Element A: PRESENTATION AND JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

Introduction:

With the idea to help improve mailboxes, the team sets out to collect the needed information to confirm the pursuit of the solution to this problem.

Problem Statement:

The people of California have mailboxes that are not efficient enough. Most mailboxes can’t handle larger packages, aren’t convenient enough, and have signs of being vandalized and broken into constantly. Wouldn’t it be better to have a protected mailbox closer to the user’s house, made for larger packages? After major consideration of problem identifications and rooting out what was the probable course of action, the team managed to correlate their findings to a problem of mailboxes.

Problem Background/Statistics:

After two failed problem ideas, the first with automation and the other with glasses, with the assistance of Mrs. Blaske, we came to the conclusion of tackling the mailbox problem. From our survey we noticed that although a small percentage had problems with packages being stolen and/or mailboxes getting vandalized. There was a large percent who want some type of change to be made to the mailbox, either in style, size or security.

Validation

This is a worthy problem to pursue as this affects everyone in one shape or another, either it happens constantly, with money being lost to thieves or people using your handwriting to forge checks to steal money from you. A basic research shows multiple articles of people reporting their items getting stolen. The city also has to pay for this, repairing the damaged mailboxes. This solution will make lives better by not having the risk of your precious items being stolen and comfort in the safety of it. This solution will protect both mail and packages.

Experts

Consumer Surveys and/or Interviews

Chart 1:

This question asked how often was their mailboxes broken or vandalized. This allowed us to check if the problem is in the mailboxes safety compared to it just being out to anyone. We see there is a higher chance, compared to the others, that the mailboxes will be broken/vandalized. So damage to the mailboxes are more likely to happen.

Chart 2:

The participants were asked if at any point, has their mail been stolen. This was a general question to ask and allowed us to find out how often this happened in the range we asked. While most people said no, this is also an influence on the people we interviewed. Which are people in their 13-14s who wouldn't pay attention to this.

Chart 3:

The participants were asked to identify what type of mail was most likely to be stolen if someone was to break into their mailboxes or go to their porches. The most vulnerable mail type is letters. With a majority going for that while larger packages are lease likely to be stolen.

Scholarly Articles

"Mailboxes are protected by federal law and crimes against mailboxes (and the mail inside) are investigated by Postal Inspectors. Those who are convicted of destruction of federal property could spend up to three years in jail and be fined up to $250,000. " (Mailbox)

"As Amazon drives more shopping online, Prime members say they receive on average 51 packages a year, and one in three Americans report having at least one package stolen, resulting in $25 million of lost goods and services every day, according to C+R Research. " (Schoolov)

"29 percent of people have had their package stolen during COVID-19. (Shorr, 2020)" (Package)

Citations

Package Theft Statistics Report 2021. Retrieved September 22, 2021 from https://neighborhoodsquare.com/package-theft-statistics/

Schoolov, K. (2020, January 11th) With package theft at an all-time high, Amazon and others are fighting back. Retrieved September 16, 2021 from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/10/package-theft-how-amazon-google-others-are-fighting-porch-pirates.html

Mailbox vandalism: USPIS. United States Postal Inspection Service. (2020, July 1). Retrieved September 16, 2021, from https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/mailbox-vandalism.

Summary

After research into various articles and the results from our survey, we have decided to work towards a creating a better mailbox that can keep itself from being broken into and destroyed, along with making sure porch pirates doesn't steal anything. Although it may not effect everyone, no one can be blind to the fact it does affect some.

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