Package tracking or package logging is the process of localizing shipping containers, mail and parcel post at different points of time during sorting, warehousing, and package delivery to verify their provenance and to predict and aid delivery. It is a key component of the broader logistics concept of Track and trace.
Package tracking developed historically because it provided customers information about the route of a package and the anticipated date and time of delivery.[Mark Esser Industry Developed Temperature Tracking Device for Packages May Have Climate Metrology Applications NIST Beat, June 7, 2011] This was important because mail delivery often included multiple carriers in varying environmental circumstances, which made it possible for a mail to get lost.[Herbert Joyce The History of the Post Office from Its Establishment Down to 1836. London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1893][Alan Holyoake, Alan Great Britain secured delivery of mail 1450-1862. The Great Britain Philatelic Society, 2012]
Identification
Mail tracking is made possible through
certified mail and
registered mail, additional postal services that require the identity of a piece of mail to be recorded during various points of delivery, so that the sender can obtain a proof of delivery and the receiver can predict the time of delivery.
The service is provided for an additional charge
[ Certified mail USPS][ Registered mail USPS] but recently free service has been introduced as the cost of the associated technology has been decreasing.
[Deborah Young Post office announces free package tracking Staten Island Advance, January 4, 2013]
Initially, a piece of mail was identified by the sending date and the addresses of the sender and the recipient; later came to be used for identification.[James A. Mackay, James A. Registered Mail of the British Isles. Dumfries, Scotland: James A. Mackay, 1982] Traceability has been improved even further by barcode: by non-specific 1D linear barcodes and 2D matrix barcodes and specialized augmented postal codes such as Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique (PLANET), POSTNET (POSTNET) and Intelligent Mail barcode, and other electronic product codes (EPC-s).
Methods
To identify the location of the mail, several methods have been used. One common approach involves scanning the package barcode at various transit points to report its arrival or departure.
[Larry Dingan FedEx couples Google Earth with active package tracking ZDNet, February 23, 2007] Another method is to use a
GPS-based vehicle tracking system to locate the delivery vehicle that contains the package and record it in a real-time database.
For high-value shipments, a more direct tracking method is employed where a small, battery-powered GPS tracking unit is placed inside the parcel itself. This enables continuous, real-time tracking of the specific package, independent of the delivery vehicle, providing an additional layer of security against theft or loss.
As package tracking technologies have evolved, it has also become possible to increase the amount of information and telemetry returned about a package. In addition to location, sensors can also report on temperature, humidity, pressure, acceleration, and exposure to light—factors that are important for delicate or perishable contents.
Querying and reporting
Web-based package tracking has been used from the early days of the
Internet[Laurie Flynn Companies Use Web Hoping to Save Millions New York Times July 17, 1995] to automate customer service and as a cheaper alternative to phone-based
, providing the ability to track the status of a package "within minutes".
The service became quickly popular: for UPS the number of packages tracked on the web increased from 600 a day in 1995
to 3.3 million a day in 1999.
[ U.P.S. Results Meet Forecast, But Fail to Impress Investors New York Times February 1, 2000] On-line package tracking became available for all major carrier companies, and was improved by the emergence of websites that offered consolidated tracking for different mail carriers.
[Saikat Basu 10 Package Tracking Websites for Alternative Ways to Track Your Shipments Makeuseof, August 27, 2010] With the rise of
, package tracking
were able to send tracking info to customers' cell phones. With improved data processing, e-mail programs were able to automatically detect tracking numbers in messages
[Christian Zibreg Mail in iOS 4: Calendar integration, package tracking Geek.com, June 21, 2010] and receipts and print the real time location of the package.
[David Pogue An E-Mail Service With Lots of Smarts New York Times August 8, 2012]
Internal package tracking
Most traditional package tracking systems do not track packages after a package is dropped off at a centralized mail services center with
delivery point, such as the ones used at apartment complexes, college
, corporate
,
post-office box stores and mail and parcel centers. These mail services centers receive all incoming mail and sort it; the mail may then be delivered to individual recipients or the recipients may have to pick up the mail themselves. To cover that gap and track a package at different points within the internal delivery process, specialized internal or "inbound" package tracking systems have been developed.
These systems log in the packages that arrive by recording the items from different carrier companies, the time the delivery is made, the name of the recipient, tracking number and other data. The recipients are notified of the packages or sent reminders. Once the package is received by the end recipient, the systems record the timestamp, the recipient signature and method of authentication and the package is logged out.
Several technologies have evolved with slightly different features (Winn Solutions or WITS, PackageLog, PakLog, SCLogic, TekTrack, Oden Industries, Inc. (PacTrac), WTS by Quadient and others), including patented solutions.[John Cornelius Inbound package tracking systems and methods United states Patents April 8, 2003]
See also
External links
