Papa John's Tracks It's Pizza Drivers by GPS using "Enhanced Customer Service" as its cover

If you think Domino's new online pizza-tracking service is cool, check out what some Papa John's pizza shops are doing - in the name of customer service!

An 11-store group around Huntsville, Ala., late last year forged a relationship with TrackMyPizza a startup company that lets customers track on an online map exactly where their pizzas are, with updates every 15 seconds as they're being delivered to customers.

And they are allegedly doing this to enhance the customer ordering experience. Rememember the old pizza adage - After 30 minutes of waiting hunger turns to anger

But are they really just doing it to improve employee productivity and to keep tabs on its notoriously difficult-to -locate delivery drivers?

Customers call their orders in or place them online. They then enter their phone number on TrackMyPizza to track their delivery. The drivers are equipped with GPS-enabled handsets that feed location data to TrackMyPizza's server. There, the data is coupled with the customer's phone number, allowing tracking data to be "pushed" out to the customer via the TrackMyPizza Web site.

All sounds harmless enough - but what about the driver who takes a slight detour on the way back to his shop to buy cigarettes or other supplies. Previously, it was easy for a delivery driver to slip away unnoticed for 10 minuuted to allow him to catch up on a few errands- but now all that will have to stop.

Pizza delivery drivers are often the eyes and ears of a local community. Thinking of moving house? Ask your Domino's driver for a list of undesireable neighbourhoods or noisy appartment blocks.

Who is going to serve as soft-drug couriers for the local community if you know your boss can track not just your current position but also retrospectively check all your movements for the previous week?

The Papa John's TrackMyPizza feature, for customers in that region, takes the arms race for pizza-tracking technology to another level, removing even that much uncertainty from a pizza buyer's life. Tracking the delivery street by street, Super Bowl viewers could know exactly when to leave their TVs to meet the pizza guy at the door.

The Alabama Papa John's group started working late last year with TrackMyPizza, a privately held startup founded by two telemetry scientists who spent 10 years tracking defense missiles for the U.S. government.

For the stores where TrackMyPizza is available, about 18% of all delivery customers in the last 60 days have gone online to track their pizzas, even if they ordered by phone, said Tom VanLandingham, operating partner for the regional Papa John's group. Online orders are up 100% since the service started, and that's a big advantage to a pizza shop. Not only does it save employees time answering the phone, online customers spend on average about $2 more with each order, since they can see the full menu,

VanLandingham said. Papa John's also will soon begin using the tracking system for behind-the-scenes productivity gains, such as better plotting of deliveries based on location data.

TrackMyPizza itself relies on a mapping engine built by Randy Younger, the company's chief operating officer, and Ken Blankshain, its CTO, using geo data available from the U.S. government.

"Whoever said pizzas aren't rocket science?" said TrackMyPizza CEO David Neel. Domino's ambitious plans for its system suggest there could be a broad market for such consumer-facing tracking tools. Said Neel, "It's another example of how to empower the customer and improve the customer experience."

Garbage. We all know it is so the store owner can keep a track of his employees' whereabouts

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