How to Professionally Track Incoming Packages (Free)
Tracking numbers? Old school. Sure, they are useful to see where your package is stranded, but there are many better ways to find out what is being delivered to your home or apartment – and when – without having to click links, copy and paste complex alphanumeric codes, or what. – something like that.
UPS My Choice
Sign up for UPS – it’s free for basic memberships – and you can automatically receive emails or text messages the day before a UPS shipped package arrives at your home or apartment.
If you opt for emails, you will usually receive an estimated delivery time for the package, the sender’s name (in case you receive a lot of items and forget what comes, when and from whom), an interactive tracking link, and a notification if you need to be at home to sign for the delivery. You can also subscribe to some packages in advance if you’re lucky and trustworthy.
Be sure to visit the UPS My Choice website, where you can also track incoming packages using a convenient calendar or spreadsheet, change delivery to a different address (or date), ask UPS to delay your delivery for you at your local UPS center, and sign up for additional notifications. if you really, really want to know what UPS is doing with your shipment at any time.
I tend to stick with emails, except on the rare occasion that I need to make changes to a submission. I also stick with the free UPS features as I don’t feel like paying $ 40 a year for unlimited shipment shifts.
FedEx Delivery Manager
FedEx offers a service similar to UPS ‘My Choice’. Create a FedEx account and register your address , and then you can set up text, email, or voice alerts for different delivery situations: when FedEx first receives a package addressed to you, when a package arrives at your place tomorrow, and when FedEx delivers a package, to name a few scenarios …
You can see everything that is being sent to you (or what you sent by your FedEx account number) on this not-so-pretty screen . If you have incoming packages, you can tell FedEx to store your packages at your local office, you can sign them remotely and set up more detailed alerts for specific packages. If you want to pay a small fortune, you can also ask FedEx to redirect your packages to a different address or deliver them on a different day (or at a different time).
USPS Informed Delivery
Until recently, I was unaware of this little post office feature and I love it. Sign up for informed delivery – also for free – and you’ll receive an email every day with scanned images of any letter that later ends up in your inbox. This is in addition to the usual package tracking features that include pre-signing for incoming shipments, forwarding packages and setting up ad-hoc notifications for all the good things you need.
The only caveat with the postal service, as convenient as it is, is that it will show you all the mail that will be delivered to your address , not specifically to you. If you live in a shared house or apartment with roommates (hey guys), you will also see their mail. In fact, you can still see it if you grab it from the inbox and sort it out for them, so I don’t think it matters that much. If you find it odd that all of this is in your inbox (or your roommates’ inboxes), it might be worth chatting to see what you all think about it.