(W)UPS - Package Tracking Usability

We have all been in a situation where we have bought something so far away that we need help getting it. This is where the great people of UPS, FedEx or DHL come in and take care of all the transporting. They even offer you a way to track your shipment as it travels - like this:

Or this:

But, that - the tracking service - is not very usable.

This is not what we want. We don't care that they have to scan it every time it changes handler, truck or just being moved a few feet to the left. We want to know that our package is on the move and that it is coming in our general direction. We want to know if something goes wrong and what is being done about it.

We want simplicity, easiness, and visible clues. We want a tracking system focused on our needs.

A usable package tracking solution

Instead the complex hard to read text above - consider this:

It is a simple box, providing you with all the information you want. You can see that it is on the move, when it will arrive, what date - and, most importantly, where it is "in flight from Chicago to Paris".

A simple box that continually updates as your package travels around the world.

If something bad should happen, the same box will change color and message to explain the situation. Like if Chicago O'Hara Airport where to be covered with snow:

...or when something really bad happens:

This will provide us with a usable package tracking solution. It is simpler than what we got now - and yet it provides more information.

Showing the route

A nice addition is the ability to see the actual route your package is going to take. By clicking on the tracking box it could expand and show a more advanced view.

There are a number of important things to notice:

Package tracking should be from where you bought the product and too your home. This is why the first item illustrates the sender handling your order - in this case "Amazon.com". This is very important because you did not buy the product from FedEx, you got it from Amazon.com. Package tracking must illustrate the complete route.

The numbers illustrate the main locations and actions the package must go trough. Any internal transport is left out - like moving the package from the truck to the sorting facility to the Airplane in Chicago (it has no value to us).

The arrow indicates the current location. Green indicates "no problem", Yellow "slight problems", red "a Disaster happened", dark-gray indicates "future destinations", and light-gray "cancelled destinations".

Showing problems on route

Like with the main tracking box, you should also be able to see problems on route. When Chicago is hit by snow you see this:

Yellow indicates a slight problem, but does not alter the overall route

When the package is damaged...

Notice: the subsequent destinations has been cancelled

...or if the plane crashes in mid-flight with your package onboard.

Notice: the current location is "on route by air (accident)", the destination (4) reports package lost and any subsequent destinations has been cancelled

An additional option would be to add an information box, if a big problem arises.

Signature visibility

Another important addition would be to display the signature from when the package was delivered. I cannot count the number of times a package has not arrived only to find that somebody else have signed for it (and forgot to bring it too me).

Displaying the signature would solve most of these problems (and it should be easy to do, since most parcel services use digital devices these days).

This would turn package tracking into a usable experience. Most importantly, it is focused on our needs.

Comments

jerrit - Oct. 12, 2006

they already do this, i work for a major world wide freight forwarded and I get daily email updates on all of that.

Anonymous - Oct. 12, 2006

Cool idea!

Jordon - Oct. 12, 2006

This would be so awesome if they did this.

It wouldn't be hard at all to implement either...

Jordon - Oct. 12, 2006

This would be so awesome if they did this.

It wouldn't be hard at all to implement either... The technology is there, all they need is that nice UI you showed.

Phire - Oct. 12, 2006

wow, you get so much more information than me, All I ever get is:

Picked up at 10:04am, Tuesday 24th may

delivered at 2:32pm, Wednesday 25 may, Signed by...

Anonymous - Oct. 12, 2006

When my package is out on the truck for delivery to me, I want to see one thing, GPS. I want to know if the truck is around the corner or across town. Nobody does that one yet that I know of.

yongfook - Oct. 12, 2006

So basically all tracking systems just need rounded corners, gradients and drop shadows? Web2.0-tastic!!!!111

Colour-coding makes sense, but I feel that this is already implemented in some of the tracking systems I've used - or at least status icons (which follow the same visual-cue ideology as colour-coding).

