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I am using UPS APIs to figure out ratings and create shipments and now I'd like to track shipments in real time. I know there are a lot of services that provide tracking aggregation for different couriers, including UPS, via webhooks, but I am looking for a "native" UPS API for the real time tracking that would not require me to keep poling for updates.

I went over the UPS API docs and could not find anything. Is there such an API that offers webhook type notifications or something similar in UPS? If not, how do those services like EasyPost, ParcelMonitor, TrackingMore and others can offer such functionality?

RobisonSantos
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  • Is [this](https://www.ups.com/upsdeveloperkit/downloadresource?loc=en_US) not what you're looking for? – ddejohn Mar 29 '22 at 03:08
  • The link you posted seems broken – RobisonSantos Mar 29 '22 at 04:16
  • Not sure why. Try googling "ups tracking api", it's the first result for me -- the UPS developer kit. – ddejohn Mar 29 '22 at 04:20
  • The tracking API they have is sync. I am looking for something async, like webhooks. What they have on their doc requires me to make a GET request for any tracking id I need to get information from. – RobisonSantos Mar 29 '22 at 04:42

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I'd like to track shipments in real time

"Real-time tracking" is a misnomer in the shipping technology industry. EasyPost does provide webhook events to notify you of updates, but those updates will never come in "real-time" and no tracking service provider should ever make such a claim. There will always be some kind of delay between when the carrier updates their system and when the updates are able to flow through providers like EasyPost. The delay may be short, but any delay at all means that "real-time" goes out the window.

Being an EasyPost employee myself, I have to disclose my bias and say that I believe EasyPost can help you get updates as promptly as possible for UPS shipments.

The nice thing about setting up webhooks with EasyPost is that you don't have establish your own logic to repeated poll for new tracking updates. This can save you network bandwidth and reduce the complexity of your code and it can help you get updates sooner than if you were trying to poll updates on your own intermittent schedule.

Endgamers
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