statistics on such thefts, a report from InsuranceQuotes indicates 25.9 million Americans had a holiday parcel lifted from their doorstep in 2017, up more than 10 percent from two years prior.” https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/how-to-protect-yourself-from-a-porch-pirate-1.4210280
“Porch pirates: Your home delivery may be stolen” https://globalnews.ca/news/4107272/online-shopping-home-deliveries-thefts/
"Are deliveries to your home making you an easy target for break and enters?"
https://globalnews.ca/news/4370581/mail-home-deliveries-crime-theft/
So we made a choice.
With any new business, it takes a significant investment in marketing and advertising. We decided not to use that budget for conventional advertising. Instead, we use it to support the free services that we offer to the community.
After all, the best advertising is word-of-mouth, right?
We offer free services that help the community. We will continue to keep those services 'free' for as long as we are able. When we are able to consolidate and simplify your shipping & logistics, it can result in purchasing power and better prices for each of us.
The hope is that when you are ready to purchase or send an outbound shipment that you will think of us first.
