ShowHN: an easy way to track your packages

by csarva • 15 years ago

19 25 15 years ago

Very cool. However, I don't see anything on the page that explains what I'm getting myself in to from a privacy perspective. Based on most spam laws, once I email you, we're engaged in business, so you could take liberties with that and start sending me email. This looks like a neat service, so maybe I'm ok with that, but I'd like to know up front.

csarva6• 15 years ago

Thanks for the comments. Privacy is very important to me as well and I plan to get something up there soon, I just wanted to get it out the door in the meantime.

charliepark• 15 years ago

Seems like a really neat service. In the XforY tradition, a TripIt for your Amazon orders.

One quick layout suggestion: Your #content div is currently set to 914px, and on Firefox, that's dropping Step 3 to a lower line. If you increase that to 915px, it lifts up to be on the same line as the first 2 steps.

csarva6• 15 years ago

Thanks, fixed! I tested it in FF3.6/Mac and it looked ok. What version are you on?

wccrawford• 15 years ago

But I know when they arrived... I signed for them.

A more useful service would allow me to log in and see the current status and location of each package I've notified it about. I've had as many as 10-15 packages in transit at once before and it became tedious to make sure I got all of them. (In fact, one got lost, and I didn't notice for another month.)

bengl• 15 years ago

Not necessarily. For example, if you're having a parcel delivered to your home, but it arrives when you're at the office, you'd want to be notified when this happens. Maybe your significant other or roommate signed for it. Maybe no one signed for it and there will be another delivery attempt. This sort of thing happens to me all the time for packages I don't want delivered to my office.

On the other hand, notification of other tracking events would be useful too. I'd make it optional to have those.

ryanelkins• 15 years ago

Yeah, I might like to be notified when it is actually shipped out, or maybe even when it changes locations. Often time you might have a date range so it could also be useful to know if it's at the local hub and should be delivered today if I need someone at home to sign for it.

Anyways, it would sure beat digging up the email and visiting the tracking page all the time to keep up with it. I also liked the suggestion about being able to see the status of all my packages on one page across shippers.

I'm sure all this complicates things for you quite a bit, as right now you don't need people to sign up or anything. You don't even need much of a website beyond what you currently have. If this version goes well I'm sure you have plans to incorporate some of this stuff, so in that regard, this seems like a great MVP.

csarva6• 15 years ago

This is my basic use case exactly -- living in an apartment building in NYC, I have packages sent home all the time. The building staff sign for and hold them, but I have no way of knowing they arrived so I can go and pick them up (no 24/7 doorman).

Other possible use cases: sending gifts, work-related purchases going to various locations/offices, returning items, etc.

moge• 15 years ago

really interesting. One comment on the UX. Since there are no clickable buttons/links I thought this was just a coming soon page.

Create a button that says 'track now' or some other call to action.

Once I read the middle paragraph I understood how it works but I bet most people will never piece that together.

and yes, package tracking would also be good. Have a look at Dominos pizza order tracker. Something as easy as that would be fun and engaging.

stcredzero• 15 years ago

Create a button that says 'track now' or some other call to action.

How about 5 or so entry fields for tracking numbers and a button to "Create Dashboard" to track all of the at once? You'd get back a page with a long universally unique random URL that you can bookmark.

Once on the Dashboard, give the user the option to password-protect the page by registering.

pitdesi• 15 years ago

Cool. How will you monetize? There should be gmail apps that allow you to plugin directly... the main problem is setting this thing up.

csarva6• 15 years ago

Not too focused on monetizing at the moment. It's something I built cause I needed it for myself.

re: gmail - you can very easily setup a filter to automatically forward shipment confirmation emails from the places you most frequently shop (e.g, Amazon).

samatman2• 15 years ago

Thoughts:

Really like the 'mail to track' interface. Great way to get tracking numbers into the sytem.

I use Delivery Status by Junecloud to track packages. I have to copypasta to get them in; but then it sends me a Growl every time my package's status changes, and I can hit the Dashboard to see where my stuff is and when the estimated delivery date is.

I would need a similar level of functionality; getting an email when the package is actually delivered won't cut it. Something that had a Dashboard/Growl client and an iOS notification client, though: that I'd switch to in a heartbeat.

csarva6• 15 years ago

Thanks for the input. There's definitely a lot more that can be done, especially for those who need to track a large number of packages. More features, possibly requiring a login, is something I've thought about, however this super simple service meets my needs perfectly, and my guess is that I'm not alone. Depending on how this goes, I'll be looking at building out more functionality.

samatman2• 15 years ago

Cool. I basically asked you to build me a pony that I already have, so I fully understand. Dig what you've done already.

x03• 15 years ago

If you're getting into tracking multiple packages, Delivery Status does a very good job of this: http://junecloud.com/software/iphone/delivery-status-touch.h... -- although it's not a webapp.

netmau5• 15 years ago

Great idea. It'd be fun if I could either login or get a link mailed to me of a Google Map overlaid with all of my current shipments, annotated with data about them.

Definitely like the simple nature of your app though. Signing up is as easy as adding you to the address book.

ajays• 15 years ago

(OT, but...) What I can't understand is: why can't FedEx/UPS tell me approximately when they'll deliver my package? Or send me an SMS say, 15 minutes before the scheduled stop, so I know when to expect them? Surely the drivers are not following a stochastic pattern and performing a random walk through the streets?

ojbyrne• 15 years ago

The route is probably set, but the density of packages along the route is random.

christo16• 15 years ago

I suspect the delivery companies know this information internally, but don't want you to freak out if your package says it will arrive at 10am but doesn't come till 2pm because of traffic or the truck breaking down.

AndrewHampton• 15 years ago

FWIW, I use http://twitter.com/TrackThis. You just have to follow them (they don't post anything, so no stream spam) and send them a dm w/ the tracking number. They send you a dm whenever there is an update to your package location while it's traveling.

ralx• 15 years ago

Alternatively you can receive the info by SMS or email (or an iPhone Push)if you register at http://usetrackthis.com

I love their service!

KishoreKumar• 15 years ago

love it :) Great job! What & How would you earn bucks out of it?

MichaelSalib• 15 years ago

Looks good. There are two things I'd suggest:

(1) gmail oauth integration: instead of having people forward tracking numbers to you, you can read their mail for them.

(2) If you can collect just a bit more data (destination address), you should be able to construct some useful statistical models predicting when packages show up at my address as a function of delivery service, day of week, season.

ShowHN: an easy way to track your packages

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