What Are the Reasons That Cause the Loss of Parcels?

During the process of the international express delivery of parcels, parcels go missing or lost from time to time. What are the factors that cause the loss of parcels and packages? How to avoid the loss?

As the international parcels arrive at the destinations (take the United States as an example), parcels are delivered in accordance with the receiving addresses (the courier will not call the recipient in advance), and most parcel sorting systems are based on the postal codes to sort and pick the items. Once the receiving addresses or zip codes are wrong, it will cause plenty of troubles.

For US addresses, some receiving address elements require an extra/alternative address 2 to be filled in. Especially if a recipient lives in an apartment, there will be an apartment number “APT Number” to be filled. If the sender or the shipper forgets to write this, then the parcel can only be located and delivered to the location of the whole apartment block. It is very likely that the parcel will become an “undeliverable/dead parcel” if there is no mailroom. Another scenario is that the address is correct, but the former recipient has moved away, and the current recipient at this address has received the package. This situation is more complicated. If you move away, it is better to give prior notice to anyone who may send you parcels just to avoid such unnecessary situations from occurring.

As it is an international express delivery of goods, the relevant departments at the entry port of the destination country have the right to inspect, detain, charge taxes, impose fines, and /or destroy some special international parcels. The customs policy of the destination country on the import parcels may also change from time to time. If you are importing goods from the United States, you can refer to the US Customs official website for import and export policies, or you can directly send an email to the US Customs Department for consultation.

When encountering such kind of problems, the tracking information on the parcels during the international courier delivery will show there any some problems with customs clearance. As the owner of the goods/cargo, the recipient could contact the courier service agency. Under such circumstances, such couriers as UPS, Fedex and DHL will make a phone call to inform the recipient that there is something wrong with the parcels (hence, the recipient’s phone number is very important), and the recipient is required to provide some information or other stuffs to facilitate the customs clearance. If the courier agency does not contact the recipient, the recipient may go to the official website for inquiry.

Currently, there are plenty of offenders/thieves who engage in theft of parcels and mails. Some offenders follow the UPS and USPS delivery vehicles to steal the parcels delivered one by one. This particularly happens in places where public security is not good. The recipient should be cautious and pay special attention it. If no one stays at home in the daytime, it’s better for the recipient to write the company address as the recipient address, or the recipient may rent a space in a mailroom or operate on the official websites of USPS, UPS, and Fedex to hold the package first and later pick it up on his/her own.

There are plenty of online courier service agencies. Some provide good services and some not. Some sellers/vendors choose unreliable courier agencies for the sake of lower freight. As such, some parcels go missing during the delivery process. So, when purchasing, make sure to confirm with the sellers/vendors to deliver the parcels/goods by a reliable and guaranteed courier service agency.

As a result of the epidemic, the international air transport capacity is severely diminished and inadequate, and the land, rail and sea transport capacity for the international express parcel delivery has not yet been able to make up for and replace the insufficient international air transport capacity, resulting in the backlog/stacking and detention of the international mails and parcels at the ports. Detention and backlog/stacking of large amounts of goods may result in the loss of mails and parcels.

As a result of the insufficient overseas processing capacity, slowdown in overseas production, obstructed logistics and business shutdowns have caused some countries and regions to declare the stop/suspension of the international parcel delivery services.

Due to the epidemic, many countries have cancelled the face-to-face delivery and turned to the non-contact delivery. The courier put the package at the recipient’s door, in the garden, or in the neighbor’s house, resulting in theft/loss of parcels.

The foreign post offices or customs houses took away the packing slip/delivery note and forgot to put it back, making the post office/courier fail to deliver it to the recipient.