A thorough description of the parcel status for PostTrack.com

Humanity has been engaged in cargo delivery for a long time, since the birth of the first civilizations. A broad experience has been accumulated in this matter throughout the post lifetime. The whole transportation process has been already systematized. But both postal services and international carriers have not come to a single standard for marking the shipments' status yet, therefore various courier services or national mails may have different movement parcel status from sender to recipient. We tried to combine all the world mails and delivery services on our website, compiling a universal list of parcel statuses being suitable for all the carriers. It is difficult for us to take into account all the status variety, so we have simplified and merged some into one. The statuses supported by the PostTrack.com site can be seen below:

Not found

Information on your parcel has not been found. We could not find the parcel location. Check the selected carrier and the tracking number entered.

Reasons for Not Found Status:

• An invalid tracking number has been entered. Often, the tracking number is confused with the parcel number. Ask the sender to check the correct number spelling or ask for the photo receipt of the postal service, containing all the supporting information;
• The delivery service has not yet managed to register your package in its database. Since not all postal services are automated, there are delays when adding a parcel to the system. Try tracking the package later;
• The parcel was sent quite a long time ago, the information is not relevant and has been deleted. Mail services do not store the data of old parcels, periodically clearing the database of irrelevant information. Each delivery service cleans the base according to its internal regulations.

In Transit

Your package has been successfully registered with the carrier. The parcel is sent to the recipient. Now you can see the movement of your package to its destination. A lot of secondary statuses have been combined in this status in order to facilitate understanding of parcel transporting process.

Evidence of the In Transit status:

• The parcel has been received/registered, moving to the destination;
• The parcel has been left the sender's country;
• The parcel has been arrived in the recipient' country;
• The parcel is going through customs control in the recipient' country;
• The parcel has been delivered to local delivery service and postal service;
• The parcel is in a transit country being lately sent to the recipient country/next transit country.

For more information, look for the package status, where both package current situation and location will be described in detail. This is the most protracted stage of the parcel route. Some carriers may delay the parcel in anticipation of cheaper transportation ways in order to save transport costs. Therefore, updates in this status may be delayed.

Pick Up

The parcel has been arrived at the post office and will be delivered soon. If your parcel is sent without delivery right to the house, then you can pick up it at the post office yourself.

Evidence of the Pick Up status:

• The parcel has been arrived at the issuing point or at the post office;
• The package is waiting for you at the issuing point. Be careful, as each operator has a maximum storable lift of parcels. If this period expires, the parcel will be returned to the sender. Do not delay in receiving the parcel;
• The courier has received your parcel for delivering it to your house.

Do not forget that the status is updated with a time delay. At this stage, check the parcel by contacting the local service that makes delivery to you. Arrange a courier for specific delivery time. If you fail to do this, then there is a high probability of losing the parcel. The percentage of parcels' loss on this stage is the largest along the entire parcel route. The most common reasons for which parcels are lost or broken:

• Address delivery when you are not at home. The package is left unattended, the package may be stolen;
• Courier transports the parcel carelessly;
• Courier was mistaken with address, handing the package to another person;
• Courier has lost or stolen the parcel;
• Other reasons.

Take control of the parcel on this stage to avoid this.

Delivered

Сourier has successfully delivered the package to the address or handed it to you. Or you have taken the parcel from the issuing point.

If such a status appeared at the parcel, and you have not received it, it is necessary to urgently call the courier service or post office support for more details.

Alert

There is a problem with your package. It is necessary to pay attention to the status description and the exact problem description. The problem may occur at any stage of keeping track. A series of actions described in the status description may be needed to be performed to fix the problem.

Evidence for Alert status:

• The parcel has been sent back (maximum storage time exceeded);
• Unsuccessful attempt to deliver the parcel, wait for the new delivery (wrong address, was not transferred to the hands, the recipient moved, etc.);
• The parcel has been withdrawn by the border service (taxes on the parcel contents have not been paid, the goods' import is prohibited or restricted, etc.);
• The parcel has been lost;
• The parcel is damaged;
• Other reasons.

It is recommended to follow the status instructions or contact the courier service for more details at this stage.

Not Delivered

Courier service tried to deliver the parcel, but without success. Contact the post office or courier office for more information.

Evidence of the Not Delivered status:

• The courier did not get the recipient hold at home;
• Shipping addresses are not valid or do not exist;
• Shipping is postponed or canceled.

If your package is not delivered, then you need to contact the courier and clarify why it happened. You may need to postpone the next delivery to a more suitable time for you. Do not delay with the receipt, parcels stored for a long time in post offices are sent back to the sender. Also, the courier service may charge an additional fee for parcel storage in their warehouse.

Expired

Tracking period has been exceeded. Information about the parcel movement has not been updated for a long time.

Reasons for the Expired status:

• The package has been lost;
• The carrier has not updated the data on the parcel movement;
• Human factor;
• Other reasons.

Postal services are “well-honed mechanisms”, but they may have failures in the parcels' delivery. If you do not receive the parcel, then you need to contact the sender/courier service to find out the reasons.

We have listed and described all the statuses supporting by the PostTrack’s online package tracking system in detail. We are optimistic you have found all necessary information about the parcel movement status from the sender to the final recipient. You can automate the process of receiving information about shipments. You can manage all your packages in one point after registering on the website - Parcel Manager.