Anyone know of a Postal Mail Checker?

[moerl]

I'm tired of having to visit Fedex.com, usps.com or ups.com to track my packages... does anyone know of a postal mail tracker app for Windows that's just that? A postal mail tracker? Nothing fancy.. just something I can have running, that auto-updates when the status of the package location changes... you get the idea.

This is a nice idea for a web AJAX app too

[jpfx]

ISTR avery labels had one you could run in Word or standalone that was free that would check addresses for you.
I can probably dig it out at work but that would be monday some time.

[moerl]

Run in word? Hell no.. standalone, please! And what do you mean by "check addresses"?

Whenever you get to it. The thred will still be here on Monday.

[jpfx]

sorry, I misread your request somehow. Seems difficult reading back but there you go...

[m_s]

It's not exactly standalone, because you do need to have Konfabulator running, but there is this widget: http://www.widgetgallery.com/view.php?widget=36387, and I'm pretty sure that 'Where Is It?', which is one of the widgets Konfab installs automatically can do the same thing.

[moerl]

I've given up on those widget apps a long time ago.. too bad. I don't like that stuff eating up my resources in the background. I have too much stuff going on at startup that runs residently as it is.. don't need more in that department. I appreciate the suggestion though. Thanks

[clif_notes]

I use tracking@ups.com at work. I email them and get a reply back.

Here are the others, courtesy of http://www.copresco.com/pkgtrack.htm

Use E-MAIL instead of the web to track multiple shipments at one time. Note: Your e-mail software must be set up with your e-mail address as the default reply-to address in order to receive the shipment information.

United Parcel Service
totaltrack@ups.com
Include a UPS tracking number in the body of your message. Your tracking information will be sent by return e-mail. UPS allows up to 25 packages at a time to be tracked via e-mail.

Fed Ex
track@fedex.com
Up to 20 shipments can be tracked via one e-mail.
No entry is required on the subject line. In the body of the message type the word "airbill" followed by a space, followed by your package tracking number.Do not include dashes or spaces in the tracking number.
Follow the airbill number with a space and the destination country code. The country code is required even if you are tracking a US domestic shipment.
Follow the country code with a space and the ship date (+/- 4 days) entered in the MMDDYY format.
Each package tracking number must appear on a separate line, formatted as above.
Typing the word "end" will stop processing commands (useful if your mailer adds a signature).

Airborne Express
track.it@airborne.com
Your e-mail can list up to 20 airbill numbers separated by commas.
The airbill numbers must be in the message area of the e-mail, not the subject line.
Enter only airbill numbers with separating commas. No additional text is needed.

Emery Worldwide
TrackIt@emeryworld.com
Enter "SN-" (for shipment number) before each number. You may track up to 30 numbers at once. Emery has a very robust email tracking system. Check here for details.

Purolator Courier
track@purolator.com
List the PIN's you wish to track within the body of the message, one PIN per line. No subject is required.

Roadway Express
Roadway does not have email tracking in the usual sense. It does have a nifty email notification system, which can reduce the need for tracking.

Yellow Transportation
Like most common freight carriers, Yellow requires you to register to gain access to its powerful email monitoring services.

Bax Global
If you are a North American customer of Bax, registering as a secure user will allow you access to email notification services.

ABF Freight Systems
trac@mail.abf.com
Your tracking inquiry will be answered by a live person, so no particular sytax must be used.

[moerl]

I'm already using those, but thank you for the awesome list you put together!

I just went to the individual shipment tracking sites and created a bookmark for each package and put them on my Opera personal bar. Now I can just click each one to see the status. Not bad

Thanks for your efforts

[dajo]

Also - you might try typing your tracking number right into Google.

This should work for UPS, Fed Ex, and UPS.

http://www.google.com/help/features.html#number

[clif_notes]

Good tip Dajo ...

[moerl]

Great tip indeed!

[mouser]

from lifehacker today:
http://www.packtrack.com/

web based tracking for multiple providers

[moerl]

I'm a Lifehacker reader and love it.. so I would have come across this, had I not neglected reading the latest entries on there!! Thanks a ton for the heads-up, Mouser. I just got done installing my brand new bamboo drapes that I got at Bed Bath & Beyond today. Took about 3 hours to install those suckers! It was hard work, but now it's done and looks beautiful. I didn't have any drapes before this.. and when the sun shone in the morning it shone directly on me and cooked me in my bed until I awoke feeling as if I had just come out of a sauna... not that great a way of getting up. Well, sorry for the OT bit, but this had to be shared

Again, thanks for the heads up.

[Innuendo]

moerl,
You're not alone in your desire! I'd kill for an app like this. A little package tracker that automatically updated itself & possibly lived down in the system tray.

We do a lot of business & shopping on the internet and one little program that kept track of all the tracking numbers & the travel progress of the packages would indeed be a killer app.

[moerl]

I know.. wouldn't it. And it's so simple too! I can't believe nobody has thought of making this type of thing yet, especially given the incredible amount of software out there... let's keep this thread alive and see what we can find in the future. I will report back once I have a chance to test packtrack.com. I currently have no packages to track, but perhaps you could give it a shot and post about how it performs?

Greetings

[mouser]

i wonder if you couldn't use one of the programs like website watcher to enter urls for your packages and then it will alert you when the status changes (that would give you minimize to tray,etc.)

[moerl]

I'm sure you could. I still find WSW hard to use and not very intuitive. I could never really get into it. The interface and the preferences are killing me.

[dajo]

I've used Website Watcher in just the way Mouser suggested and it works great.  You can even set it up to check every few minutes automatically and email you when the page changes.

WSW does have a lot of options and features but you can still get a lot out of it without using them all.

There are also a few other sites that will monitor pages for you, like WSW:
http://delicious.com/search/?all=monitor+page+changes

[moerl]

I've used Website Watcher in just the way Mouser suggested and it works great.

And just HOW is that? I need to see that.

I get frustrated when there are too many things in an application that I don't understand, as is the case with WSW. For example.. I'm really confused by those checkboxes at certain places in preferences.. where it seems it would make sense if there was just one checkbox, but instead there are two horizontally next to each other, so I don't know wtf it means if I turn one on and leave the other unchecked, or check both.. or what. It's just confusing and I think it could be vastly improved in terms of usability. But maybe it's just me who doesn't get it.

Thanks for the link