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Better living through pizza tracking

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

January 31, 2008, 10:35 AM

For those who doubt the change our daily lives have undergone thanks to increased connectivity, Domino's Pizza presents to you....Pizza Tracking.

While it premiered Pizza via SMS late last summer, and most national pizza delivery franchises already support online ordering, Domino's has taken their newest feature from the postal sector.

Pizza Tracker is like a "loading" bar that fills up as your order approaches completion. The bar starts to fill when an order is placed, then goes to "prep", then "bake", "box," and finally "delivery," by far the largest percentage of the bar.

This sort of frill may at first seem inane, but it offers not only a glimpse into the possibilities of fully time-managed services, but also shows the dramatic impact online retailers have had on the role of logistics to the average consumer.

The home page for Domino's high-tech pizza tracker

Add a Comment (18 Comments)

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By cricri_pingouin

posted Feb 7, 2008 - 6:00 AM

I want a live webcam in their oven so that I can check if the cheese is melting to my liking. "Hi, yeah, I was checking my pizza on the live cam, and I was wondering if you could add an extra piece of pineapple on my Hawaiian? Hmmm... more to the left, a bit more, a bit up, STOP, just there between the 2 bacon bits, thanks!"

Score: 0

By Avion Airplane

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 9:17 PM

Comcast needs to do this............. lol

Score: 0

By spiked

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 4:09 PM

Maybe we should put Domino's in charge of finding Osama bin Laden.

Score: 0

By Morena

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 1:02 PM

wow
http://www.spymac.com/details/?2336507

Score: 0

By Reverb

posted Feb 1, 2008 - 10:00 AM

@Morena. Spammer. Posting same URL
to every thread.

http://www.spymac.com/details/?2336507
Not interesting - Spam. Garbage wesbsite.

Score: 0

By morriscox

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 8:50 PM

Spam.

Score: 0

By streryan

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 12:26 PM

So is this for online orders only or will it work when you call them in.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 11:37 AM

I take it BetaNews did their research an actually ordered one to see if it works?

Score: 0

By JeremyGNJ

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 11:13 AM

I can't wait til they add a GPS monitor for their drivers......it would probably cut down on delivery times by letting people know when the pizza guy pulls up, rather than making him wait at the door after ringing the bell.

Score: 0

By TIM

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 11:54 AM

Or maybe putting RFID tags in the pizza boxes

Score: 0

By spider31

posted Feb 1, 2008 - 11:47 AM

or, how about RFID tags in the pizza? so when you go into the shop they can ask you if you enjoyed the pizza?

Score: 0

By daq

edited Jan 31, 2008 - 11:30 AM

Will you seriously stare at the screen for 40 minutes just to be at the door when the delivery guy gets there?

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 11:52 AM

http://www.xkcd.com/281/

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 12:33 PM

I actually wasted some of my afternoon on that site lol !

Score: 0

By esr

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 11:05 AM

yeah, ok.....

perhaps the most worthless use of infrastructure I have ever heard of.

neat, yeah sure, but what, we need to track a 30 minute life span? the drivers gonna carry UPS/FED-EX style tracking units & scanning barcodes upon delivery?

Geez, can people really care that much about pizza? dominos pizza at that...

Whatever.

Score: 0

By JeremyGNJ

edited Jan 31, 2008 - 11:12 AM

I dont know if it's really useless. Someone probably did a study on how many calls they get from people asking the status of their order.

Realize that this is a company who spent a lot of research money to formulate their pizzas.....not based on the best taste....but based on the ingredients and design that would allow them to stay hot the longest.

Also, it was probably a minimal upgrade to their systems. They most likely already tracked most of this stuff for internal metrics.

Score: 0

By auiotour

posted Jan 31, 2008 - 11:23 AM

This is hardly a change in their system, the only difference is orders on the screen are tied to actual account numbers, which are then updated online at each step.

Order Placed (entered into computer)
Order Appears on screen (Pizza made, button click on screen pushing pizza into next step)
Pizza put into oven (order cleared from creation screen)
Pizza out of oven and boxed (order finalized, new step)
Delivery guy picks up pizza (click a button)

These were the steps 8 years ago when i worked there, excluding the one labeled new step. Only difference is their systems upload it to the web with an account number. Probably took them a few hours max to program it. then just deploy the software. Neat feature, but retarded in my book.

Score: 0

By ladylust

edited Jan 31, 2008 - 11:01 AM

ok... its official - we are all a bunch of hogs.. seriously... What happends when there is a tech problem between store and tracker? Are people going to call the local 17 year old pizza maker and ask why its taking so long for prep/bake, etc.. or why the tracker hasn't updated?? They going to need an IT guy in every shop? You know how people are... they will refresh that page every 5 seconds.. and if doesnt meet their standards that poor guy at the domino's is going to get the phone call! "WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG TO PREP!!" etc..

Score: 0

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