Tracking statuses are written by carriers, for carriers. "In Transit" can mean a parcel crossed an ocean or moved twenty metres across a depot. This guide covers the statuses you are most likely to see, what each genuinely means, what a shopper should do next, and what a merchant should do when it lands on an order.
Why the same event has different names
There is no cross-carrier tracking standard. Postal operators exchange events using Universal Postal Union conventions, principally the EMSEVT message defined in M40, which gives international post a broadly consistent vocabulary. Private carriers do not use it: UPS, FedEx, DHL and Amazon each maintain proprietary event code sets, and none is converging.
The consequences are practical:
- The same physical event produces different wording depending on who handled the parcel.
- Granularity varies. Some carriers publish every facility scan, others three or four milestones for a whole journey.
- A parcel can switch vocabularies mid-journey, passing from an origin carrier to a final-mile partner.
Worth knowing: when a status looks strange, the first question is not "what went wrong" but "which network wrote this event". Wording is a property of the operator, not of the parcel.
Every common status at a glance
| Status | What it really means | Shopper action | Merchant action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Info Received / Label Created / Pre-Shipment | Label and number exist. The carrier does not have the parcel | Wait. Nothing has been collected | Check it left the warehouse. Long stalls are a fulfilment problem |
| Accepted / Posted | The carrier physically has it. The clock starts here | None needed | Your real dispatch confirmation. Notify on this, not on label creation |
| In Transit | Moving between facilities, or in the network with no newer event | Wait. Gaps of a day or more are normal | Escalate only when the gap exceeds the lane's usual pattern |
| Arrived at Facility | Scanned in at a depot, sorting centre or hub | None needed | Repeated arrivals at one site suggest a sortation loop |
| Departed Facility | Scanned out, on its way to the next point | None needed | Departure with no downstream arrival is an early warning |
| Customs Clearance | In the customs process at origin or destination | Wait, unless asked for information | Confirm the declaration data was complete |
| Held at Customs | Clearance blocked on data, duty or a restriction | Respond at once to any request for documents or payment | Supply missing data. Check HS code, description, declared value |
| Out for Delivery | On a vehicle for delivery today | Be reachable. Check delivery instructions | Highest-intent moment for a notification |
| Available for Pickup | Waiting at a depot, post office or locker | Collect before the holding period expires | Tell the customer where, and by when |
| Delivery Attempted / Failed Attempt | The driver tried and could not deliver | Reschedule or arrange collection | Give a next action immediately. Attempts expire |
| Delivery Exception | Catch-all for anything off the expected path | Read the detail text, which usually explains it | Triage by cause: address, access or weather |
| Delivered | The carrier recorded completion | Check safe places, neighbours, proof of delivery | Handle non-receipt claims against the proof of delivery |
| Returned to Sender | Heading back to origin | Contact the merchant about a reship or refund | Decide reship or refund, and tell the customer first |
| Not Found / No Information | The number returns nothing recognisable | Wait a day, then check the number | Verify number, carrier, and whether the parcel was handed over |
Before the parcel moves
Info Received, Label Created, Pre-Shipment
All three mean the same thing: electronic data exists, the parcel does not. A label has been generated and the tracking number registered, but nothing has been collected or scanned into the network.
This is the most misread status in eCommerce, because customers receive a shipping confirmation and assume the parcel is moving. It is also the most diagnostic status a merchant has: if orders sit in pre-shipment for days, the problem is your own operation or your carrier's collection schedule, and no amount of tracking polish will fix it.
Accepted, Posted, Picked Up
The carrier now physically holds the parcel. In postal terms this is the posting or lodging event, and the point at which international customs data is normally generated and sent ahead to the destination.
Merchant tip: send your "dispatched" notification on this event, not on label creation. It costs nothing and removes a large slice of "where is my order" contacts.
Inside the network
In Transit
The broadest status in the vocabulary. The parcel is somewhere between acceptance and the final delivery depot, and it says nothing about progress, speed or remaining distance. Long silences are normal: a parcel on a road leg or in an air consolidation is not being handled, so no events are generated.
Arrived at Facility and Departed Facility
Paired scans at a depot, hub or sorting centre, and together the most reliable evidence of forward movement, because they arrive in sequence from identifiable locations.
Postal networks identify these locations using standardised IMPC codes for International Mail Processing Centres, which is why international postal events can name a specific facility. Private carriers use their own site naming, often less legible to a customer.
Customs Clearance and Held at Customs
"Customs Clearance", "In Customs" or "Import Clearance" is a normal stage for any cross-border parcel, not a problem status.
