Federal Express SuperTracker
date: label: date made
content: 1986
notes: label: Description
content: This is a Federal Express SuperTracker handheld barcode scanner, first introduced in 1986. The SuperTracker is a critical part of FedEx’s Customers, Operations, and Services Master On-line System (COSMOS) used to track packages and confirm deliveries. Customer agents, couriers, and sorting personnel use the SuperTracker to scan barcodes on packages as they move through the Federal Express system. Providing information about a package’s location, status, and movement became an integral part of delivery companies, with every major carrier implementing a package tracking system.
label: Description
content: The device has a black plastic case with a rounded pointer protruding from one side. the tip of the pointer is clear plastic or glass. One side of the instrument has a keyboard with white plastic keys. each key has a letter of the alphabet on it. Ten keys also have digits marked above them, another has a "." marked above it. there also are "SP", "CLEAR", "SHIFT", "GO", and "MODE" keys, as well as four unmarked keys. There is a small display window and an "ON" key (this is on the back side). The object is marked on the front: FEDEX (/) SUPERTRACKER."
label: Description
content: The object fits into terminals 1993.0228.03 and 1993.0228.04.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Carl Niehls, “Custodial Package Tracking at Federal Express,” in <i>Managing Innovation: Cases from the Services Industries</i>, ed. Bruce R. Guile and James Brian Quinn (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1988), 57–81.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
label: See more items in
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Federal Express
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1993.0228.01
label: catalog number
content: 1993.0228.01
label: accession number
content: 1993.0228
objectType: label: Object Name
content: scanner
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4.4 cm x 19.3 cm x 4.2 cm; 1 23/32 in x 7 19/32 in x 1 21/32 in