Does anyone use/have a parcel box for deliveries?

B

bobbler

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Just having a look at parcel boxes for deliveries, mostly in order that I don't need to get to the door if unwell etc but also to reduce energy and be able to get parcels when I'm already going that way near the door.

Has anyone got or tried one of these?

I think I'd like something reasonably big, and that can be used more than once/a few dropped in before it has to be opened.

I'm basically reliant on deliveries and whilst of course there will be some huge items that it would be silly to try and get a box to accommodate it would be good to hopefully find something big enough for e.g. medium boxes of clothes or toilettries being delivered .

Even better if it can take a few of these, because I tend to have a bad few months and then end up playing catch-up working through everything I've run out of and they all come in the space of a few days

I'd really like something that isn't going to be fiddly or arduous to open too!
 
bobbler said:
Has anyone got or tried one of these?
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I haven't, but I wonder if some of my deliveries would run into problems because they insist on taking a photo with the door open.

It ought to be obvious that this could be done with a parcel box, but I wouldn't have much faith in some of our delivery drivers. They can fail to notice a note next to the doorbell asking them in inch-high letters to deliver it next door, and then there's the Amazon guy whose idea of delivering a parcel is to throw it somewhere near the doorstep, ring the bell, and drive off.

It could be worth trying, though. Even if some of them are too lazy/dim/etc to use it, it might help reduce the number of trips to the door?
 
Some couriers have a ‘leave safe’ option, where you can specify where you want the parcel left, though this would only work with contentious [sorry should read ‘conscientious’] drivers.

I know of a number of friends that get parcels left in sheds left unlocked, another has parcel space set aside in the wood store at the back of their house that offers some protection against the weather and another with a front door away from the road leaves a standard plastic storage box next to the front door. I find the couriers that come regularly to the village have fantastically helpful drivers, indeed one company’s driver lives just down the road from me that I have know for some twenty years. However couriers that come less often or have new or temporary drivers can be problematic.

With one order I only managed to get the item by getting my goddaughter to run across the Green and stand in the road to stop the driver coming back along the wrong fork on the third delivery attempt. This was only possible because the tracking app provided real time location enabling me to see where the van actually was when the driver claimed he was unable to delivery because no one was in.

Some suppliers consistently use the same couriers so are fairly predictable, I can watch out for them from a chair by the bedroom widow and only go down if needed, but others chop and change, in deed with one order with one company they sent the items in three separate parcels two going on different days with one courier and the third by a second courier.
 
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We have a parcel box. It’s not locked but it looks like it would be. For the first few times it was 50/50 whether they put it in the box but now they do. We even have a ‘flag’ that we’ve asked them (a note inside the lid of the box) to put up when they’ve delivered something so we can look out and know it’s there to collect later.

I imagine you could do it with a combination lock and provide the combination in the notes on the package. But you’d still be rolling the dice each time you got someone new delivering.

I’m definitely glad we have our parcel box. We call it a mailbox but it’s big enough to take apple/banana boxes.
 
Subtropical Island said:
We have a parcel box. It’s not locked but it looks like it would be. For the first few times it was 50/50 whether they put it in the box but now they do. We even have a ‘flag’ that we’ve asked them (a note inside the lid of the box) to put up when they’ve delivered something so we can look out and know it’s there to collect later.

I imagine you could do it with a combination lock and provide the combination in the notes on the package. But you’d still be rolling the dice each time you got someone new delivering.

I’m definitely glad we have our parcel box. We call it a mailbox but it’s big enough to take apple/banana boxes.
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Thanks @Subtropical Island

Could I be cheeky and ask whether you can point me to where you got it from? struggling to find one that would definitely take big enough boxes in the sea of 'other' options!
 
I bumped onto the woman who lives at the end of our close today. One day I had to drive down to the turning head to reverse my van because of a delivery lorry , and I noticed she had one of these black bins tucked away behind the ones for recycling and rubbish:

https://www.direct2u.co.uk/wheelie-...eeled-wheelie-bins/120-litre-wheelie-bin.html

It's smaller and not the same colour as those supplied by our council, and @bobbler's post made me wonder about its purpose. So I asked, and it turns out it IS her parcel box. She asks couriers to ring her bell and then drop parcels in it; it's apparently half-filled with old bubble wrap to make it easier to lift stuff out.

