Tracking refers to the ability to get information on something, and know of its whereabouts and where it is and at what time. When it comes to packages, depending on the mailing and package delivery service one uses and any add-ons chosen, one will likely have the option of being able to track the package one has sent. Whether one chooses United States Postal Service (USPS), FedEx, DHL, TNT, UPS to name the most popular and better known courier service companies in the country, the availability of tracking information so one can track the package from its origin to destination, is possible. USPS is the only government service provider, with the rest being private, corporate entities. Smaller but equally important names include Amazon, which as the leading marketplace and aggregator site that it is, has its own Amazon shipping services that come with tracking ability. Packages and letters of all shapes and sizes can be sent, and indeed tracked as well. So, should one be sending a present or care package or goodies of some sort to a friend, family member, or business colleague, one can avail of the tracking option to ensure that the parcel does reach its intended recipient.

Transportation of goods is one of the oldest businesses that has been around for centuries in one form or another, and the demand has only continued to increase as time has gone by. Back in the day, sending a package meant going over to the post office, filling out a bunch of forms, seeing your parcel disappear behind the counter, and then waiting to hear from the person you’d sent it to, that it had reached them safe and sound. And hope and pray the package did not get lost, delayed, or damaged in transit. How times have changed! Historically, the reason to offer package tracking was just that so senders and receivers could know about the route their package would take, and get an estimated date of delivery. Today, one can print a shipping label at home, and get the parcel collected from one’s doorstep too. And you can get information about the journey said package is undertaking, from start to finish, literally tracking its whereabouts from your doorstep to the doorstep of the person you’re sending it to all thanks to technology. Every package, whether sent by regular United States Postal Service or through a private courier company like FedEx, DHL, UPS, or TNT, gets a unique identification code, in the form of a bar code, and that code, when scanned with the bar scanners that every employee of the postal or courier service who is handling the package has, gives one the latest information as to its location along the trail.