Video 'Never Miss Another Delivery' - if You Have a TrackPIN (Video) 85
Tim: So Mark, what is TrackPIN?
Mark: TrackPIN is the world's first In-Garage delivery system. We are literally inventing a whole new market. We just went through the holidays. And a lot of people came back from their vacations and probably saw a lot of packages on their doorstep and that's a big problem. There is theft. It's kind of a new newspaper, people don’t get newspapers anymore, instead they get parcels, and as a result that's kind of like the new tip-off to theft for thieves to understand, yeah, there is somebody on vacation.
Tim: More and more people are using things like Amazon Prime.
Mark: Yeah, I mean, if you are getting double digit growth in e-commerce you are going to get double digit growth in shipments. So, as this enters and intrudes into our lifestyle these inconveniences, it's going to be, there is a market to be had for secure delivery at the home. There are other solutions, there is, I understand there is new services, apps even that allow you to have your shipment sent to somebody else, who then takes it to your house at your convenience, but really nothing beats going directly to your home at no charge—after all that’s what we spent the money on shipping for. And, if you have a garage, there is no reason anymore to have to go through the ordeal of dealing with proof of delivery, the signatures and all the things that come with traditional delivery today.
Tim: Give us the 30-second version of what happens if package comes to your door with UPS guy comes, and what happens if you have the system you’ve created?
Mark: Yeah. So, if you have a system with us right now, if it's UPS or FedEX, it literally shows up on their device. So UPS and FedEX drivers we all know have this device that they are looking down into, it's literally telling them to go to the garage, and when they go to the garage and they open up our garage keypad—that’s a part of our system—it tells them to simply enter the last three digits of the tracking number and then the pound sign and it's a one-time use code, it opens and our system even allows you to put in the settings that it will only open a little bit, you can open it up 22 inches or the whole way depending on the size of the package.
Tim: Your keypad has a separate keypad – it’s not a modification of the existing one?
Mark: Yes, it replaces an existing keypad completely. Our keypad is cloud-based, they are literally cloud-based and so it's real time communication with the cloud, that's why you can have these pins that are dynamic and being generated real-time.
Tim: How does your keypad communicate with the UPS system?
Mark: So, recently, literally in the last few years both FedEX and UPS have come up with what I call delivery managers, UPS, My Choice and FedEX Delivery Manager. They are free online accounts that you can set up and you can give specific instructions to the delivery service. One of those options is garage delivery. And our system helps make that secure. So this is part of their system, that's why they can look in their device and they know what to do. What happens is we instruct you in those same accounts in addition to putting your own e-mail address, your personal e-mail address to put in a private e-mail address that we give you, an In-Garage delivery e-mail address. What happens is they send the tracking number anytime a shipment is generated, it generates the tracking number and it e-mails that to you. When it comes into our server we scan that e-mail automatically, we take the last three digits of the tracking number and we automatically through the cloud program your keypad so it’s ready to receive your deliveries securely in your garage.
Tim: And since it is per order, it’s not a reusable – it’s not a security risk down the road
Mark: Yeah, you have full control over this PIN, you can see it,– it notifies you when the UPS or FedEx driver has come and gone, you have full control over that. You even have control over how high the garage for privacy reasons, maybe you don’t want them to see your Harley Davidson in the back of the garage. Everybody has their own
Tim: Just one PIN?
Mark: Yeah, yeah. So we give you full control, you are always in control of that. You can delete it, if you don’t feel comfortable for whatever reason, you are in full control at anywhere anytime
Tim: And it doesn’t needs to be a package delivery, it could be your friend.
Mark: Yeah. So in addition to In-Garage Delivery which is brand new, it’s a full-blown management systems for access control. I can have it for my housekeeper. I can have it for dry cleaning, but also my son or daughter that I want to have it when they come in at 2 AM I want to know. So yeah it’s a full-blown access system.
Tim: Now you have a garage over herea simulated garage
Mark: Yeah.
Tim: Can you give us a walkthrough and make
Mark: Yeah. Here this is a live system. So you can see in our user interface here, I’ve got three deliveries coming in. And I will take those UPS delivery and act like if I were a delivery driver – UPS delivery driver, I would be instructed by my device to come to the garage and open the garage keypad and then I would read here the last three of the tracking number then pound. So I am going to go right here 0-4-7-£ and it’s going to open and stop, because I have set it here in the settings to 2.5 seconds. And I can set that to whatever and we do it by time because every garage obviously opens and closes at a different rate. So that’s the setting that you’ve got. The delivery driver can easily close it by just hitting the close button. So we make it really simple for him, we’ve been testing this, we’re shipping April 1st but we have had this in several homes in Utah and it’s been going very smoothly, very smoothly. Now I mentioned UPS and FedEx are totally automated, and it is. If you have deliveries coming from the United States Parcel Service or DHL or anybody that has a tracking number you can do it, but it is a one-step process. What happens is when you get that tracking number, you have to forward that email to your In-Garage Delivery email address. And then everything works the same. Also because these same drivers, United States Parcel Services especially don’t have devices, they are going to have to be instructed at the door. So for these types of carriers, we provide a small sign. And the small sign instructs them to go to the garage keypad for further instructions. So it will work with any delivery but it’s totally automated with UPS and FedEx.
