Patent ID: 6976007

Claim:
A tracking system in which a package is to be sent from a user to a recipient by requesting shipping through Internet resources associated with carriers capable of delivering the package to the recipient, in which the user determines the carrier to be used for shipping a package to a particular recipient, comprising: means for generating a tracking number, the tracking number being associated with a package to be sent from the user to the recipient by a selected carrier; means for generating a tracking request, the tracking request containing the tracking number associated with the package, as well as information of the selected carrier which is to deliver the package to the particular recipient; a storage location adapted to store the tracking request; a tracking coordinator adapted to receive said tracking request and adapted to generate tracking objects, and adapted to send said tracking objects to a tracking website of the selected carrier; means for receiving results from the tracking website of the selected carrier; means for updating shipping server data storage with the results from the tracking website of the selected carrier website; and wherein the tracking coordinator comprises means for limiting the generation of tracking objects for the selected carrier based on pacing constraints provided by the selected carrier so as to be generated no more frequently than a carrier designated number of tracking objects per carrier designated interval.