She says it's pretty hit and miss as to whether the couriers follow the instructions, but she's used it for over five years and has never had anything stolen. I don't know whether you have a drive or a side path leading to the garden, but it might be a cheap option if you do?


Edited to add: Forgot to say that she apparently has a sticker saying CLINICAL WASTE stuck to it, that she got off eBay!
 
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Kitty said:
I bumped onto the woman who lives at the end of our close today. One day I had to drive down to the turning head to reverse my van because of a delivery lorry , and I noticed she had one of these black bins tucked away behind the ones for recycling and rubbish:

https://www.direct2u.co.uk/wheelie-...eeled-wheelie-bins/120-litre-wheelie-bin.html

It's smaller and not the same colour as those supplied by our council, and @bobbler's post made me wonder about its purpose. So I asked, and it turns out it IS her parcel box. She asks couriers to ring her bell and then drop parcels in it; it's apparently half-filled with old bubble wrap to make it easier to lift stuff out.

She says it's pretty hit and miss as to whether the couriers follow the instructions, but she's used it for over five years and has never had anything stolen. I don't know whether you have a drive or a side path leading to the garden, but it might be a cheap option if you do?


Edited to add: Forgot to say that she apparently has a sticker saying CLINICAL WASTE stuck to it, that she got off eBay!
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What a genius lady - particularly having thought it out as far as the sticker and the bubble wrap (one big issue for me with bins is I'm really stuffed if they stick it at the bottom of a nearly empty bin as I definitely can't get it out without hurting myself)!
 
Kitty said:
I bumped onto the woman who lives at the end of our close today. One day I had to drive down to the turning head to reverse my van because of a delivery lorry , and I noticed she had one of these black bins tucked away behind the ones for recycling and rubbish:

https://www.direct2u.co.uk/wheelie-...eeled-wheelie-bins/120-litre-wheelie-bin.html

It's smaller and not the same colour as those supplied by our council, and @bobbler's post made me wonder about its purpose. So I asked, and it turns out it IS her parcel box. She asks couriers to ring her bell and then drop parcels in it; it's apparently half-filled with old bubble wrap to make it easier to lift stuff out.

She says it's pretty hit and miss as to whether the couriers follow the instructions, but she's used it for over five years and has never had anything stolen. I don't know whether you have a drive or a side path leading to the garden, but it might be a cheap option if you do?


Edited to add: Forgot to say that she apparently has a sticker saying CLINICAL WASTE stuck to it, that she got off eBay!
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I spotted there are small versions 50l
 
I have a plastic waste bin with 'post' written on it (by myself - it has to be rewritten every so often!).

It's like this one:

upload_2023-11-28_14-28-37.jpeg
I have placed rocks in the bottom for when it's very windy.

Bigger parcels are left in my porch, which I didn't have for years until I could afford to have it rebuilt.
 
bobbler said:
Thanks @Subtropical Island

Could I be cheeky and ask whether you can point me to where you got it from? struggling to find one that would definitely take big enough boxes in the sea of 'other' options!
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Sorry, I’m no help there. It’s a fibreglass box we repurposed from something quite specialised. It even has ventilation slats.

But there are a lot of plastic boxes sold so I imagine one would work for you. I must admit, it like that ours is more solid than that as plastic breaks down in UV around here. Maybe a fish crate or chillibin? Fish crates are quite rugged.

We bolted ours to the wood under it and put a little slatted floor in it so, even if there’s water somehow blown into the box, the package is above the bottom. And it helps in getting things out too. Agree that’s all very worth doing.
Ours is just around a corner from where people approach so it’s not a temptation to random passers.

Previous ‘mailbox’ was a very large paint bucket with lid. It had a rock in it and a rock to put on the lid too. We even glued string to the lid (attached to the bucket) so it didn’t get lost. It worked really well for a lot of things but occasionally was too small for some large boxes.
 
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