Are There Better Ways or New Features Delivery Companies Can Offer To Help Customer Track Packages Once They're On Trucks?

Tracking packages are fun especially if it's something you've been waiting for eagerly.  At times, it feels like it's Christmas, you know?  Kids have been using NORAD to track Santa for years.  However, while Santa does make door-to-door delivery and you lose track of him just before you go to bed on Christmas Eve, we don't lose track of UPS or FedEx in the same way.  Once our packages get on the trucks, we do lose track of them.  

I think there has to be a way for the delivery companies to offer a way for customers to track when they are thrown into trucks for delivery.  Now, while some of the folks who have been online in forums talking about similar situations, some want UPS and others to offer GPS information about their packages.  I don't think that works but I wonder if there is an alternative solution that might work better and safer for the drivers.

Little more than two weeks ago, I was eagerly tracking my iPhone 5s delivery all the way from Zhengzou, China to Anchorage, Alaska to Louisville, Kentucky and, finally, to Ontario, California where when my iPhone got loaded up into a truck somewhere closer and finally to my doorsteps.

Now, I'm tracking my Galaxy Note 3.  It's on a FedEx truck.  It'll be delivered by the end of the day.  They've promised me that much on the website.  I've got meetings.  I've got breaks and whatnot.  

GPS locators on truckers for customers to track is dangerous.  You don't want crazed customers to follow their delivery guy around or hound them by showing up during one of their deliveries or cutting them off of the road so that you can grab your stuff.  Heck, bad guys will be able to know which truck contains what and hijack them.

Plus, just because you see the truck that has your package appear in your neighborhood does not necessarily meant you're next.  It could go off somewhere else and come back to you later.  I think they follow certain predetermined routes.

GPS feature would be a bad idea.  

However, I think I've got a solution that might work better.  When you call into a company for support, sometimes, the automated system tells you how long you are likely to wait until an operator becomes available to take your call or how many calls are ahead of you.  

I figure the UPS guy probably has as schedule or route he has to follow.  Just the the mailman.  One walks while the other drives.  Perhaps, delivery companies can offer estimated delivery times based on how the delivery folks are doing out in the field, weather, and traffic conditions.  Maybe provide information about how many deliveries the driver has to make before he gets to you.

It's an added service that could make live easier for customers, like me who just watched two FedEx trucks passed without stopping to give me my Note 3.