Every apartment building now gets parcels every day, and a front desk or a corner of the lobby stops scaling at some point. This page is for owners, asset managers and property managers comparing multifamily package locker offers. It covers the ownership models, the fee structures, courier access and what the amenity is worth. For how many cells a building needs, see the apartment parcel locker sizing guide, which this page does not repeat.
Quick answer
- Three ownership models: buy, lease, or accept lockers placed by a carrier or marketplace. Each one moves cost, control and courier access to a different party.
- Two fee structures: a flat fee per location, or a fee per package. Flat fees stay fixed as deliveries grow. Per-package fees rise with them.
- Courier access decides whether it works. If only some carriers can open the locker, the desk still handles the rest.
- Who pays is a property decision. Absorb it as an amenity, add an amenity fee, or charge per package. Residents notice the last one most.
- KioskForce: lockers sold outright, a flat software fee of around US$100 per location per month, unlimited parcels, no per-package or resident fee. Get a quote.
The three ownership models
| Buy | Lease or subscription | Carrier- or marketplace-placed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the lockers | The property | The vendor or a finance company | The carrier or marketplace |
| Up-front cost | Hardware, freight and installation | Low or none | None |
| Running cost | Software fee | One monthly payment for hardware and software | Usually none to the property; check the terms |
| Which couriers can deliver | Whichever your locker supports | Whichever the vendor’s locker supports | Set by the company that placed it |
| Resident data | Yours, held in your vendor’s software | Held by the vendor | Held by the company that placed it |
| At the end | You keep the lockers | Return, renew or buy out | The company decides on renewal or removal |
| Best when | Long hold, capital available | Cost must sit in the operating budget | The placing company’s deliveries dominate and its terms suit you |
None of these is wrong. The mistake is to compare a purchase price with a monthly lease payment without putting both over the same number of years, or to accept free lockers without reading what the agreement says about the carriers who cannot use them.
Per-package fees vs a flat software fee
Locker software is priced in one of two ways:
- Per package. Each delivery carries a small charge, paid by the property or passed to the resident. The cost tracks usage. It also grows every year that online shopping grows, and it is hard to budget.
- Flat per location. One monthly fee covers every parcel. The cost per parcel falls as volume rises, and there is nothing to recover from residents.
A worked example with round numbers: a building receiving 60 parcels a day, about 1,800 a month, would pay around US$100 a month on our flat fee, roughly US$0.06 per parcel. On any per-package model, multiply your monthly parcels by the quoted rate and compare. The ROI calculator shows the software cost per parcel for your own volume.
Courier access: the question that decides it
A package locker only removes work from the front desk if the couriers who deliver to the building can use it. There are three ways a courier gets in:
- Walk-up at the touchscreen. The driver picks the resident on the screen and the locker opens a cell. No integration with the carrier is needed, so any courier can use it, if that carrier’s local practice allows delivery into a building locker.
- Integrated delivery platforms. A platform reserves a cell through the locker’s API and gives its driver a code. This is how our delivery lockers work for food and grocery platforms.
- Staff loading. Staff receive parcels and load the cells. It still saves the hand-out time and the searching, but not the receiving.
Ask every vendor which of the three its locker supports, and ask your main carriers whether their drivers will use it. Then decide where oversize parcels go, because no locker takes everything.
What the amenity is worth
Package handling shows up in three places on a property’s books and reviews:
- Staff time. Receiving, logging, storing and handing out parcels. The ROI calculator turns your own minutes per parcel and wage into a monthly figure.
- Lost and disputed parcels. A time-stamped drop-off and collection record settles most “it never arrived” claims in minutes.
- Leasing and renewals. Residents compare buildings on convenience. 24/7 collection without waiting for the desk is easy to show on a tour. We do not put a number on this one; use your own leasing data.
Questions to put to every vendor
- Which couriers can deliver without an integration, and how?
- Is the software fee per location or per package? Is anything charged to residents?
- Who owns the resident data, and can we export it?
- What happens at the end of the term: to the hardware, the software and the data?
- Can the locker take chilled grocery deliveries, and at what extra cost?
- Who installs it, who services it, and how is support provided?
- What is the lead time from order to installation?
Our answers: walk-up for any courier plus an API for platforms. A flat software fee of around US$100 per location per month and nothing to residents. Your data, exportable. You own the hardware. Chilled cells built to order. Installation is optional and, in some regions, provided through a local distributor, with support by email. About 8–12 weeks from an approved drawing to dispatch. We are taking reservations for the first production run.
Rough price guide and quote
A small bank of about 10 cells with a courier touchscreen typically comes in at a few thousand US dollars, roughly US$2,000–5,000. A 50–100-cell building system is roughly US$8,000–20,000. Software is a flat monthly fee of around US$100 per location, with no per-parcel or resident fees. Freight, duties and installation are extra, and your quote fixes the price.
Price enquiry · 1 minute
Get a quote for your building
Tell us roughly what you need and we reply with a cell layout, a drawing and a firm price. For the full form with cell sizes and options, use the price enquiry page.
Frequently asked questions
Should a multifamily property buy or lease package lockers?
Buy if you hold the building for the long term and can fund the hardware up front: the lockers become an asset and the only running cost is the software fee. Lease if you need the cost to sit in the operating budget, or want the vendor to carry the hardware risk, and accept paying more over the life of the lockers. Compare both over the period you expect to hold the building, including what happens to the lockers and the software at the end of the lease.
Are free package lockers from a carrier or marketplace worth it?
They can be, if their terms suit your building. Check which couriers can deliver into them, who owns the resident data, whether the property or residents pay anything, how long the agreement runs and who decides where the lockers go and when they are removed. A locker that only one company’s drivers use still leaves every other parcel at the front desk.
Should residents pay for package lockers?
That is a property decision. Some properties absorb the cost as an amenity, some add a monthly amenity fee, and some pricing models charge per package. A per-package charge to residents is the easiest to explain but the hardest to budget, and it puts a price on every delivery. With a flat software fee per location there is nothing per parcel to recover.
How many package lockers does an apartment building need?
Size from parcels, not units: parcels arriving per day times the average time a parcel waits before collection, plus headroom for the busiest days, split by parcel size. Our apartment parcel locker sizing guide walks through the arithmetic with an example.
Do package lockers replace the mailboxes?
No. In the US, the Domestic Mail Manual requires apartment mail receptacles to be USPS-approved and makes the building responsible for buying and maintaining them. A smart package locker sits next to the approved mailboxes and takes parcels from couriers. Whether a postal carrier loads a third-party locker is a local arrangement with the delivering post office.
References
- United States Postal Service — “Domestic Mail Manual 508: Recipient Services”, section 2.1.7 Apartment Mail Receptacles (accessed 3 October 2026). https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/508.htm
Related
- Parcel lockers: the hub, rough price guide and how a delivery runs
- Apartment parcel locker sizing: cell counts, loading models, accessibility
- Parcel locker companies: the types of vendor and how to compare them
- Parcel locker price enquiry
Talk to us about package lockers for your building
Send the unit count, about how many parcels arrive a day and how they are handled today. Use the price enquiry form above, the full price enquiry with cell sizes and options, or email sales@kioskforce.com.
