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[US only] Will we be able to track the delivery truck in near future?
- Thread starter coolwater
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Thousands? A truck can only move so many packages each day, so only those who are expecting a package that day will track each delivery truck.
You know, I was thinking the exact same thing on Saturday when I was waiting for my Smart Cover to show up. All we need is access to the carrier's fleet data. Of course it could also cause problems as well, so who knows if it'll ever get implemented.
The companies already do track the location of each of their trucks, but they will never provide it on the package tracking side due to the safety/security risks.
I'm not entirely sure what the value is here, for a customer. For a shipping company supervisor, it pays to know where their trucks are. But for the customer... already they are fairly forthcoming with the status of your package. In Transit, estimated delivery, a rough idea of where it currently is, then notification if it is Out for Delivery, etc...
I'm all for cool bits of tech... but tracking at the truck-level seems like it would be a little busy-bodyish.
I'm all for cool bits of tech... but tracking at the truck-level seems like it would be a little busy-bodyish.
It's just that if a package requires signature, you're stuck at home waiting for it all day. If you had a clue as to when it may show up, you wouldn't need to be as worried. Maybe not full blown GPS, but it'd be nice to have a window of when it could show up.
This could be kind of a security risk, wouldn't you think? When a truck is driving around with a few thousand dollars worth of iPads can be tracked via GPS or something, it could be rather dangerous.
We wouldn't think this to be typical, but some people might be a bit extreme and somehow just jack all the iPads/packages on the truck. It's farfetched, but it's pretty possible IMO.
We wouldn't think this to be typical, but some people might be a bit extreme and somehow just jack all the iPads/packages on the truck. It's farfetched, but it's pretty possible IMO.
Why would it be farfetched?
http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/...-co-workers-apple-hardware-targeted-20100818/
On the other hand, knowing the location of the truck at any given moment may not be that useful in tracking when it will get to your house. You'd also need to know in what order the truck is delivering packages (there's no guarantee that it will go around in a straight line from the nearest to the furtherest), and how many stops it has to make before getting to you (if the truck is in the next block but it has to make 20 deliveries on that block, it might take a while before it gets to you, whereas if it only had one delivery to make, it will be at your place in 5 minutes).
Didn't want to seem too radical
But yeah, I've heard of some of these cases. Imagine if a tracking number were leaked online...I could imagine little gangs of robbers forming to rob these poor truck drivers!
Any day is a risk driving a FedEx truck and they routinely carry far more valuable merchandise than iPads.
More valuable, yes. More desirable? That's debatable. People get mugged and/or killed for Apple products regularly. On a day when you know that a large amount of the products on a truck are Apple products, that makes you a target. Knowing exactly where one will be instantly? They'll never let you have that kind of info.
I don't know...it's not too difficult to find a UPS/FedEx truck and then follow them for a few days to learn their route. Of course having their GPS coordinates makes it easier. I don't think we will ever get that kind of tracking data but it would be nice if we could get at least an ETA. These companies have this down to a science and I'm pretty sure that with some smart coding we could get a two hour window of when the package might arrive.
In the UK, you can track certain couriers. But it just lets you know we're they were 15 before. So stil gives you a good idea when your parcel will deliver.
