UPS and Latch, which launched a pilot of their Amazon Key-like delivery service in SF and NYC last year, plan to expand to 10 new US cities by mid-year
Molly Price / CNET :
Context & Ripple Effects
UPS first tested this in-building delivery model in New York last year using Latch's smart locks, with a key structural difference from Amazon's approach: the service works at the building level rather than per apartment unit, so a single landlord deal unlocks every door in the property. Scaling from two cities to ten by mid-year turns that pilot into a real footprint.
The move lands squarely against Amazon, which had already pushed its own Key program into garages and 13 additional US cities months earlier. UPS is answering with a different wedge — partnering with the building-access startup instead of selling its own lock hardware.
First-order effects
- UPS gains legal interior access in ten new metro markets without installing its own hardware, while Latch converts each city expansion into distribution for its lock business across entire multifamily properties.
- Property managers in the new cities become the gatekeepers: their decision to adopt Latch determines whether UPS can deliver inside the building at all.
Second-order effects
- Amazon's competing Key rollout forces the comparison onto access models — per-unit hardware versus building-wide partnerships — pushing both sides to court landlords as a customer segment, not just residents.
- Access-constrained rivals without an inside-the-building answer, such as crowdsourced same-day players like Deliv, are left competing on the doorstep where theft and failed-delivery costs stay highest.
Third-order effects
- If building-level access becomes table stakes, last-mile competition shifts from route density to residential-access partnerships, making lock makers like Latch strategic infrastructure for carriers rather than gadget vendors.
- UPS pairing this with its self-driving truck routing work with TuSimple points toward carriers automating both ends of the parcel chain — long-haul linehaul and the final handoff inside the building.
The trend: Last-mile delivery competition is shifting from speed claims to physical access, as carriers race to embed themselves inside residential buildings through lock and landlord partnerships.