It usually does for me. I got to watch my magneto take 4 days to make it to a small town in Illinois about 200 miles from here where it was supposed to go for a rebuild, then before delivery, be routed somewhere into Iowa, before it took 3 more days to go back to that same small town in Illinois and be delivered.
It's worked fine for me the two times I've used it for online purchases in the last two months. One delivery was very late (Christmas period), but the tracking was at least accurate. The more recent one arrived two days earlier than originally estimated, but the tracking was again accurate.
I ordered an audio interface off of eBay from a shop in San Jose California, Saturday before last. The following Monday morning I checked USPS tracking to see if it was even in the system yet, and it showed that it was out for delivery! I figured something was screwed up and I’d probably be contacting ebay about it, then, maybe around 1:00 pm Monday afternoon, less than two full days after placing the order, I get a delivery email from ebay! Sure enough, the item was on my doorstep! I don’t know if it’s just when ebay purchases are involved, but every time I order from them, USPS is fantastic in its tracking accuracy and delivery time. My last dozen or so ebay purchases have all been shipped USPS and have all arrived days to a week and a half early.
If it is strictly a USPS delivery the tracking seems to work even though the routing is oddly circuitous. Had a package travel from Iowa to Illinois back to starting point then 2 other stops further west in Iowa before heading the right direction to Indiana.
If it is a shared delivery Fedex to USPS then the tracking is worthless once USPS gets it.
I find it an historical reference, not a realtime tracker. It never seems to be up-to-date, but maybe the next day it will tell me the parcel or letter got to its destination.
I agree it’s useless. I ordered some pocket screwdrivers from New Jersey on Jan 1. For 4 days all it said was pre shipment label created then it was in Dallas, TX for a couple days, another TX town a couple days, Indy, both Kokomo post offices, then Peru and delivered. Package said 3 day priority, but took 10 days lol