Tracking Shipments

Every carrier reports tracking a little differently -- different event codes, different levels of detail, different names for the same thing. ShipGenius normalizes all of it into one structure, so your support tool or your customer-facing tracking page can handle every carrier you ship with using one set of logic.

What a Tracking Response Contains

Event History

A list of scans in order, each with a timestamp, a status, and the location it was recorded at. It's the package's journey, and it's what you'll read when you want to know where a package actually is right now.

Current Status

A status code plus a plain-language explanation, along with any carrier-specific details. We normalize the code across carriers, and the explanation is the carrier's own wording.

Delivery Information

You'll see this once the package is delivered or a delivery has been attempted:

• Delivery date and time
• Who signed, where a signature was collected
• Who physically received it, which is not always the same person as the signer
• Where it was left -- front door, reception, mail room
• The most recent attempt time, if a delivery didn't succeed

Delivery Schedule

The carrier's expected delivery date, an estimated delivery window when the carrier provides one, and whether the shipment is still expected to arrive on time. That last one is worth watching -- it's the carrier letting you know early that it's running behind, so you have time to get ahead of it.

Shipment Details

Origin and destination addresses with contact details, the ship date, the carrier, and the tracking number.

Looking Up a Shipment

In the app, just open the shipment record. Through the API, a tracking request identifies a shipment by carrier and account, plus any one of these:

• The tracking number
• The ShipGenius shipment ID
• The ShipGenius label ID
• A DHL package ID, for DHL shipments

Having several identifiers to choose from helps day to day. If your system never stored the tracking number, you can still track by your own shipment ID, so a missing tracking number doesn't leave you stuck.

Subscribing People to Updates

Instead of checking back for changes yourself, you can subscribe email addresses to a shipment's tracking events. Subscribers hear from the carrier as the package moves.

Subscribers are set when the label is created, so you'll want to add them before you buy -- on the ship screen, in the extra services panel, or as part of the shipment request if you're using the API. They can't be added once the label is purchased, so it's worth having the recipient's email address ready at that point.

You'll get a result back for each subscriber, so if one address in a list of five is wrong, the other four still go through and you'll see exactly which one had a problem.

The notifications themselves come from the carrier, so the wording and which events trigger a message vary from carrier to carrier.

Reading an Exception

An exception just means the carrier ran into something that interrupted normal movement. Here are the common ones and what they mean for you:

• Address problem -- the carrier can't work out the address. This is what Address Validation helps you avoid.
• Delivery attempted -- nobody was available, which is common on signature-required shipments. A redelivery or a hold at a nearby facility usually follows.
• Refused -- the recipient turned the package down, so it's on its way back to you.
• Damaged -- the package was found damaged in the carrier's network. Start a claim, and hold on to the packaging if it reaches you.
• Weather or network delay -- outside anyone's control, and the package is still moving.

This is where subscriptions really earn their keep. Point one at your support inbox and you'll usually hear about a problem in time to sort it out before the customer has to ask.

Tracking Is Carrier Data

Everything in a tracking response comes from the carrier. We normalize the structure, but we don't add scans, estimate where a package is, or fill in gaps. If a carrier is slow to post scans -- and some are, especially on economy services and during peak season -- that's what you'll see. A package that hasn't moved for a day is usually just waiting on its next scan.

FAQs

How often does tracking update?

As often as the carrier posts scans. Express services scan frequently; economy and hybrid services can go a day or more between scans, especially in the middle of the trip.

Can I track a label I did not buy through ShipGenius?

Tracking works for shipments on the carrier accounts connected to your ShipGenius account. A label bought entirely outside the platform isn't in your shipment history, so there's nothing for us to track.

My package shows delivered but the customer says it did not arrive.

Start with the delivery information: where it was left, who received it, and whether a signature was captured. That record -- a location plus a receiver name -- is what a carrier claim is built on, so it's the first thing to pull.

Why is my tracking number not showing anything yet?

A tracking number exists as soon as the label is created, but carriers don't report anything until the package enters their network. An empty tracking page is completely normal for a label that hasn't been dropped off or picked up yet.

Can I send tracking updates to my customers automatically?

Yes. Subscribe their email address to the shipment when you create the label -- in the extra services panel on the ship screen, or as part of the shipment request through the API.

Do subscribers get emails from ShipGenius or from the carrier?

From the carrier. They generate the content, which is why the wording differs a little from carrier to carrier.