{"id":559032,"date":"2024-09-05T12:54:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T10:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=559032"},"modified":"2024-09-05T12:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T10:54:47","slug":"bob-box-smart-lockers-pick-up-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet-of-things\/559032-bob-box-smart-lockers-pick-up-steam.html","title":{"rendered":"Bob Box smart lockers pick up steam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bob Group&#8217;s smart locker service \u2014 Bob Box \u2014 is proving popular among residents of South Africa&#8217;s townships, with six locker locations near informal settlements and plans to expand its network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group also has plans to launch a locker-to-locker service, which lets customers send packages from one Bob Box to another, in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;These lockers are definitely gaining popularity. The initial response has been very positive,&#8221; Bob Group head of shipping services, Anita Erasmus, told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;While it&#8217;s still early to pinpoint the exact reasons, we believe it&#8217;s a combination of factors such as the convenience of having a pickup point close to where people live and work and the cost savings associated with using lockers for deliveries, which typically come with lower shipping rates.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The service currently offers six locations near informal settlements in Johannesburg and Cape Town:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Balfour Mall \u2014 Alexandra<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Norkem Corner \u2014 Tembisa<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stoneridge Centre \u2014 Lethabong<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tshwane Regional \u2014 Mamelodi<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Astron Airport City \u2014 Nyanga<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Capricorn \u2014 Coniston Park<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Erasmus said Bob Group is exploring opportunities to launch similar sites in Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She added that the company faced no significant challenges when rolling out its Bob Box smart lockers. It focused on locations in secure and safe places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Our objective is to provide accessible delivery and pickup options for people living in informal settlements while ensuring that these lockers are located in secure and safe spaces,&#8221; said Erasmus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We have also not encountered any security-related incidents at these locations, which is reassuring. This positive outcome is likely due to our careful planning, community engagement, and choosing secure and accessible sites for our lockers.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said the group is committed to maintaining safety and security at its locker locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plans for the service include expanding to more locations and launching a locker-to-locker service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are launching our locker-to-locker service, allowing individuals to send and receive packages directly from one Bob Box locker to another.,&#8221; said Erasmus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This new feature is expected to make our service even more versatile and user-friendly, particularly for individuals in townships and other areas across South Africa.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;By offering this service, we aim to provide a more convenient, affordable, and reliable way for people to send and receive goods, thereby enhancing the overall utility of Bob Box for all users,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Andy-Higgins-Bob-Group-Amazon-is-coming.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-519833\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andy Higgins, Bob Group managing director<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In December 2023, Bob Group managing director Andy Higgins told MyBroadband about the company&#8217;s plans to launch Bob Box, including offering the service to residents in South Africa&#8217;s informal settlements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Higgins believes smart lockers can help increase e-commerce adoption in the country by making it accessible to more people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I really think that this can have a significant impact, especially in the informal areas where you going to be able to have your parcel delivered to a locker or pickup point rather than to a physical address,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lockers are designed and manufactured locally, which enables Bob Box to customise them for the South African market. It is also far cheaper than importing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Why should South Africa, a net exporter of steel, export steel to China only to have it shipped back after it has been bent and moulded into the desired shape?&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A major requirement of the system was that the lockers couldn&#8217;t rely on external power due to load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To achieve this, Bob Group chose Vodacom&#8217;s narrowband Internet of Things network (NB-IoT) for connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We needed a solution that is low power consumption, and secondary to that, also has coverage in the areas where we will place them,&#8221; said Higgins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the company hopes to expand the service to 150 locations by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Group has big plans to expand its Bob Box smart locker systems to more residents in informal settlements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":517991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50977],"tags":[28372,67063,91589,81364,43116,94317,96917],"class_list":["post-559032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-of-things","tag-andy-higgins","tag-anita-erasmus","tag-bob-box","tag-bob-group","tag-nb-iot","tag-smart-locker","tag-vodacom-iot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559069,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559032\/revisions\/559069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}