Tim: What about compatibility one versus another brand of garage doors?
Mark: Great question. We literally work with basically every garage door type that’s out there. We’re only aware of one garage door type that was built for a few years, several years back that is not compatible. But otherwise we’ve got adapters and whatnot that will work with every garage door opener that’s out there. And our adapters are at no charge.
Tim: You mentioned April 1st as the date, what about price?
Mark: $249. There is no subscription fees. It’s just $249. It’s cloud based. It’s literally a commercial grade access control system and we have this integration where it works with UPS and FedEx and other delivery carriers if you are willing to email, or forward the email.
Tim: And do you have a subscription price or anything?
Mark: None, just $249.
Tim: ...
Mark: Yeah.
Tim: Anything else if people want to find out more?
Mark: If you want to find out more, you go to trackpin.com, we’ve got two videos on there that explain in pretty good detail what and how it works. TrackPIN, it’s going to ship April 1st. We’ve already got everything in line and it’s going to happen. We’re excited to see this new market, really ease the congestion of the last mile of e-commerce. E-commerce is growing and this is one solution that’s going to help ease those last mile constraints.
Tim: You mentioned that you’re testing in Utah, is it also where you’re manufacturing?
Mark: Yes. We’re manufacturing – it’s all manufactured in-house. That’s why I can confidently say we are going to ship April 1st because it’s all done in in-house. We are not waiting on a certain part to be made, it is just a matter of a few logistics in getting things in order to go commercial on April 1st.
Tim: Your background is not engineering.
Mark: No.
Tim: Is this your first invention?
Mark: Yes, this is my first invention. I come from a family of prolific inventors. My grandfather was the inventor of the industrial diamond. So, he was the first man to make real diamond through synthetic means. And my father has carried on his legacy and has close to 700 patents that have been granted to him. And recently, his company, which is primarily in the oil and gas sector, has branched out into the consumer market with this Internet of Things and I’ve always had this idea and that fits that genre for me, and he’s been able to support and capitalize and I’ve been able to use engineers of the company to put this together. So, this is a personal passion of mine and I’m excited to see where it leads.
Solves a different problem I'm not sure exists? (Score:4, Insightful)
I have been home when delivery services have claimed to have attempted delivery
There's no fix for incompetence
Re:Solves a different problem I'm not sure exists? (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly this. I can't get delivery companies to do more than sprint to the door, hang a card and sprint back to their trucks. You pretty much have to be standing on your front lawn and tackle the guy to actually get your package. If you wait for a knock or the bell to ring it's too late.
I'd actually prefer if they wouldn't even bother sending my package out for delivery, if I got an email notification when it hit their depot (like I already do) I could drive straight there and pick up my package a day earlier, as it is I have to wait for them to "attempt delivery" and only after that can I drive to that same depot and pick it up myself. Loading the package on to the truck when the guy has no intention of carrying it to your door (yes, this is common!) is a ridiculous waste of everyone's time.
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UPS has the option of just holding it for you at the depot, and I would guess the other major delivery services do too. Through UPS its called "My Choice."
http://www.ups.com/mychoice/we... [ups.com]
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Unfortunately I live in Canada, we don't have USPS, and Canada Post's options pretty much amount to "Screw you, you're stuck with us!"
I asked if I could have them just hold the packages, and they said no, they must deliver them to the correct address.
We asked if we could get the delivery person to come to the side door of our building (where people can actually hear the door, rather than the front door that nobody is near) and even with a sign telling all delivery people to use the side door, Canada post to
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UPS != USPS. UPS do have a Canadian presence [ups.com].
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Maybe they just don't like you?
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The worst part is, it would be faster for them to just deliver the packages instead of filling out these stupid cards.
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I have a lock box on my porch, that locks when it closes, and requires a key to open. I leave the lid propped open, and when UPS/FedEx/USPS delivers a package, they put it inside and close the lid. It cost a lot less than a $250 TrackPIN. The drawbacks are it doesn't work with packages bigger than the lockbox (18"x18"x30"), or if I get multiple packages on the same day. But 95% of the time, it works fine.
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Exactly this. I can't get delivery companies to do more than sprint to the door, hang a card and sprint back to their trucks. You pretty much have to be standing on your front lawn and tackle the guy to actually get your package. If you wait for a knock or the bell to ring it's too late.
