Front desk and operations
Package control at the condominium front desk: logging, notice and pickup
This guide refers to Brazilian condominium law, in which the building manager is the “síndico”.
With online shopping, the front desk has become a small distribution center. Without a log, the question “has my package arrived?” takes up the doorman's day, and a package handed to the wrong person becomes the condominium's problem.
What the house rules need to say
There is no specific law about packages in condominiums. The house rules set the rules, and once the front desk accepts a package, the condominium takes on its care until delivery. So it is worth writing down:
- whether the front desk accepts packages, and of what size;
- where they are kept;
- who can pick up on behalf of the unit;
- for how many days the front desk keeps them, and what happens afterwards;
- what to do with perishables and large items.
The path of a well-handled package
- Log it on arrival: for which unit, for whom, from which carrier, at what time and who received it.
- Notify the resident: right away, without depending on the intercom.
- Store it in an identified place: so any doorman on shift can find the package.
- Hand it over only to someone allowed to pick up: and record who picked it up and when.
- Follow up on what is left sitting: a package forgotten for weeks takes up space and raises questions.
Where control tends to fail
- Logbook. Illegible handwriting, a soaked page and no way to search when the resident asks.
- A resident who does not know it arrived. The package sits at the front desk for days because the notice never arrived.
- Handed to the wrong person. The neighbor “picks it up for me”, and afterwards nobody knows where the package ended up.
- Shift change. The night doorman does not know what the morning one received.
How Tribô handles packages
Logging in a few taps
The doorman logs the package and the system records the name of who received it. The record has:
- the unit, or the condominium itself, for what belongs to the building;
- who it is for: a resident or the whole unit;
- the carrier and how many items arrived;
- a note, such as “needs a refrigerator”;
- a photo of the item, if you like.
You can log one after another, without going back to the start.
The resident knows right away
Whoever is named on the package receives the notice in the notification bell and by e-mail. When it is for the unit, all of its residents receive it. In the portal, the resident sees what is waiting for them and until when it is kept. When nobody named has access to Tribô, the front desk sees that the notice did not arrive and knows it needs to call.
Pickup only by someone allowed to pick up
The management company chooses, for each condominium, how the front desk verifies the pickup:
- the doorman chooses, among the unit's residents, who is picking up;
- the resident gives a 4-digit code, which only they see in the portal;
- code and a finger signature on the screen.
All of the unit's packages go out at once, and it is recorded who handed them over, who picked them up and when. The unit's residents are told who picked up.
Nothing gets forgotten
Each condominium sets for how many days the front desk keeps packages. The resident receives reminders before the deadline ends, and the front desk list shows the stalled packages first, with how many days past the deadline they are.
