Quick question, why simple box for packages on the porch isn't used as a solution against pirates? Delivery people won't put it there? Or it's considered ugly? Or something else? Seems like a quick and effective solution - if pirates can't see that you have a package waiting on a porch, they won't steal it.
The kinds of places you have rampant porch pirates are also the kinds of places the cops will jump at the chance to roll up with five cruisers to harass someone over a negligent discharge.
Too few a proportion of packages are worth anything to be worth the risk. If they were people would rob delivery trucks.
> Package theft (porch pirates) is at an all time high.
People having easily carried valuable items unattended on their porch which is easily accessible to any random passerby for hours at a time is at an all time high.
It used to be somewhat of a hassle to convince a delivery company to leave anything worth more than a few dollars anywhere there wasn't someone to sign for the delivery.
Meanwhile, it is quite stunning to me that European carriers would intentionally mis-deliver (i.e. leave with a neighbor) packages rather than just leaving them on the porch! Over many years and many neighbors, I've had plenty who I would be happy to let receive my packages and plenty I would very much not. Likewise, I would be quite peeved as a permanent WFH-er to be the neighborhood final delivery guy.
There are plenty of places in the US where packages left on the porch aren't secure, but there are also plenty of places where it's completely fine and saves everyone time. I've never once had a package stolen off my porch anywhere from an apartment in the Bay Area to a house on 10 acres in rural Oregon. I really think that the places where package theft is rampant are the exception, not the rule.
What's annoying is that Amazon has started delivering with their own companies; it is relatively easy to tell UPS/FedEx/USPS to mark your address as "always signature/handoff required" and they'll not deliver if they can't contact you - the smaller companies are hit and miss.
I hate blaming the process rather than the "root cause" (that brings people to steal), however, in this particular case it does feel like leaving packages out in the open on porches is setting yourself up for failure. In the Netherlands, where I'm from, if you're not home, they'll ring your neighbor's doorbell and ask them to keep the package for you, and put a piece of paper in your letterbox telling you which neighbor has it. Now, of course if you don't have any neighbors (that are home), that might not work, and I can understand the convenience of just having your package there when you arrive home, but I still feel like a better system might help, here.
Weird how common porch piracy is. I've never had a package stolen from my home in the 22 years I've been ordering online. About once a year I do have one go missing during the delivery process. On tracking the package will get closer and closer and then suddenly go off to some random city and seemingly get stuck there. Amazon is terrible about handling these. Eventually they'll admit the package is missing and send out a replacement. About half the time the original package will show up sometime over the next month, which may be why they're reluctant to send out a replacement in the first place.
Are you upset with Amazon for hypothetically refusing to deliver to your home unless you give them a virtual key fob to your garage?
Let’s just take a step back here and recognise that we’re asking online retailers to leave our deliveries outside our homes, with direct access to members of the public, but we’re also asking for them to assume responsibility if the packages are stolen.
Morally, in isolation, it’s not a very defensible position for the consumer to take. I personally don’t feel so bad about it when it’s Amazon — they can afford it, basically — but in general it’s not realistic for porch pirates to be anyone else’s problem except the consumer’s.
Don't have too much trouble with porch pirates up here on my 2.5 acre property in Alaska. Though, sometimes UPS/FedEx drivers can't make it up my hill in the winter and decide to just lean a package up against a tree. That's annoying because I receive a delivery notification and then have to go hunt for it.
UPS used to do that. I hated it. If I'm not at home I have to wait another day to get my package, or drive across town to get it from the depot.
Just put it on the porch. Not everyone lives in an area with a package theft problem, let those folks work out their own solution but don't punish the rest of us.
Interesting cultural difference? Where I live, packages either: get delivered in person, placed somewhere secure, handed to the neighbours (who sign for it), withheld, or delivered to a service point. They never end up on a porch. And not just because we don't have porches either. Point is, they're not left in public view.
There's currently a problem with "package bandits" that cruise neighborhoods after the UPS and FedEx trucks have been through. They'll hop out of their car and grab your delivery off the front porch. So they don't even have to break-in to steal from you. :(
Why is it standard practice in the US to leave undelivered packages on the porch of people's homes? With the reports of stolen packages and Amazon having to put dummy packages to catch thieves, as a non-American I'm struggling to understand why they don't just put them back in the truck and let you arrange a later delivery or pick-up at the closest parcel centre.
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