Amazon now has 'keys' to thousands of apartment buildings in the U.S.
Amazon.com Inc. is on a mission to gain access to the front lobbies of apartment buildings across the U.S., and is trying to sell landlords on the idea of allowing the installation of a digital "key" allowing their package delivery drivers a way to enter.
The online retail and tech giant's aim is to provide secure and convenient building access for Amazon delivery drivers at apartment buildings and streamline the delivery process for building owners and managers, so their staff or residents don’t need to manually give access each time deliveries are made, a spokesperson told FOX Business.
The initiative, called Key for Business, entails Amazon delivery drivers requesting access to a participating building via an app, and the apartment building door or gate to a community is unlocked only after Amazon confirms the driver's ID, route, GPS location and time of request.
Some landlords who have the key system installed told the Associated Press that the system has reduced the constant buzzing from delivery folks and provides a more secure option than disclosing the building entry code to scores of delivery people. One even said he is so happy with the system he would have paid for Amazon to install it. Amazon would not give the exact number of buildings it has access to, but disclosed that the number is in the thousands.
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As an apartment dweller, I actually like this. In general, the benefit of the Postal Service has been that they are almost always able to get into the building, whereas it's hit or miss with other carriers.
But here's the dirty, little secret about some locked apartment buildings, such as the one I live in. Anyone showing up at the lobby door will automatically get admitted by anyone down there. I do that myself, and frankly,
haven't the faintest idea of what most of the actual residents look like. - I have no doubt though, that in snootier places, in Manhattan for example, the situation is likely to be much different.