"Held at Customs", "Customs Hold" or "Awaiting Payment" is a problem status. The usual causes are:
- incomplete or inaccurate declaration data
- duty or tax due from the recipient
- a missing or incorrect tariff code
- a restricted or prohibited item
Clearance is a data process before it is a physical one. Declaration data travels electronically ahead of the parcel, and electronic advance data is legally required in major markets, including under the US STOP Act and the EU's ICS2 regime. Since 1 September 2025, six-digit WCO HS tariff codes have been mandatory for commercial items where the destination requires them.
Merchant action: if holds cluster on particular products or lanes, the fix is in your product data, not customer support. Audit descriptions, HS codes and declared values first.
The final mile and how journeys end
Out for Delivery
The parcel is on a vehicle, assigned to a round, expected to arrive that day. This is the most actionable status of the journey and the one customers most want as a notification.
Available for Pickup
The parcel is waiting at a post office, depot, locker or parcel shop, either because delivery failed or because this was the chosen method. The detail that matters is the holding period: uncollected parcels are returned to sender after a set time, often sooner than customers expect.
Delivery Attempted, Failed Attempt
The driver came and could not deliver: nobody present, no access, an incorrect address, or a required signature unavailable. Attempts are finite. After a set number, most carriers hold the parcel for collection or return it, so this status needs a fast response.
Delivery Exception
A deliberately broad label covering anything that deviates from the expected path: weather, address problems, access restrictions, damage, mis-sorts, vehicle issues. The status tells you very little. The free-text detail attached to it usually tells you everything. Triage exceptions by underlying cause rather than as one category, because address and access issues are preventable while weather is not.
Delivered
The carrier has recorded the delivery as complete. What "complete" means varies: handed over, signed for, left in a nominated safe place, given to a neighbour, or placed in a locker.
On a non-receipt report, check in this order: the proof of delivery detail, the recorded location or photo, safe places and neighbours, and the delivery address on the order. Premature "delivered" scans do occur, and a parcel occasionally arrives the following day.
Returned to Sender
The parcel is going back. Common causes are an expired collection window, exhausted delivery attempts, refused delivery, an undeliverable address, or a customs rejection.
This should trigger a decision, not a queue: reship or refund, and tell the customer before they contact you. Narvar's State of Post-Purchase 2025 research, based on 3,461 US online shoppers surveyed in August 2025, found that 60% of 18 to 29 year olds would not repurchase after a late delivery, against 17% of over-60s.
Why a status can be wrong, stale or missing
Tracking is a reporting system, and reporting systems fail in ordinary ways.
- Nothing has happened. No handling means no event. Silence is the normal state of a parcel in linehaul, not evidence of loss.
- The data is batched. Some operators publish on a schedule rather than in real time, so the event exists before you can see it.
- The parcel changed networks. A handover between an origin carrier, an airline and a final-mile partner is the most common place for a visible gap, and sometimes a change of tracking number.
- The final-mile partner does not report back. Subcontracted delivery frequently produces a trail that goes quiet near the end.
- Scans appear out of order. Timestamps are recorded in local time and published in different conventions, making a timeline look inconsistent.
- Scans are made early. A driver marking a round complete before finishing it produces a "delivered" status ahead of the delivery.
Not Found and No Information
The number returned nothing the system recognises. The usual reasons are:
- The label was created moments ago and has not propagated.
- The parcel was never handed to the carrier.
- The number belongs to a different carrier than the one queried.
- The number was mistyped, or an internal order reference was used instead.
- The parcel moved onto a final-mile carrier under a new number.
Worth knowing: this is the status most improved by aggregation. A platform such as Ship24, integrating over 2,500 couriers and 3PLs, can identify the likely carrier from the number itself and follow an item across a handover, exactly where a single-carrier lookup returns nothing.
Reliability across the carrier mix
Not all carriers report equally well. Pitney Bowes' Parcel Shipping Index 2026 recorded 127% growth for alternative US carriers such as OnTrac, GLS, Veho, UniUni and SpeedX, reaching 1.8 billion parcels and doubling revenue share from 3.4% to 7.2%. The report specifically identifies delivery tracking and reliability as this segment's weak point. If your tracking quality has drifted, your carrier mix may be the reason.
Using this as a working reference
The vocabulary varies, but the underlying journey does not: data created, parcel accepted, parcel moved, parcel cleared, parcel delivered or returned. Map any carrier's wording onto that spine and most statuses stop being mysterious.
Two habits carry most of the value. Shoppers should read the detail text under the status, because that is where the real explanation lives. Merchants should give the customer a next action on every status that has one.
Sources & methodology
- Universal Postal Union (UPU) Standards programme and catalogue Primary source.
- World Customs Organization and UPU Joint WCO–UPU guidelines on postal customs data Primary source.
- Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index 2026 Company research.
- Narvar State of Post-Purchase 2025 Company research.