That's only because you don't have a fresh pot of coffee and a plate of freshly baked cookies waiting for your delivery person. If receiving/sending packages is even slightly important to you, you have to start treating your delivery person like Santa Claus once in a while.
After all, why do you think he doesn't take the extra twenty seconds it requires to actually deliver your package? It's probably because he has to make up for the lost twenty minutes he already spent drinking coffee and eating cookies at
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Hm, when the DHL guy finally showed up yesterday, I invited him in for tea--in Swedish, even--but he declined.
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An acquaintance of mine took this concept of hospitality even further, since he usually ships packages every single day from his residential home (which is probably not even permitted because of zoning regulations).
He transformed his garage into his shipping station. He also put out a nice kitchen table and some chairs in the garage with fresh brewing coffee and visibly home-made muffins on the table itself, along with take out coffee cups in case the delivery person doesn't have time to sit down.
If you rea
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Sounds like what I went through this week to get a package from DHL when my employer insisted on sending it to me at home rather than at the office. I guess they thought they were trying to be helpful... *sigh*
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I get my packages delivered to my place of work. There is always someone available to sign for them, and being a business the couriers actually bother to knock because they know someone will answer quickly. They usually have multiple packages anyway.
Every place I have worked does this for staff.
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This works well for FedEx, UPS, and Purolator. But Canada Post can't seem to figure it out. They refuse to read the big sign on the front door that says "all couriers please go to side entrance" and instead hang a card on the front door. Unfortunately the "front" door of this building is nowhere near anyone inside and therefore nobody hears if someone were to knock there.
We asked Canada Post at one point and were told their policy prohibits going to any door other than the front...
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At my previous place of work, it was very common to let packages be delivered at work. However, it added to the workload of the reception desk just before the Christmas season. They were not amused when people ordered large and heavy items like a set of winter tyres ;-)
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If you want something even weirder, just last week I received a package from China from an eBay seller that also required a signature. The funny part is, shipping was free and it was only a 2.50$ item.
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This is actually nothing new. Most electronics locks have had this capability for a very long time already. I've given service people their own pins, that would only work on certain days during certain hours. I've given my friends, my former roommates, and my family their own pins so they could get in whenever they wanted. The system keeps a pretty comprehensive audit trail of who comes in, so if someone gives their pin to someone else, it's usually pretty easy to figure out.
The only difference between that
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Really? This needs to be said?
For people that live in an urban environment - you have this thing called NEIGHBORS. I bet you $100 there is a stay at home person within 2 blocks of anyone living in a city. Befriend them. Be nice to them. Chances are they are bored. It's the ethical thing to do. They will gladly accept your package.
For people that live in a rural environment. Leave it on the back porch. If you don't have a neighbor to receive it, then that means likely there is no one to steal it.
Isn't that person going to get tired of accepting packages for every neighbor in a 2 block radios?
I get so many packages from Amazon that i wouldn't even as a friend to accept them all, let alone a neighbor down the block. What happens with this friendly neighbor when UPS says she signed for 3 packages, but she only gives you two, and your $600 iPhone is the one that's missing. Now you're out $600 because UPS has a signed delivery receipt.
My next door neighbor does work from home, but she usually doesn't bo
Who will sign? (Score:2)
You'll still need to sign for your packages. UPS / FedEx leave packages on my doorstep already when I'm not home. This is alot like the MyQ system (Chamberlain & Liftmaster). You can open your garage door from your phone.
Joseph Elwell.
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So invent your virtual presence verify/signing/security cam app and make a fortune.
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So invent your virtual presence verify/signing/security cam app and make a fortune.
At least for UPS, it already exists. It is called "UPS My Choice". I get an email a few hours before a package is delivered. If it requires a signature, I can click on a link that allows me to e-sign for the package. Then the driver will leave it without a "real" signature.
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wouldn't it be nicers to see live video from the driver or truck showing your house, or maybe the nice neighbor you trust getting the package?
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If they have an electric garage door opener, chances are someone can already get in withou this and with having to crack it. Most often all you need is a coat hanger or two.
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Yes, I'd feel better if this was not about opening a garage, but was used to open something like a drop box where it isn't part of your house, and the package is still safe.
Of course, you could just invent a dead drop box for this too.
I don't think letting people into my garage is a good idea.
And let someone into my garage? (Score:4, Interesting)
Two thoughts:
1) How do you get the one-time TrackPIN to the UPS guy before the fact?
2) Way back when the milkman delivered his eponymous product, there was a small "airlock" built into many houses, with doors open both to the outside and the in. Some sort of mechanism could be developed so as to deliver the package from the airlock to the house.
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1) You could use the last 4 digits of the package tracking number as the delivery driver's PIN, and tell him or her what to do in a note stuck to your front door. Well, *you* could, anyway. These insensitive clods forgot that a lot of us don't have garages, which means their product is useless to us.
