New Impression

Opposite the First Canteen stand two long rows of boxes. Those square boxes with a novel appearance are not something of novelties. In fact, they are self-service parcel pickup machines. Having been tested by the shopping frenzy on November 11^th, they demonstrate their ability expectantly. Don’t look down on them, as every day, thousands of express parcels are placed and picked with their help.

The bee boxes in front of the First Canteen

Interestingly, a nickname is given by Chinese: Bee Box, because of its cellular structure resembling a honeycomb. Except for the favorable faces, these boxes win public favor and approval by virtue of practicality and convenience. Students’ deliveries sent to GDUFS will be placed into these boxes when they arrive on campus. Automatically, recipients will be informed via a text message with a code, both of which are necessities of collecting the parcels. Therefore, the recipients can take their parcels whenever they want. Couriers, also, get rid of a heavy workload with the machines’ help. However, the parcels inside are not allowed to be kept without a time limit. If the recipients don’t collect the parcels within three days, they will be taken back and stored in the warehouse. Likewise, the recipients will be informed by a phone call, and the parcels will be withdrawn by express companies if the recipients miss the deadline. It is important to note the deadline to take the parcels to avoid bringing trouble to the express staff.

To people’s delight, with its humanization design, these boxes ensure the timely delivery of parcels, and lower the express staffs’ workload. However, the meanings of their introduction are far beyond that. Thanks to them, the disorderly situation of delivery companies on campus which appeared last year is governed effectively.

Before the “Bee Box” was introduced on a large scale (a small section was installed next to the First Canteen several years ago), there were a lot of parcel pickup sites on campus to meet the demand. The scene of the past is still fresh: thousands of parcels from different express companies spread out over the ground in front of the canteen. Searching for their targets in the vast sea of parcels was always big trouble for students. From express staffs’ side, the placement of parcels on the basis of numerical order and repetitive signatures didn’t taste good. Back then, the installment of “Bee Box” was honored by the great expectations.

Today’s view doesn’t like that of yesterday. The self-service parcel pickup machines have already made a big progress.