The next day, I encountered the FedEx driver in person, only because he rang the bell because he had a delivery with a signature required. I asked if he had seen the delivery instructions on my FedEx account and, with a puzzled look, said that he “thought he heard something” when pulling up to my house. It turns out that FedEx’s driver devices provide verbal instructions on where to leave packages (in addition to rather garbled written ones, which he showed me), but that he had the volume on his device turned down. Clad in my bathrobe, I demonstrated the Hyve to him personally and got his buy-in.
The following day, I was thrilled to get a push notification from the Hyve app that FedEx had successfully left a box for me inside. The driver even rang the bell again, only to show me his success with a smile. I tell you, opening that hatch and seeing my package inside was like Christmas morning for both of us.
Alas, on the third day, a fresh FedEx delivery appeared on the porch again. My driver had moved to another route.
But Then …
I was about to give up on the whole shebang when, all of a sudden, something clicked. FedEx, UPS, and Amazon all started using the Hyve locker, and regularly. I soon became accustomed to getting notifications multiple times a day that the box had received a delivery, with my estimation of its usage rate approaching 75 percent. No longer was my doorstep darkened with cardboard, as trips to empty out the Hyve became an undertaking necessary to complete several times a day.
In fact, on some days, the usage level revealed an entirely new problem: A single UPS delivery of a few boxes could fill the locker, leaving no room for anything else. My hopes of leaving for a week and not having to worry about packages were dashed; there’s just not enough space for more than a day or two at most in the bin, given the pace of deliveries at my house.
Early on in my testing, I spoke to Hyve about the usage issues I was experiencing at the time, and its CEO freely admitted that this is, in no uncertain terms, a problem for many homeowners. To combat it, the company provides an adhesive sign that you can use to instruct carriers to use the box, and while this was likely quite helpful at improving usage rates, it’s not a panacea (nor is it particularly attractive).
Photograph: Christopher Null
And over a Zoom call, the CEO showed me another innovation that she said was having even better results: Attaching a placard that reads “Snack Stop” to the top of the lockbox, and stocking a collection of treats like chips and meat sticks inside for hungry drivers, encouraging them to open it up to grab a bite when making their rounds. What delivery driver could possibly say no to a free Slim Jim?