Residents raise voice against 'overcharging' for parcel lockers

An open letter from Zhong Huan Garden, a residential community in Shanghai, on Sunday urging Hive Box to adjust its "unreasonable" charging policy for package lockers has gone viral online.

Hive Box, which provides temporary storage of express delivery packages, has invited public criticism in recent days for "overcharging" service users. The company announced recently that beginning in May, it will charge for delivery packages that remain stored in its express lockers for more than 12 hours. The public discontent is not because the company is charging for its services, but because it is overcharging.

Such lockers save an express deliveryman's time, as they can drop parcels into these lockers instead of going all the way to the recipients' doorsteps. Hive Box has been charging deliverymen for this efficient service for some time now. But the consumers, who would prefer the goods to be delivered at their doorstep, are loathe to use the locker service and, worse, even pay for it.