Trivial matter that piqued my curiosity

November 4, 2015 9:11 AM

How does the status sign on an isolated FedEx drop box change back to "not picked up yet"?

If I go to the FedEx drop box after 5 pm, the status indicator sign on the box says that the pick-up has already occurred.

For a drop box that is not inside or in front of a FedEx store but rather is just on a street somewhere, how and when does that sign get changed back to indicate that the pick-up has not occurred yet? Does a FedEx driver go by there late at night or in the early morning? Or does it somehow change automatically?

posted by Dansaman to Work & Money (1 answer total)

The drop box has some electronics in it for locking and unlocking. The FedEx driver's handheld device uses infrared to send an unlock signal to the box, and this also changes the status indicator. The electronics change it back later (probably in the middle of the night?). It seems a bit overengineered but the whole FedEx system was designed in the 80s when everyone was putting microcontrollers in everything. I suppose the real purpose is so they can be absolutely sure which employee unlocked the box and took the contents in case something is lost or stolen. Here's an article that tangentially mentions this and says they are trying to switch to newer drop boxes with Bluetooth.
posted by miyabo at 9:24 AM on November 4, 2015 [6 favorites]