Package theft in the U.S. is rapidly increasing and three in four Americans have had a package stolen from the front of their home. Delivery theft happens everywhere, but there are some places in the USA that, for whatever reason, are favored by “porch pirates.”
Mail theft has become so rampant in Houston. Click2houston.com reports” The United States Postal Inspection Service has created a Houston mail theft jump team to investigate and try to stop the theft of mail and robberies of mail carriers.”
Unfortunately, brazen instances related to Amazon missing packages and UPS lost packages are common in Houston. It’s time to get your act together to protect your valuable parcels against package theft.
Last stretch delivery issues in Houston and possible solutions
Security.org reports 18% of Texans have had a package stolen in 2022 for a median value of $45. Rising porch piracy is a global billion-dollar problem. Package thefts rise during the holiday season, and some thieves will even follow delivery trucks to scoop up packages as soon as they are delivered. Research showed, since the pandemic, there has been a large increase in online shopping and deliveries. So, naturally, the rise in crime rises with the number of deliveries in a year.
“Two Houston men were arrested Sunday night after College Station police say they were caught stealing mail from a USPS drop box at the College Station postal facility on Harvey Mitchell Parkway.” according to kbtx.com. Elaborating further “They were found with 117 pieces of “individual mail with 76 different return addresses,” and a counterfeit mailbox key used to gain access to the mailbox.”
Missed deliveries are also on the rise in Houston. Instances of missed deliveries happen often. And the impacts are wide-reaching as the cost of a missed delivery affects the carrier, retailer, and consumer. A set of issues that contribute towards missed delivery and missed packages are:
- Incorrect delivery date: Traffic congestion, road construction, and inclement weather along a delivery route can all contribute to a missed delivery date.
- Customer is not present: If the customer is not there to receive a package that requires it, the delivery is missed.
- Wrong address: Sometimes the customer’s address is incomplete or incorrect. This counts as a missed package scenario.
Package thefts are likely to continue increasing as there’s very low risk and very low skill involved, with no actual skill required to walk up and steal a package. Missing deliveries is also unavoidable sometimes as it is not always possible to make oneself available at home to receive your packages.
There are ways to guard against porch pirates. While security cameras can help, they aren’t always a deterrent — which means it’s worth taking other steps as well to ensure the safe arrival of your parcels and avoid FedEx stolen packages, and USPS missed deliveries.
Parcel lockers are locations where couriers (and senders) can drop off parcels for later pick up. Traditional lockers use keys, spreadsheets, and other manual processes. Smart package lockers are the modern solution to manage package, asset delivery and storage demands.
These delivered parcel locker systems enable retailers and logistics agents to achieve the 99% first-time successful delivery rate and are therefore convenient for package recipients as well. There are no doubts that package storage lockers are built for the ultimate package convenience.
There are some restrictions such as the distance the customer has to travel to collect the parcel from a package locker. Also, the delivery agent may either end up putting packages in the wrong locker, with the notification about packages being delivered but not actually mentioning which locker. Package locker systems can be useful, at least until deliveries start overflowing the package locker. This can happen if you have a small package locker for your building’s size, or during times of online shopping frenzy.
Instead of shipping the packages to your home, business or package lockers, why not have them shipped to a package receiving and package acceptance service, who receive parcels on your behalf and keep them in a secure location until you’re ready to pick it up.
Stowfly for meticulous package receiving and package acceptance in Houston
Stowfly, a network of trusted shops and stores is involved with the task of package receiving and package storage at locations closer to you, like a restaurant or convenience store in your neighborhood. You can choose a Stowfly package acceptance location as an alternative address to have your parcels delivered.
Rentals are extremely affordable, starting at $4 per package, $7.50 subscription for up to 5 packages a month and $15 subscription for up to 15 packages a month along with a $1000 insurance policy per package.
Stowfly package receiving and package acceptance makes no distinction in receiving packages from Amazon, Fedex,USPS,UPS and any other online shipping retailer, which makes it a one-stop package delivery destination.
The security of your parcels is of great importance to us. Therefore, a unique pick-up PIN is generated for you once your package is received and you can rest assured that it will not be handed over to anyone else, unless the unique pick-up PIN is shown to our location partner.
Avail the benefits of package receiving services in Houston by Stowfly and discover a great way to get items safely delivered without using your home address to avoid the hassles of missed packages and stolen packages hereafter!
Find out all about the benefits of package receiving and package acceptance for travelers in Houston in this blog.