2) Leave packages with neighbors, and if they're not home leave them at the trailer park (or apartment or condo ass'n) office. You can stick a note on your door telling the delivery driver what to do. Of course,
What, no Capcha? (Score:2)
1) You could use the last 4 digits of the package tracking number as the delivery driver's PIN, and tell him or her what to do in a note stuck to your front door.
I think they need to have a Capcha as well so the delivery person can prove he's a human not an autonomous drone. Make him do a mathc problem to compute the number.
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Most Amazon boxes are much larger than a tray of milk bottles.
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Most Amazon boxes are much larger than a tray of milk bottles.
Must I mention that this hypothetical modern air-lock does not have to be the size of a tray of milk bottles from three generations ago?
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Yep, a milk bottle tray sized door is not enough to put many packages into the house. Why don't they instead have large containers near houses? They are the size of large trash cans and are often used near public trains to hold bicycles inside them.
The Fedex/UPS delivery guy can place them inside these containers
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The point is that making an "airlock" big enough for a large package creates several major problems.
garage door pads already have one-time PINs (Score:1)
No need for the internet of things to do this. The standard garage door pad for the last 10 years allows both PINs that work N number of times or for N hours.
And you can put one of these keypads on nearly any garage door opener built since 1993!
The problem with this idea is that the UPS guy that comes by and throws your package at the stoop from 7 feet away is not going to take the time to enter a PIN, wait for the garage door to open, put the package in and then enter it again to close the garage door.
If y
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I've already been doing this without this product (Score:2)
Basically the big innovation here is just parsing the email to
delivery people will never do it (Score:5, Insightful)
they have about a second to drop off a package unless it needs a signature. they aren't going to open and close your garage and their employer won't allow them to take on the liability of having the door left open
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UPS can't even find the time to knock or ring the doorbell when they deliver a package so I never know when it shows up.
Yipee (Score:2, Informative)
A paid advertisement disguised as a news story, this stuff matters.
Cheaper solutions exist. (Score:3)
Or a pet door or a cut-out door in the garage door. Works same way, can be locked without a key, but needs a key to open.
Far less complex, as reliable, and added bonus: The body you have hidden in the freezer in the garage would not be accidentally discovered by the deliveryman. (Note to self. Should cut down on watching Investigation Discovery shows.)
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Thanks for that. I do hope you'll let us know what other products you don't need. And if you don't own a TV, we'd love to hear about that, too.
Parcel Lockers (Score:1)
Parcel Lockers [auspost.com.au] as implemented by Australia Post seem like a more practical option. They're sort of like post office boxes but your parcel is placed in any one of the lockers and you're sent a one-time PIN number to unlock the particular locker your parcel is in.
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Amazon Lockers [amazon.com] is something similar. There's a bunch of caveats (it has to be ordered from Amazon, not a partner, etc.) but my roomate used it recently and it worked fine.
here, stranger, steal all my stuff (Score:2)
i won't need to hire movers if i get the right delivery guy
Not in Canada (Score:2)
Where the government is phasing out home mail delivery in favour of "Community Mailboxes"... so now I have to go to the big box in order to collect my frequent junk-mail and occasional important stuff.
Knock harder (Score:2)
Probably a lot of responses will say that the delivery guy never comes up to the door, and probably a lot of them are right, but whatever helps. Some local friends had problems with delivery people knocking too quietly, maybe intentionally, who knows. They put up a sign on their door saying "Knock like this door is everyone who ever wronged you", and suddenly delivery people actually make noise! The novelty factor probably helps more than anything else.
Necessary? (Score:3)
Seriously, with stuff like this, the whole "Internet of Things," and whatnot, I feel like it's every day that I see some new product or service blaring about how awesome and convenient it is. Except we're at the point, in our relatively advanced and spoiled society, where there is very little that is so damned inconvenient that it requires a tech-based solution. "Convenience saturation" or something like that.
Oh, and if Slashdot is going to be advertising shit, at least advertise breakthrough products. This is a "meh" at best on the "gobsmacking tech inventions" scale.
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I'm waiting to be able to get a drone shipped to my house that will fly into my living room with a 3D printer to build the item I ordered online.
Re: What are these Luddites ludding about? (Score:2)
Some guy is showing off 3-D printed cars at the Detroit Auto Show this year.
No thank you. One time PIN? (Score:3)
Welcome to the Party (Score:2)
Sorry, Schalage already ate all the the cheese dip.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UT... [amazon.com]
In addition to the Z-Wave solutions (coupled with iVera for mobile access / refined control including locking and unlocking your door from anywhere) there are tons of existing WiFi, programmable and god why do I still comment on slashdot seriously I'm typing and I can't muster any more smug I'll probably run out of steam midsente..