Matt - Oct. 12, 2006

I want a GPS tracked route super-imposed over a Google map updated at least every 15 - 20 min (Real-time would be awesome too). Now thats what I would call some sweet package tracking!

p0rn - Oct. 12, 2006

i like the plain-text tracking they already do. i don't need this interpretive layer. rofl, i know how to read. i suppose some morons don't ... LOL

Joe Literate - Oct. 12, 2006

Ditto, I had to get maybe halfway down before I realized this wasn't just a CSS layout or something that they were proposing. If you can't get along with the present situation, pop open your crayon box and color the table rows green as they come up. Yeah, on your monitor, don't worry, it'll go away when you close the window. :-P

Suckers.

Jeff - Oct. 12, 2006

As matt says, realt=ime gps tracking overlayed with google overlayed with your nice notices would be the "killer" app, especially if it could track multiple packages from different providers all at once.

(Note, the package wouldn't need to have GPS, just the plane/truck carrying it, with an association to the package->vehicle in place it'd be easy.)

Ahh, dreams.

Koolio - Oct. 12, 2006

Very AJAXian, nice!

Dan - Oct. 12, 2006

I personally would love to have GPS real-time tracking, but there are security issues at hand. Playing devil's advocate, you could easily see that one could use such a system for a strategic bombing that is handled through the mail. Think Uni-bomber 2.0. I wish we lived in a system that allowed for such tracking - I love knowing how far away my Newegg purchases are.

Good work on the presentation though. It looks stunning, and as a desktop widget, talk about amazing.

Kevin M. Covert - Oct. 12, 2006

"Are you messing with my dots???"

Andrew L. - Oct. 12, 2006

Wishful thinking at best.

Mike - Oct. 12, 2006

Another thing is it's always unclear what time zone the places are in and usually the times are the time in that time zone. Times should be relative to the person tracking the package.

Roger - Oct. 12, 2006

Umm... aren't you forgetting something? By providing a signature, you are assisting check forgers and identity thieves. The USPS doesn't release the signature scans it collects, but allows access to certain employees only.

Bernie Schlebbers - Oct. 12, 2006

LOL it's actually the same with nicer graphics

Anonymous - Oct. 13, 2006

work on to/too

secret - Oct. 13, 2006

I would throw in GPS on every truck, so you can visually see where the package is.

Greg - Oct. 13, 2006

Nice article, and nice idea. When I saw the headline on digg I was expecting to see something about GPS tracking. I'd like to see "dots" of my packages in route, but that may be asking too much. With every departure and arrival scan being electronic these days, I wouldn't think companies with the funds like UPS, FedEx, and DHL would have any problems implementing something like this. Its a good, value added service to their customers.

Scott - Oct. 13, 2006

How about you track it and put it on a map. Isn't that what tracking is?

koo - Oct. 13, 2006

thats a nice web 2.0 solution to it, visually. But it will be a while until someone would actually be willing to front the money for those kind of changes. They already do it on their end. For it to come to us, its all about cost.

warui - Oct. 13, 2006

These companies won't put GPS devices on their trucks simply because of fear some customer out there that simply cannot wait, will go out and search for the delivery truck and ask for their package.

Joe - Oct. 13, 2006

I think having an estimated time would be nice... like a time frame window. Such as between 2 and 4pm or maybe be able to sign it online, and leave special instructions. Like leave it at the back door, or leave it with next door neighbor

Andy - Oct. 13, 2006

I work for FedEx, and there's a lot of this data that we already know. Who needs GPS when I know the location of the last package delivered? It's actually a LOT more definitive than GPS - take for example a highrise office building. Our couriers deliver packages for a couple of hours, and the truck is parked in a parking structure. What happens to the GPS then? Toast. But the handheld they are using is sending data back continuously, and you can see the floor/maildrop that the courier last dropped packages at. It's internal info only at this point, but quite honestly, it wouldn't be too hard to externalize it.

Having said that, I do like the UI suggestion, and I could see it being used by our partners on their sites. Additionally, it could be a desktop widget as well - something plugged into Google Desktop, etc. You'd enter the number of the package you want to track, and it gets watched from start to finish.

