I've been waiting for a late package for about a week and a half, and during this time, it occurred to me that it would be nice if I could track packages sent to me, from start to finish, automatically.

Basically, when FedEx or UPS accepts a package, they're bound to enter the destination address into a computer somewhere. I should be able to authenticate that I am a resident at my address and allow me to see all packages destined for my address.

Even better, have it email me automatically: "Hey, Bitt! Someone in Exampleton just sent something to you!" This mess about tracking numbers is for the birds. It would also allow me to tell a shipper "you never sent me anything".

I know that there are some potential security issues with this. If someone could falsely authenticate, then they might be able to get to your front door faster than you could. But it would be easy to have a driver accept a signature at your door, and then further packages could be autotracked.

There's bound to be someone here who can do something about this. (I'm looking at you, Jehovah.) Make it happen.

That's a good idea in general, but it may not solve the problem of seeing what's happening with late packages. I had a late-arriving package, once... it had the wrong zip code on it.

Well, it would at least allow you to tell the sender that the shipper has no record of a package being sent to your correct address.

In my case, I finally got an email response yesterday, 16 days after the order, and 12 days after they told me that it shipped out and to expect it in 3-4 business days, that they forgot to send it altogether.

I still don't have a tracking number.

FedEx is half-way to what you want. They let shippers "notify" you, via email, that you've got a package on the way. The notification is actually sent from FedEx, and then you can sign up for notifications when the state changes, also via email.

So long as the shipper plugs in your email address, then they've got all the infrastructure and the rest is just hacking. I'd rather have them key things off of the email than the address, anyway, because there are plenty of scenarios where lots of people share an address (e.g., at offices), and I'd also like to be able to track things that aren't necessarily going to my house (I'll often use my work address for deliveries of boxes where I'd really rather somebody be there to sign for it).