How to Track Parcels of Royal Mail
If you need to track your parcels of Royal Mail, then you can use our universal package tracking service. To do so, you need your Royal Mail tracking number. Royal Mail makes it easy to understand where your parcels are on their journey to you.
The reason Royal Mail is able to tell you information about your parcel’s location is because your package is scanned at many points while it is on its way to you.
When you track your package using our service, you will be told information about your package. Royal Mail uses statuses to tell you where your package is and what your next steps should be.
The Meanings of Royal Mail Tracking Statuses
Advised
If you are told that your parcel is advised, then this means that your package has been sent into Royal Mail’s system. This means that your parcel is a part of the Royal Mail network and will soon be getting a tracking scan.
Once your parcel gets its tracking scan, its status will change to “In Progress”.
Advised to Collect from a Post Office
If you track your package using our service and you get a message stating “Addressee advised to collect from a post office,” that means that your package could not be delivered and should be picked up at your local post office.
The delivery driver should have left a note behind at the location you wanted your package to be delivered.
The top reason why parcels are marked as not deliverable is because you or someone else was not around to provide a signature when one was needed.
To avoid having to pick your parcel up from the post office, then you should make sure that you or someone else is available to sign for your package.
Attempted Delivery
If the parcel status that you receive states “Attempted Delivery,” that means a delivery driver tried to deliver your package but could not due to no one being present to sign for it.
This status is different from the “Addressee advised to collect from a post office” status because your package may not be taken to a post office if an attempted delivery fails.
Parcels that could not be delivered may be taken to the post office, but they can also be taken back to the Royal Mail depot or to the person who sent you the package.
If your tracking status says “Attempted Delivery,” then you should have been left a note by the delivery driver telling you where your package is and what you need to do next.
In transit
If your tracking status says “In Transit” your package is traveling through the Royal Mail network and is no longer sitting at its original location. You can get more information about the specific location of your parcels by typing in your reference number.
Delivered to your address or a neighbor
If your status says that your package has been “Delivered to your address or a neighbor,” this means that your Royal Mails parcels have either been signed for at your home and left behind for you to have, or it has been given to your neighbor to hold until you are able to pick it up.
If your package is left with a neighbor, then you should have a card titled “Something for you” left behind for you by your mail delivery driver. This card should tell you where your parcel is. You may also get this message even if your package was left at your place of work or your personal business.
If you cannot find your package or a card at your work location or your business location then you should check with your colleagues or the post room of your office to make sure your parcel has not been picked up by someone else or moved.
Reasons Why You May Not Be Able to Track Your Package
There are a couple reasons why you may not be able to get information about your parcels when you try to track them with your tracking number.
One of the more common reasons why you may not get updates about your package is because enough time has not passed for information about your parcel to have been added to the system so updates are not ready yet.
Another reason why you may not be getting information about your package when trying to search for it is because you are typing your tracking number in wrong.
Make sure that your are typing in the correct tracking number in order to get the best results from our tracking service.
Royal Mail Tracking Numbers
Royal Mail tracking number usually start with two letters and end with two letters, and the final two letters are always “GB”. in between the four letters are nine numbers grouped into three groups of three.
This is an example of what a Royal Mail tracking number looks like: AN 123 456 789 GB
The History of Royal Mail
In 1516, Henry VII created a position that he called the “Master of the Posts”. This position was later turned into the office of the Postmaster General. About a century later, in 1635, Charles I introduced the first public mail service.
This postal service was available to the public at a price that was paid by the recipients of mail.
About two decades later, in 1654, a monopoly over England’s mail delivery service was granted by Oliver Cromwell granted. This monopoly was given to the “Office of Postage”.
Fixed postal rates were introduced in 1657, and in 1660, the general Post office was created by Charles II.
Postage date stamps were used for the first time in 1661, and the first Postmaster General was also appointed.
1784 saw the introduction of the first mail coach. It traveled between London and Bristol. The first mail coaches were similar to the typical family carriages used at that time. The main difference between the two was the fact the early mail coaches bore the post office livery.
In 1793, postmen who wore uniforms first started delivering mail to English citizens, and in 1830, the first mail train made its first deliveries from Liverpool to Manchester Railway.
Rowland Hill, a Birmingham schoolmaster, invented the adhesive postage stamp in 1837. Rowland Hill was later knighted for his invention.
The post office money order system was first introduced in 1838, and in 1840, the Penny Black, the first adhesive postage stamp, was made available to the public nationally.
In 1969, following the Post Office Act of 1969, the General Post Office was changed to a nationalized industry so that it would no longer be a government department, and in 1986, Post Office Group was created.
Post office Group consisted of the letter delivery, the post office, and the parcel delivery sections of the mail service. Post Office Group separated them into three individual businesses.
In 2001, the Post Office Group was renamed as Consignia, and in 2002 it was again renamed as Royal Mail.
Royal Mail lost its monopoly in the postal service industry in 2006. This meant that competitors could then transport mail and give it to Royal Mail.
In 2015, the United kingdom government sold their last stakes in Royal Mail. This sale of the United Kingdom government’s 30 percent stake in Royal Mail marked the end of Royal Mail’s public ownership. Royal Mail was publically owned for 499 years previously to this sale.
Royal Mail Market Share
Since losing its monopoly, Royal Mail’s market share in the postal service industry in England has dropped significantly.
In 2017, Royal Mail held only 47 percent of the United Kingdom postal service market share, and in 2019, its percentage of shares in the market dropped to their lowest after a period of delivering fewer letter.
Royal Mail’s decline in market share is also the result of strong competition from our courier service businesses like TNT Mail and DHL Global Mail.
Royal Mail Company Size
Royal Mail currently employees approximately 162,000 people. 143,000 of these jobs ore based in the United Kingdom. 90,000 of Royal Mail’s employees are postmen and postwomen. Royal Mail also has 18,000 seasonal workers who are employed during high business times such as the Christmas season from November to December.
Royal Mail Branches
Royal Mail has 1,356 delivery offices, and its headquarters are in London at 100 Victoria Embankment. In 2016, Royal Mail had 38 mail centres that were operating, and they may still be active today. These mail centres are divided between five regions: East, West, South East, South West, and North.
The mail centres in the Eastern region are located in the following areas: Ipswich, Chelmsford, Sheffield, Peterborough, Norwich, South Midlands (Northampton), Nottingham, and Romford.
The mail centres in the Western region are located in these areas: Birmingham, Warrington, Chester, North West Midlands (Wolverhampton), Manchester, and Preston.
The mail centres in the South Eastern region are located here: Croydon, Greenford, Gatwick (Crawley), Jubilee (Hounslow), Mount Pleasant, Home Counties North (Hemel Hempstead), and Medway.
The mail centres in the South Western region are located in these 9 areas: Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter, Cardiff, Swansea, Dorset (Poole), Southampton, Truro, and Swindon.
The mail centres in the Northern region are located here: Aberdeen, Tyneside (Gateshead), Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow, Carlisle, Leeds, and Northern Ireland (Newtownabbey).
Royal Mail delivers parcels to more than 200 countries around the world.