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Usually nothing is wrong. "Item processed" means the carrier accepted your parcel into its network, and long stretches with no new scans are normal while it rides between hubs: trucks and trains do not scan. Silence turns suspicious only after the delivery window the service promises has clearly passed.
| Tracking message | What it usually means | Worry? |
|---|---|---|
| Item processed | Accepted into the network at origin; the first real checkpoint | No: this is the starting line |
| In transit | Moving between facilities; vehicles do not scan | No, for several days on long routes |
| Arrived at facility | Reached a sorting plant or depot | No: it may wait here for a full load |
| Out for delivery | On the vehicle for the final leg | Only if the day ends with no delivery |
| Delivered | Handed over, safe-dropped, or left per instructions | Check around the property before panicking |
Tracking scans are checkpoints, not live GPS. Your parcel gets scanned when it enters a facility and when it leaves one; in between, it rides a truck or a train that generates no data at all. Cross-country legs can run for days with zero updates, and that is the system working as designed. Parcels also wait: a trailer does not leave until it is full, and at busy plants items sit in containers until a crew gets to them. International legs add handoff gaps, where the origin carrier's tracking goes dark before the receiving carrier's tracking lights up. Customs queues add more silence. And sometimes a scan is simply missed: a scuffed or rain-damaged barcode does not read, so the parcel moves on without a checkpoint recorded. The tracking page shows the scans that happened, not the journey that happened.
Economy services scan less often than express ones, so a few quiet days mid-journey on a ground parcel is normal. It is also normal for the first scan to take a while to appear if you are checking the receiver's carrier site while the parcel is still with the origin carrier. Act when the picture breaks: the delivery window the service quoted has clearly passed with no movement, or there has been no scan at all for well over a week on a domestic shipment. Before you act, check the basics: the right tracking number, the right carrier's site, and whether the parcel might be waiting at a post office or pickup point on a notice card.
Contact the sender first, not the carrier. Coverage and claims follow the shipper: the person who bought the label is the carrier's customer, and only they can open a claim or authorize an investigation. If you are the sender, contact the carrier with the tracking number once the delivery window has passed. Have the shipping details ready: origin, destination, contents, and value. Keep the parcel's packaging when it arrives damaged, because carriers can ask for photos or even the box itself. And if you shipped through a label service like LetterAgent, your assistant can check the job's status for you; Xpresspost labels include coverage, and the claim runs through the sender as it always does.
Ready to ship it? Get a shipping label with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and get your label.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
Need help? Ask your assistant: it can check a job's status any time. If it ever can't handle something: hello@getletteragent.com