My Idea For the Future of Shipping

So we all buy stuff on the internet. We do eBay, Amazon, we buy electronics cheaper over the internet than we could get in a store.
And now we can even order groceries over the internet instead of going to the store.
I like that very much. Maybe the future is that we won't have to go to stores to buy things any more, but just have most things shipped.
I think shipping facilities that don't have to be in the center of cities are a more efficient allocation of resources than to run retail stores. Which will reflect itself in prices of products.
Those valuable business spaces, often in city-centers and other areas near crowded population centers, could be put to more valuable uses.
Plus there is an environmental benefit to not driving to the retail store individually, but having more goods in fewer cars, with efficient supply routes.

So I was thinking, where is the bottleneck with shipping things? I think the bottleneck is that we have to individually be home to receive those things. The mailman has to wait in front of the door until we open. And if we aren't at home he has to come again later.
So in order to eliminate that bottleneck, here's my idea.

Each residential area has a shipment delivery room. So that each resident can comfortably reach it on foot. It could even be at a residents garage, who gets paid for that service.
The delivery man will place all packages for that residential area in the room at once. He makes a note in his console, which notifies his company, which has a list of what shipments he delivered in a computer. Those residents that received a shipment will get an email that tells them that their package has been delivered.
Each resident has a card which allows him access to the delivery room. The resident can take his or her shipment, and an RSA chip on each shipment will secure that only the right people take shipments that belongs to them or their family. That room is equipped with a little computer at the door, that will read the RSA chip.

That way we eliminate the bottleneck of having to be home to individually get packages. It would take off a major part of shipping costs also.

Then you have people stealing RSA chips to get packages instead of just packages. There are two other things I dislike about this: People like to be in charge of their purchases' security, and people wouldn't want to pay extra to build a residential shipping room when most people are content with the current system.

Thanks for the response.

My mistake, I meant RFID chips. They would be in the packaging, and I don't quite see who could steal what there.
The chips individually identify the shipment and the room has a RFID reader and a computer that has a list of who may take what. And maybe notice if someone rips open a package.
And there's a camera and an alarm. We already rely all over society that people won't just take stuff with brute force. People could just walk into a store and take a box and run away, but they don't seem to do that.
And I haven't figured out all the specifics yet, maybe there's a technical way to make sure what's in the shipment can't be separated from the chip.

Your other objection: That people like to be in charge.
I don't see how they are less in charge. There's just a "middle man" between them and the guy who brings the delivery.
We let our cars stand outside at night where we can't see them, we trust some stranger with our children at the day care center, but not receiving our internet orders by the delivery man personally is too much of a loss in control?
Don't we already let our mail sit in mailboxes where it could be stolen?

As for the cost, the technology needed is not high cost. It would save so much off shipping prices, that both the shipping companies and the residents would have incentive to arrange for a room. It's a cost-saver.
It might just become a normal part of infrastructure like trash containers and garages.
Also we could put the shipments we wish to send in that room, and the delivery man would take them when he brings shipments.
Yes, we are content with the current system, just as we were content with horses before cars. Nonetheless it's an inefficient allocation of societies resources that instead could be allocated to raise the standard of living of society, instead of being wasted:
- Having shipments be driven around a few times until the recipient is at home.
- Having shipping companies make inefficient routes at inefficient times of day to be able to deliver when people are at home.
- Delivering to people individually instead of to one place for an entire residential neighborhood.
- Having expensive educated people spend their time driving to retail stores. Think about a heart surgeon. Instead of spending time driving to the store he could have free time. Then he will be able to make better/more heart surgery resulting in falling cost of heart surgery and it being available to more people at lower cost.

We let our cars stand outside at night where we can't see them, we trust some stranger with our children at the day care center, but not receiving our internet orders by the delivery man personally is too much of a loss in control?
Don't we already let our mail sit in mailboxes where it could be stolen?

People buy garage doors, people expect the day care center to have good standing in the community, people have mailboxes with slots in them (my parents do for one). There is a balance between risk and reward. If you can balance that risk, your idea would have merit, but if you can't market that idea, your idea would essentially be a dud.

I see some merit in the idea, I know I've been fairly critical, but I think it helps work out any kinks, for one, and keeps things practical.

I suppose there is one other thing, resistance to change. Unless you can convince a lot of people that this is a big step for the shipping industry, it would never go anywhere.

I thought you meant RFID, but I couldn't remember the word at the time. What I was addressing was how do you determine who is coming and going from the room, with their own personal RFID tag cards? If this is the case you have the problem of someone being able to recreate the tag by using an RFID tag reader. If you post someone at the residential shipping place, then you add on extra cost.

Agree on that last part. And I'm not a delivery firm executive, so we don't really have to figure out all the specific kinks of it. I just wanted to write down the general idea.
I suppose a lot of it depends on technical and logistical questions, which I can't judge now.

I think the main important aspect of this is that it can work as a incremental collaboration because all parts benefit. Both residents and delivery companies have incentive to do this. It doesn't require any great societal change or political decision from above.
Residents might like a larger portion of their personal logistics to be in the form of getting things shipped to them, instead of going out to buy it. Landlords might want to offer it to residents to compete with other landlords. And delivery firms want the lower cost, which will mean a higher rate of return for them at first, but one this becomes standard competition will relay the savings to the consumer.



That's what I mean, I don't really have to convince anyone. Once RFID chips get cheaper and more common, this could be attempted in a few places. And if it is a benefit to the people involved it will pop up in more places.
Of course there are limitations, it of course only makes sense where there is a high population density and a relatively safe neighborhood.



I picture the room being locked, and people get in with a access-card or a key-pad. Don't we already have a bunch of cards that grant us access to different places? That's technology that's already quite common.
A computer would register who entered the room and the RFID chip reader would notice what packages get removed.

We also could be making the storage facility an out of proportion thing. In the same way mailboxes are stacked together at the beginning of a long country road, so could somewhat small storage containers be stacked at the entrance to a neighborhood, only you would have locks to each person's container, and give a master key to UPS, USPS, Fedex, etc... when a package arrives a flag is turned down so you know when you enter the neighborhood whether or not to stop.
(also if a master key was used you'd know any theft was an inside job)

In this sense you use what is already in place, without putting much extra cost on the consumer.

Part of the way to combat crime is to make it so the criminal doesn't know what he's getting for his effort. So locks would be all that is needed because who is going to risk getting caught commiting a federal offense when they could just be robbing someone of their new ten dollar screwdriver set, lol.

You have a good idea, but it may be easier for a neighborhood to solely fund than for them to pay a company to do it. This would bypass problems with residential zoning and allow the neighborhood to have a more direct say in how expensive the project is.

If the above was the case, then you could still pitch the idea, but it may be more effective a pitch to contractors or people who make a profit off of making new residential areas, or even a pitch to neighborhoods with you as the installer.

Yes, correct. I like it. It doesn't require all packages to be equipped with chips.
Also that storage facility could have a cooled area, for shipped food.

I think the main problem is this: It needs quite a large capacity, when many people are supposed to ship everything they get instead of buying it. All the while it needs to be somewhat safe against the wrong people getting a hold of shipments. A station with large capacity would be unsafe and one with compartments to offer safety would have small capacity.

Good points. Sounds like it is a matter of catering to society at large, and you are attempting to look into the future, so if you were right, your storage idea would be better equipped to service shipping companies since you predicted the rise in shipments to the home.