FedEx operates in a world of bar codes and scanners, RFID tags and GPS units. Package information is entered electronically, and the networked tracking system gives FedEx and the public instant access to the most recent known location of a package in transit. All of which is very cool, and hasn't really changed in over a decade.
Every year for the past 10 years, I have received a notice that FedEx rates are going up 10% or more. And in the past 10 years, the only visible improvement in their computerized system has been that customers sign for packages on an electronic clipboard instead of a sheet of paper. In that same time period, the Post Office has implemented an entire bar code system for delivery tracking (though they still don't track packages en route), new interoperational systems with foreign postal systems that have sped up international deliveries, a "known shipper" program, and an e-mail tax. Ok, the e-mail tax is a myth. But when did the Post Office become a more nimble organization than FedEx?
By now, FedEx should be able to track packages and trucks on a live map, contact drivers and stations and ramps, update shipment information easily for a package en route, allow a recipient to switch the billing for a package to their own account number, provide conditional return labels, and maybe, just maybe, find a package at the airport ramp. Even on a Saturday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Bar codes on a plane
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Suppose, as a completely random example, that a company ships out a package on Friday for Monday delivery, but that the customer actually wants Saturday delivery. The label is generated electronically several hours before the package is picked up, and FedEx has all of the relevant information about the package at 1:30 p.m. FedEx could immediately send a ship notification to the customer with the tracking number, so that the customer can see that the package is scheduled for Monday delivery. The package is still in the shipper's hands, so the customer could ask the shipper to correct the label. Unfortunately, FedEx only sends a ship notification if the shipper asks for it, not if the customer asks for it. And until the customer has the tracking number, there's nothing that can be done. So let's assume there is no ship notification until after FedEx has picked up the package, and it's now up to FedEx to implement a system where the delivery information could be upgraded en route.
The first step is to add a data element attached to the tracking number that says an upgrade is requested. The package is scanned in when the driver picks it up. That scan is done with a networked device, and the scan could provide immediate feedback that an upgrade is requested. The package is scanned in at the outgoing location on Friday, at the intermediate sorting facility overnight, and at the destination airport ramp Saturday morning. Any of these scans are in plenty of time to make the upgrade happen, but FedEx doesn't have that sort of feedback system for its scans.
Much of the routing of FedEx packages is automated. The package bar code is scanned by a networked device that says where the package should go and when. FedEx could update the delivery data attached to that bar code over the network, so that the upgrade happens without a person ever laying their hands on the package. But FedEx doesn't have that enabled either.
FedEx could have a system where "urgent messages" requesting the upgrade are sent about the package to the shipping station and to the destination airport ramp. They actually do have that system, but it depends on somebody at those locations reading their "urgent messages" the same day they receive them. They don't have the staff for that.
And finally, when the package in our hypothetical situation is sitting at the destination airport ramp on Saturday after all the morning traffic is done, somebody from FedEx could pull the package and hold it for a customer pick-up. But despite bar codes and scanners and RFID tags, it's actually like looking for lost luggage at the airport. It's a manual search process (what color is the bag/package?), slow and painfully inefficient.
And a heartfelt thank you to June and Michelle and everyone else at BOSRT for finding the package. Next time, I'll try to make sure the package in the haystack is neon pink instead of cardboard brown.
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