US-centric: No doubt you already have a go-to tool for tracking your packages across the country, but weblog Digital Inspiration highlights a quick and simple tip for getting up-to-the date tracking info straight from the source: just email the shipping company. For example, send a blank-subject email with tracking numbers in the body to track@fedex.com or totaltrack@ups.com, and a few seconds later, you’ll have a response with the latest status of your package. We’ve covered several tools for tracking your packages in the past, but this technique might come in particularly handy when you’ve got the tracking number in your inbox and you want a quick status update, particularly from a cell phone. Know the Current Location of your FedEx or UPS Shipments Via Email [Digital Inspiration]
US-centric: Easily find items sold online with free shipping on sites like Amazon, eBay, and more than 500 other online stores with website Free Shipping On. The website sports easy navigation: two tabs that allow you to perform searches for items available on Amazon and eBay with free shipping, and then a third tab takes you to a page that offers free shipping coupons for over five hundred stores, from Apple to Walmart and organized by category as well. If shipping costs usually cause you to scratch your head and decide to wait for a better deal on retail, you may now want to reconsider. Free Shipping On
Windows only: FedEx QuickShip is a freeware Microsoft Outlook toolbar that integrates your Outlook address book with FedEx shipments. That means creating a new shipment is as easy as clicking Ship and choosing your contact’s name from your address book. You can also track packages, check shipping rates, schedule pickups, find FedEx locations, and more with the FedEx toolbar. As Download Squad points out, the tool could use even tighter integration (for example, recognizing tracking numbers in emails), but if you do a lot of shipping at work and Outlook is your go-to email client, the QuickShip toolbar is a must-have. QuickShip is freeware, Windows only. QuickShip [FedEx via Download Squad]
US-centric: Find the cheapest rates for shipping items from point A to point B with web site ShipGooder. Enter the shipping origin and destination zip codes as well as the package weight. Within seconds, ShipGooder will provide you with rates for major shipping carriers, including DHL, FedEx, UPS, USPS, Canada Post, and others. The shipping rates are displayed on a nice looking form that displays next day shipping, 2-day shipping, three-day shipping, or ground shipping options, but if necessary, you can change your view to a courier rate table that displays the various rates per carrier. ShipGooder also features a map to show (roughly) the estimated commute of your package. The site is still in beta and has a few kinks, so if you run into a problem calculating shipping for a particular zip code, try to reverse the destination and origin—that should work instead. ShipGooder makes it quite easy to get the cheapest shipping rates without visiting each individual carrier’s website. ShipGooder
If you’re traveling with stuff you don’t want to lug onto the airplane, box it up and ship it ahead of time your destination’s local post office and mark it general delivery or “post restante.” Then pick it up there when you arrive. Travel site Upgrade explains: Poste restante is an old fashioned mail-pickup service that most countries’ postal services still provide. Mail is addressed to a person, but in lieu of an address for delivery, the mail is sent to a post office branch, where you pick it up. You’ll usually address mail to Name, Poste Restante, the specific name of the post office (usually the main, central office), that branch’s street location, city, postal code, and country. Of course, you need to KNOW the location you’ll be picking it up from beforehand.
You can also ship ahead to the hotel where you’re staying, or, if you’re an American Express customer, to the local AmEx Travel Service office. Poste restante: Avoid airport security hassles by mailing packages to your destination [Upgrade: Travel Better]