Jeff - Oct. 13, 2006

Love it. How do we tell the shipping companies and vendors to do it???

dr - Oct. 14, 2006

this looks wonderful and well thought out. i can't wait to see the evolution of user interfaces and information systems that will be coming in the near future....

by the way, it's "en route". pronounced "on root" :)

or pronounced "on rout" if you wanna say it à l'americaine. but still spelled "en route."

thanks for the great ideas!

Thomas Baekdal - Oct. 14, 2006

A lot of very good comment, thanks!

As for the GPS, then I would be a very cool thing, but not entirely practical. Seeing the physical location of a package on a map does not really tell us anything about when it will arrive.

Anonymous - Oct. 15, 2006

Yeah, they may already make the information available, but whenever I go online to check for my delivery updates the interface is normally very poor as shown at the top of this page. The information is there, but how it is displayed leaves a lot to be desired.

If you work for a major world wide frieght company... how about you suggest they give their online tracking pages a face lift as suggested here. I'm sure your customers would thank you for it.

Me - Oct. 18, 2006

It's spelled: TO me, not TOO me.

Webmaster - Oct. 19, 2006

Track your packages with Google Maps and RSS feeds! Track UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL. PackageMapping.com really works and is free to the public. See where your package is as it makes its way across the map. Check it out and bookmark it!

http://www.PackageMapping.com

Great Idea - Feb. 15, 2007

Great Idea. A previous person that works at fedex wrote "there's a lot of this data that we already know. Who needs GPS when I know the location of the last package delivered?' Well the answer is "people who don't work for Fedex, UPS, and DHL." I'm currently tracking a package from North Carolina. According to the tracking system it took 3 days to get to Hodgkins, Ill from North Carolina and it's been 2 days since it left Hodgkins with no detail information besides, "Hodgkins, Ill - departure scan." Me knowing that it left Hodgkins, Ill 2 days ago is useless to me. Where is it now? Texas, California, or back in North Carolina? Who knows. Now it still shows the original delivery date but how am I to know if this is accurate or not. GPS would help customers, like me, keep the shipping companies honest about their delivery dates and not throw some date out there to get people to ship items using that particular shipping method. The old saying, "you get what you pay for", is so true. Again, GREAT IDEA!!

Anonymous - Jun. 13, 2007

That packagemapping.com site is amazing!

Anonymous - Jul. 13, 2007

the packagemapping.com doesn't work for me. just shows me a google map of US, no start/end points...

GPS tracking of packages - Jul. 17, 2007

For those that would like real-time package tracking, how much more per shipment would you pay to have that functionality?

Mike - Jul. 23, 2007

Most of the major carriers already use GPS on their trucks but as of yet, they do not make that data available to the general public.

They use it for routing drivers around traffic and what have you.

Stilter - Sep. 14, 2007

How about if the truck/driver logged information about their trip plan. Example: Package X - delivered 600 block E. Main St. Anytown USA, Next delivery - 1500 block N. Mulberry Ave. Anytown USA

Now plot this info on a google map and we can see the physical/geographical progress toward our delivery point. Maybe 'almost-realtime' tracking showing only what street and block the truck is on.

Why do we want this kind of information?

I just need to run down to the corner store for something but I don't know when the FedUps guy will roll up to my door and just leave a friggin' note when I NEED the package.

How about an estimated time of arrival; between 10 and Noon or something. Not like the cable guy; between 8 and 5 tomorrow.

Sorry if that came off like a rant....

Criptych - Sep. 21, 2007

I agree, I'd like a good idea of when my packages will arrive, not just "between 7am and 9pm" (for UPS). There are usually better things I could be doing with my time than waiting for a package, even if it is an important one.

Ain't that the truth. The data "we" at FedEx already know is *completely useless* to us if it's not available to "we" the public, so why even mention it?

Criptych - Sep. 21, 2007

(Hmm, post quotations were removed.)

Louise - Dec. 31, 2007

What happened to tracking packages the easy way. All I want to know where is my package????? At one time I could just check with ups and it was easy. now you add too many other things. I am not a business. just a customer that wants to know where my package is.