Modulator

It's Already There!

I suspect that SK Bubba doesn't really mean this post title: To Much Technology. Here's the post:

I was just wondering where the heck a package was that was supposed to be delivered today. I called the company and got a tracking number and looked it up on the Internet. The carrier said it had been delivered to my door. I looked on the porch and sure enough, there it was. How pathetic is that?

I had a similar experience this morning. Vendor sends email that says the package they sent yesterday has been delivered. A couple minutes later the shipping clerk is carrying the package through my door.

What a wonderful example of a productivity improvement brought on by enough technology.

Not that many years ago when I purchased (business or personal) or shipped something (business) there was no such thing as a tracking number. Some of you will remember the numerous phone calls that would go back and forth between folks that went something like:

Buyer: My #$%$ package isn't here yet!

Seller: But we shipped it yesterday....

Repeated many times.

Today tracking numbers are common. Business use is nearly universal and most online retailers include a tracking number in an email as part of their service process. And today's conversation is most often with a computer database that tells one exactly where the package is...right now. It's easier, less confrontational and I even have a sense that deliveries are on time more often as well.

There is a lot of people time that had been involved with tracking packages that has now been outsourced to technology and not to India or China.

Seems a good thing to me. And likely to get even better as the related technology becomes more pervasive.

Posted by Steve on June 8, 2004