Eric Ravenscraft
Amazon Locker is a convenient way to get packages delivered, but the company wants to bring it closer to home with Amazon Hub, rolling out now to apartment complexes.
Amazon Hub is a lot like the Amazon Locker service, except it lives somewhere on the grounds of your apartment complex. Instead of choosing it as a specific, outside delivery location (like you have to do with Amazon Locker), packages will simply go directly to the Hub whenever they’re delivered. It’s similar to how your front office might accept packages now, except since it’s a secure locker, you could feasibly access it any time day or night.
If the Hub could only handle Amazon packages, it would still be handy, but the company isn’t stopping there. Amazon wants to offer access to the Hub to “deliveries from any sender” which means you might soon get all your packages in an Amazon-branded locker, even if you didn’t order it from Amazon to begin with. Third-party locker services already exist and some apartment complexes choose to buy from them, but presumably Amazon can offer their locker at a lower price, on top of having easier integration with their own copious deliveries.
According to Amazon, the Hub system is already available to over 500,000 residents (which, frankly, isn’t a lot, but it’s a good start), and reportedly “thousands” are gaining access to one every month. So, if you’ve been wanting an easier way to access your packages, now might be a good time to pester the front office.
Source: TechCrunch
