Mail tracking taken to the next level with Google Maps

Mailers in the United States can now check the status of their letters and parcels on Google Maps – and can even monitor their deliveries down to a street-by-street level. New Jersey-based firm GrayHair Software has integrated its existing mail tracking services with the Google Maps API, connecting its reporting engines with the internet search giant’s satellite-based mapping system.

GrayHair said customers using Intelligent Mail barcodes on their mailpieces can follow their items through the postal stream with the new tool, as pinpointed on Google Maps.

As well as helping to remove bad data from a mailer’s address database, the new service allows use of radius mapping. This allows mailers to see for themselves the results of a mailing job, as plotted on maps local to one of their stores or branches – helping with planning for expected responses and future campaigns.

GrayHair said scanned information can be checked in real-time, although the Google images themselves are not yet quite as up-to-date as the mail data.

Director of marketing Bobby Tiedeken told Post&Parcel that as Google Maps develops as an application, using more real-time satellite imagery, the link-up would eventually allow mailers to go even further in determining reasons for the success or failure of deliveries to reach certain addresses.

“Google is getting closer and closer to being live time,” he said. “Currently their images are about three months behind, but when it becomes live, our customers will be able to check what happened to certain addresses. It could help when natural disasters occur or other problems in the mail.”

GrayHair, which recently released a cloud-based mail reporting tool, Select Solutions, tracks around 10bn to 15bn pieces of consumer and business mail through its MailTrak and SelectTrack reporting engines.

Tiedeken said that as his company’s reporting engine develops the new Google Map integration would mean further benefits for mailers in how they monitor and manage their mail.

“As out reporting engine gets better we’ll be able to do more things – especially with radius mapping,” he said. “The next step is to show every piece that is delivered, every bad piece, every little minute issue you had with that mail.”