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Readers have reported two new Netflx drop points. Todd reports a new drop point in Springfield, Missouri, and Robert reports one in Gaylord, Michigan. Netflix picks up the movies from the drop points at 2am and trucks them to a shipping center for the 4am shift.
By the end of this year Netflix expects to have a total of 50 shipping centers and 50 drop points.
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It would be nice to see what they look like. When I see drop point I think little red mailbox similar to fedex and ups? Am i wrong?
Posted by: fraygos | August 28, 2007 at 06:44 PM
I think they look like a big post office building, which is what they are.
In effect Netflix is replacing a small part of the postal service backbone with their own pickup and delivery trucks, where doing so can shave a day off turnaround time. Those "when did you receive this disc" emails are what give them the information to decide where drop points may be useful.
Posted by: Hunter McDaniel | August 29, 2007 at 08:40 AM
I just hope they do not over do it and are budgeted.
Remember webvan?? with built up grocery products and servers and truck fleet, they were done under ... take alot of cash to keep vehicles in shape ... still it would be cool to see that little red truck driving around ...
Posted by: fraygos | August 29, 2007 at 10:00 AM
There also appears to be a new one in Columbia, MO that opened in the last month or so.
Posted by: Zvebab Ghobar | August 29, 2007 at 10:22 AM
"Remember webvan?? with built up grocery products and servers and truck fleet, they were done under ... take alot of cash to keep vehicles in shape ... still it would be cool to see that little red truck driving around .."
Big difference. WebVan needed their fleet for RESIDENTIAL delivery to individual customers. The Netflix trucks carry tens of thousands of DVDs in a single trip point-to-point. For the last 50 miles to/from your mailbox, it is still gonna be the USPS.
I don't think you see any little red truck, though. According to another article Mike posted a few days ago the trucks are unmarked so no one can follow them back the the distribution center.
Posted by: Hunter McDaniel | August 29, 2007 at 01:08 PM
New drop points are effective and appreciated. In Indian River, (a very small town in northern MI) the post office has a slot delegated for netflix only. At 5pm the red envelopes are kept seperate, and trucked directly to the new drop point in Gaylord MI. (30 miles) They are then picked up by netflix at 2am and taken 150 mi to Lansing MI, the primary shipping center in Michigan.
The net result is one day turnaround, 1/2 of what it was 6wks ago. Keep it up Nflix!!
Posted by: Smits | August 29, 2007 at 09:42 PM
I dont have any drop points in my area but it makes sense. They save return postage on those dropped at their drop points.
And I believe they pay more than regular postage rates on business reply mail.
Id say everytime someone drops off a disc at one of these places it saves NF 45 cents or so.
They probably need to reward customers who use them somehow. Like a buck off for every 10 discs returned that way.
Frankly, I think they would save if they encouraged people to return 2-3 dics in one envelope.
3 might be a bit heavy but 2 wouldnt be a problem and they would save on postage.
Wonder why they dont even TRY ?
Posted by: rjm | September 05, 2007 at 06:35 AM
Why such secrecy over the location of their disribution centers ?
Seems to me they could put little drop off boxes near them.
I guess they dont need customers knocking on the door because they disc didnt play but that could be easily solved by posting on the door that the door wont be answered.
Posted by: rjm | September 05, 2007 at 06:37 AM
Customers don't use drop points. It's a place where the USPS accumulates returns for NetFlix to pick up. There's probably no postage savings there.
It's been widely postulated that NetFlix pays all postage (delivery and return postage) when they send the disk. If that's true, returning two disks in one envelope wouldn't save NetFlix any postage cost.
As for the secrecy of distribution centers, there's really no reason to advertise the location. Customers don't need to know. If NetFlix wanted to set up return boxes, they don't have to locate them near the distribution centers. Locating them near post offices or shopping centers - places where people already go - makes more sense.
There are some good reasons to keep locations secret. An inventory of thousands of DVDs might be a pretty attractive target for theft, and with millions of customers there are probably enough kooks that - at least occasionally - employees would be treated to some harassment as the arrived or left.
Posted by: gir | September 06, 2007 at 07:58 AM
kudos to them for working so hard. I hope they bring up one drop point even near to myh place . Hope to use them more
Posted by: trucking software | December 22, 2007 at 05:03 AM