Deliverance

So according to FedEx, I have a package coming today. I was dubious about that from the start, but sometimes, people surprise you.

A little while ago, I went to the FedEx website, and dropped in the tracking number, and the site once again confidently told me that I should expect my package by end of day. Which is remarkable, considering that it doesn't show as being out for delivery yet. The last time the package was scanned was four days ago in Maple Grove Minnesota. Now, this isn't a problem, it's nothing that I need to have today, and not having show up until Monday, or later during the working week, means that I'm more likely to be here at the house when it arrives.

But it's curious that FedEx systems seem unable to adjust to this new reality. If this goes anything like past packages I've received, the website will insist that the package actually is due to arrive today, until "end of day" comes and goes without the box having actually been placed on my doorstep. Then, and only then, will there be a recalibration. The delivery date will be in Limbo for a while, since the package won't have been scanned into a local facility. In fact, according to the tracking site, it doesn't even show as having left Maple Grove. It could be sitting forgotten in a corner, for all the site shows.

Granted, I'm not a software developer with a background in logistical systems, but it seems to me that it wouldn't be difficult to program a system to look for discrepancies like, say, a package that supposedly due to be in the suburbs of Seattle at the end of day, but was last scanned some sixteen hundred miles away. It shouldn't take an advanced generative automation system, running on top-of-the-line GPUs, to determine that maybe the package isn't where it needs to be, and that something may have gone wrong.

While the ethos of technology innovation has often been summed up with Mark Zuckerberg's admonition to "move fast and break things," it seems that's what's often in play is "move fast and skip the boring stuff." Which I get; keeping the lights on and doors open is the uninteresting part of business. Why lock down the basics when there are profits to be chased on the cutting edge? But the public doesn't see the innovations until they're released; the clunky public-facing systems are people's everyday reality, and an untrustworthy website doesn't do much to inspire confidence in the broader service. Big players in an industry seldom concern themselves with making the small parts of the day-to-day operations look good. Because it's never seen to matter. That is, until it suddenly becomes important. At which point, it's often too late to fix it.