Porch piracy is on the rise. Failed package delivery attempts are costly, not least in terms of customer relations. People are moving back to working in offices, away from home, where they were reliably available to receive deliveries. Is it finally time to look for growth in lockers in convenient locations that receive and dispense packages in the U.S.?

According to the Infinity Business Insights’ Global Smart Parcel Locker Market Research Report, released July 9, the smart parcel locker market is experiencing rapid growth due to the increasing demand for efficient and secure package delivery solutions. Package lockers are generally a greener solution, too, reducing miles driven by delivery vans to individual homes.

True, there are upwards of 40,000 Amazon Lockers across dozens of major metropolitan areas in the U.S., mostly at Whole Foods Markets and other stores and outlets, offering self-service kiosks that securely holds Amazon packages until the recipient picks them up. UPS offers Access Points lockers, while FedEx Corp. has locker program OnSite. Between the two, they have an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 package lockers. And then, of course, there’s the trusty locker service at USPS locations. But considering the sheer volume of packages being delivered to U.S. consumers — the average American household received 162 packages in 2022, which is 55% higher than the global average, according to Capital One Shopping — it seems odd that there aren’t more.

This was the subject of a Roundtable at the Home Delivery World 2024 Conference in Philadelphia, June 5-6, sponsored by Danish parcel locker operator SwipBox, “Dispelling Myths About Package Lockers.” SwipBox has teamed with postal services and other delivery services, beginning in the Nordic countries, but now in Southern and Eastern Europe. The company announced in September 2023 that it had installed its 40,000^th locker.

“Amazon has created a monster, and the shipper ends up paying for it,” said Audi Feiferé, director of strategic partnerships at SwipBox International A/S. “Why haven’t the costs driven away home deliveries?” German and Danish postal services have favored delivery lockers to the point of closing post offices, and many European cities are clamping down on the proliferation of half-empty home delivery trucks clogging inner city streets. This includes Barcelona, which is introducing a “pioneering tax” to redress the negative impacts of the increase in parcel deliveries by delivery companies with over €1 million ($1.08 million) in annual revenue — including delivery sub-contractors — by regulating the use of public space by these companies, which was previously free.

“Is this the future of package delivery?” mused Jack T. Ampuja, executive in residence at Niagara University and president of Supply Chain Optimizers in Buffalo, New York. “The old model is not going away, but that model produces large numbers of packages from the DC to the consumer that could be consolidated.”

SwipBox says it is in discussion with various stakeholders in the U.S. and Canada regarding installation of its lockers, which do not require electricity or Wi-Fi.

And, in any case, the needle may be moving at last. In April 2024, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez together launched LockerNYC, a free pilot program that will utilize lockers installed on public sidewalks throughout multiple boroughs to allow New Yorkers to receive secure package deliveries. 

At the launch, they cited the alarming statistic that each day, 90,000 packages are reported stolen or lost in transit in New York City, as many buildings lack secure areas for package deliveries. The LockerNYC pilot includes seven units, each with the capacity to securely hold 25 packages at a time and has the potential to further expand during 2024.

Certainly, it seems that a push towards greater utilization of package lockers will be driven by municipalities rather than private companies. “Ultimately, it will be driven by cost,” observed Ampuja.