Student Housing Business

JAN-FEB 2017

Student Housing Business is the voice of the student housing industry.

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MAIL & PACKAGE DELIVERY January/February 2017 StudentHousingBusiness.com 64 tant piece for students who live on their phones. They want access to their packages, and our mobile app and lockers deliver that instant gratification and access." Package Concierge has pro- cessed almost five million pack- ages since bringing its package lockers to market in 2012. Oliver says she can drill into and parse data for each property and easily see how many pack- ages are in a community's system, how many have not been picked up after five days, average locker activity, which carriers are doing the bulk of delivery activity, and several other data points. "This data is invaluable to an owner/operator," Oliver says. "It provides greater transparency into their package needs, how the amenity is resounding with resi- dents and how the systems are improving overall workflow for the on-site staff." At Oaks on the Square, a 616- bed property owned by EdR near the University of Connecticut, stu- dents received 3,140 packages in October. Oliver calculates that 90 percent of the students who live in the community are using the lockers, which she says is roughly a 10 percent higher adoption rate than at market rate communities. Luxer One also offers a dash- board of reports. It cites one client whose ROI on a package locker system at an 1,800-bed property was 276 hours of labor per month. "We prefer and use package locker systems at some proper- ties," says Laurie Lyons, partner with Cardinal Group Manage- ment, which manages approxi- mately 15,000 beds nationwide. In the fourth quarter of 2016, Cardi- nal Group processed more than 38,000 packages. Lyons says after lockers are installed, her staff spends about 75 percent less time dealing with packages. "The time team mem- bers spend on packages is a costly amount," she says, "especially if you consider any lost phone calls or potential sales because they are in a back closet searching for a package. The cost of one lost lease could easily be $15,000. I have also seen many operators increase office hours two nights a week to be open for residents to pick up packages. This adds to the payroll burden substantially." The Future of the Last Mile Meddin says the bulk of the burden lives in what the shipping industry calls "the last mile." "The final get-in-your-hand part is the most expensive part," he says. "In the apartment world, you've now got a last mile scenar- io you've never had before. Leas- ing offices have become respon- sible for the last mile. They have to accept packages, get residents' attention that they have arrived, store it, deliver it." Meddin says some clients opt to use locker or package room solu- tions as an income stream, which could include a one-time amenity fee, a return package fee or a per package fee. "It can solve a prob- lem and be profitable. Most soft- ware options, lockers and rooms have the ability to give you the data you need to charge such fees and turn it into ancillary income." According to Oliver, the benefits go beyond ancillary income fees. "Students are recognizing the value of an easy-to-use package management system," says Oli- ver. "At Oaks on the Square alone, close to 70 percent of residents indicated that the package lockers positively impacted their decision to renew their lease. Now that's a true return on investment that will have immediate impact on operations and revenue." In the future, delivering pack- ages could become just as auto- matic as receiving and distributing is becoming today. Many devel- opers and architects are examin- ing whether — and how — drones could become a reality in the mul- tifamily environment. Among the possible impacts for student hous- ing: how should student projects be designed and built should aerial or ground drone deliveries of packages become a common occurrence? In December 2016, Amazon Prime Air delivered its first pack- age via drone in Cambridge, England. Amazon Prime Air is a service that will deliver packages weighing up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using small drones. The first delivery took 13 minutes. The service is expected to grow depending on local regu- lations in each delivery area. The program is currently in a testing period. "Drones are definitely coming," Oliver says. "In 2016 architects began adding drone landing pads into design plans for new apart- ment construction. And a few of our developer clients are on- board with adding drone landing pads to their rooftops for Amazon or other carriers." Oliver says other futuristic items on the way include peer- to-peer technology for deliver- ies. "We developed technology that residents can use via a smart phone to receive packages from anyone they authorize — includ- ing one-time deliveries. With the constant changes in Amazon driv- ers, we need the ability to accept packages from virtually anyone." SHB info@packageconcierge.com 1.888.989.7225 The Package Concierge system provides round-the-clock, hassle-free delivery, storage and retrieval of packages. Property Managers, Residents, and Delivery Carriers all agree that the Package Concierge solution is a valuable amenity for property operations. ConvenienCe by Package Concierge GEORGIANNA OLIVER Founder and CEO, Package Concierge LAURIE LYONS Partner, Cardinal Group Management

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