Patent ID: 8145577

Claim:
A computer program product for tracking one or more shipped items, the computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising: program code instructions configured to establish a set of expected occurrences for each of the one or more shipped items; program code instructions configured to facilitate shipping said one or more shipped items and monitoring the shipment of said one or more shipped items for an occurrence of the set of expected occurrences and a non-occurrence of any of the set of expected occurrences; program code instructions configured to determine one or more routes for each shipped item from a shipper to destination, the routes comprise at least one preferred delivery route and at least one alternate delivery route for transport of the shipped items from the shipper to the destination via a carrier, wherein: (A) the routes are determined prior to the transport of the shipped items; and (B) each route is comprised of one or more intermediate locations; program code instructions configured to establish an expected date of delivery at the destination for each shipped item; program code instructions configured to determine arrival time intervals for each intermediate point for recording the arrival of each shipped item for each intermediate location; program code instructions configured to determine departure time intervals for each intermediate location for recording the departure of each shipped item for each intermediate location; program code instructions configured to monitor the routes of each shipped item in transport by the carrier; program code instructions configured to determine whether at least one of the shipped items was detected at an intermediate location that is identified in the alternate delivery route in response to determining that the shipped item failed to depart an intermediate location identified in the preferred delivery route at a respective departure time interval; and program code instructions configured to report the non-occurrence of any of the set of expected occurrences.