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“Being a small company and a startup, there’s obviously a lot of challenges,” BufferBox chief executive Mr. McCauley said in an interview.

“So us being able to work very closely with someone like Google allows us to leverage their resources and share vision and combine thoughts and talent together to really make something a lot bigger than we ever would have imagined. We’re really excited to be able to build out that vision quite a bit quicker than we otherwise would have without them onside.”

BufferBox’s service provides users with temporary lockers in central locations which can accept packages sent by online retailers. Users sign up for a BufferBox address, which is provided to the online merchant. When a parcel arrives at one of BufferBox’s self-serve kiosks, the users receives an email and can pick up their package using a one-time-use code. The locker can then be used to store a package from another user.

BufferBox announced last month it had reached a deal with Metrolinx to roll out its self-serve parcel pickup kiosks to GO Transit stations, including Toronto’s Union Station. The company aims to have 100 BufferBoxes installed in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area by the end of 2013. In addition to transit hubs, the company is also working on agreements with grocery and convenience stores.

We think there’s a real exciting space beyond this amazing start with boxes

The company — which graduated from Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator program this summer — is offering the service for free this year to help build up a user base. Eventually the company plans to charge $3 or $4 per package delivered to its boxes.