Incoming parcel management: landscape, trends and challenges
In the last few years, the inbound parcel management landscape has changed dramatically. Companies have seen a large increase in the volume of shipments, in part due to growing e-commerce. The change has also been driven by an increasing number of employee’s having personal deliveries sent to the workplace. These coupled with business-critical shipments, mean many businesses are seeing hundreds of packages being delivered on a daily basis. The challenges associated with accepting, processing and distribution are rising.
How do workspace providers and business premises handle their deliveries? Talking to our customers many have seen an upsurge in inbound parcels. Some businesses still operate in an old fashioned, often manual process, with paper-based records of deliveries requiring time consuming admin, and in some cases manual distribution. Even though deliveries can be critical in almost any type of business, many are unable to efficiently process large volumes of inbound packages. Front of house colleagues often must work under pressure due to the high levels of manual time-consuming tasks, with mail recording, notifying and distribution adding to that. It’s a growing problem and a manual approach to an issue that now has automated solutions available.
For most businesses, these evolving trends can create several management challenges to deal with including:
- Resourcing – It isn’t often possible to dedicate more human resource to the issue, businesses are striving to do more with less, and are looking to invest in time and cost-efficient processes.
- Tracking and distributing- tracking down recipients and distributing parcels can be tricky, especially with large numbers of employees.
- Hybrid working, with more employers using a hybrid work model it can be increasingly difficult to arrange the collection of incoming mail to the office.
- Follow up actions – Keeping track of uncollected mail and repeatedly contacting a recipient can use up valuable time and resources.
- Security issues holding parcels – data privacy and protection are serious issues, distribution to the correct recipient is important, especially for confidential information. A paper-based process can lead to human error and possible accidental breach of confidentiality.
- Safe storage of the goods – when parcels can’t be quickly delivered, deliveries can build up in an unwanted area or makeshift collection point, causing safety and security concerns.
- Personal packages amplify the challenge – employees are concerned about the security of their packages, with many being left at un-secure places at their residence, making the workplace a safer, more convenient delivery location.
- Traceability – all these issues can pose pressure on employees, digitising aspects of the process could protect colleagues through traceable digital records, instead of relying on error-prone, paper-based processes.
- Cost of failure – Lost or stolen packages may have to be replaced, adding an extra drain of resources on top of time lost to unsuccessful delivery attempts, adding further cost to the business.
The need for more efficient inbound parcel management is further driven by an increase in regulations protecting consumer privacy. Ensuring privacy compliance is one of the responsibilities for those taking receipt of shipments. For example, when medical/financial records are delivered, the recipient takes on the responsibility for ensuring privacy compliance as soon as mail lands on their premises.
In the face of this challenge, many business premises are having to reconsider their processes and procedures to better use their staff time and resources. Fortunately, the answer to these inbound parcel management challenges lies in the new technologies available in parcel processing solutions.
Does your organisation handle incoming post deliveries and redistribute parcels or packages?
Why not consider CLARITY PARCELS? Our Android App, designed to simplify management of incoming parcels, from receipt, client allocation and notification through to the final collection. Using the latest Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and name matching algorithms our Android App allows parcels to be scanned, recorded and allocated to a recipient in seconds. Quick and reliable processes, convenience of optional self-service, plus reduced time spent on chasing collections with employees and clients.
Our solution will help you to ensure:
- Easy recording of arriving mail: items are scanned on delivery;
- Automatic notification to recipient for incoming mail;
- Signature capture for Proof-of-Delivery (PoD);
- Fast search and filter (from a day range /time frame, by recipient);
- Full audit trail for Delivered/Collected/Uncollected mail report for any date ranges;
- 24/7 operations;
- Privacy and security.
Does that sound like a solution you may be interested in?
