YOKOHAMA NORTH DOCK, Japan – An automated smart locker system that will soon come to Camp Zama was installed here last week to modernize how personnel retrieve their packages.
The Intelligent Locker System, which is located in the 836th Transportation Battalion headquarters building, has more than 70 smart lockers for mail recipients to securely collect their packages at any time.
“The lockers are going to help both the customers and the postal workers,” said Corey Scott, postal operations chief for Navy Fleet Mail Center Yokohama.
Scott said the system from Pitney Bowes, which is under contract with the U.S. Navy, improves the ability to track parcels since customers will need to use a QR code that is emailed to them to open a locker.
“It’s also convenient for the customer,” he said. “They can come here 24/7 to pick up a package rather than wait for the mail orderly to pick it up and distribute the mail.”
The Military Postal Service Agency recently selected Camp Zama as the system’s test location for U.S. Army Pacific. Patch Barracks in Germany will be the location for U.S. Army Europe and Africa.
The beta testing is expected to last between 90 and 180 days, as the MPSA monitors the volume and usage of the smart lockers.
“Our test results will determine if the rest of the Army receives them, however, Camp Zama will keep them regardless,” said Cedric Davis, chief of the Postal Service Center at Camp Zama.
The installation is currently waiting for the U.S. Postal Service to ship the locker system before testing can begin, he added.
With the Army population at Camp Zama likely to increase in the future, Davis said the system will be critical in helping the mailroom deliver more packages to customers. It can also offer single Soldiers who work at Sagami General Depot the ability to receive packages if the mailroom is closed after they return to Camp Zama from the installation, which can take more than an hour by car depending on traffic.
“[The lockers] will also allow us to process and store more mail since our facility is limited on what capacity we can hold,” he said of the lockers.
Davis added that there are plans to extend the front of the mailroom in the next few years to provide space for even more smart lockers, personal mail receptacles, shelves and working space.
Misa Watanabe, a mail clerk at Camp Zama, was able to familiarize herself with the new system at Yokohama North Dock on Friday.
She said she was excited about the lockers and believed they would make it easier for customers who cannot get their mail during business hours.
“It’s good because sometimes the customer can’t pick up their package by the time we close,” she said.
Scott demonstrated the process to Watanabe, which only takes a few seconds to complete and will notify the U.S. Postal Service that the package was delivered.
“It’s user-friendly because all the customer has to do is scan in their QR code from the email [and a locker opens],” he said. “Just pick up the package, close it up, and they’re done.”
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