The Importance of a Package Delivery Confirmation
TL;DR
- A package delivery confirmation is a receipt or email indicating that your shipment has reached its destination, typically received from the logistics provider or the company you ordered from.
- Delivery confirmation can come from the courier driver or via email; ensure to check the package condition before signing.
- This confirmation is crucial for claims if a package is damaged during transit; signing without inspection may lead to claim rejection.
- For guaranteed delivery to the intended recipient, opt for signature confirmation, which requires the recipient’s signature and prevents unauthorized handover.
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First things first. If we try a simple definition, a package delivery confirmation is a receipt or an email you receive from the logistics provider, informing you that your shipment has reached its final destination. Sometimes, when using the services of a parcel or freight broker, or when shopping online from different e-commerces, you will most probably receive the delivery confirmation email directly from the company you did business with and not necessarily from the carrier.
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You can receive the package delivery confirmation in two ways: either the courier driver will hand it over to you, or the logistics company will send you the confirmation via email.
The courier driver hands you over the delivery confirmation
Things are pretty clear here. Once the courier driver hands you over the package, he will also give you a receipt to sign. This is called proof of delivery or delivery confirmation. Before rushing into signing it, you should take into consideration a few things, out of which the most important one is the state of your package. Don’t sign a delivery confirmation if your package has signs of damages. We have covered the topic about whom and when should sign for the proof of delivery, in a different article.
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This package delivery confirmation is useful in many situations:
- If you ship the package to someone else or to your customers and want to make sure it has been delivered to the destination.
In such case, you will usually require the delivery confirmation of the package to the parcel/freight broker or the logistics provider that carried out the delivery service. They will be able to send the parcel delivery confirmation in the form of a scan of the receipt signed by the receiver. Thus, the package delivery confirmation does the basic job of letting you know that the parcel arrived at the destination.
When using Eurosender’s shipping services, you can request the package delivery confirmation or the proof of delivery at any point, free of charge.
- It will serve you in case you need to open a claim procedure with the courier company.
In case your packages get damaged during the transit, you will want to open a claim with the courier provider to recover the losses. In order to do so, most of the courier providers require some proves that the package was damaged. The first one is actually a damage report that substitutes the parcel delivery confirmation and it is filed at the moment of delivery, together with the courier driver.
If instead of filling in a damage report, you will sign the parcel delivery confirmation without hesitation, you will actually confirm that the package has arrived in a good state. Based on this, the carrier might reject the claim from the outset. This is something that you will definitely want to avoid. Therefore, inspect your parcel and sign the delivery confirmation only if you don’t have any suspicions of damage. Instruct your clients/business partners to do the same if they expect a package from you.
What if you receive an email confirming that your package made it to its destination on time, but the parcel is nowhere to be found?
This is not such an unusual case. Note that a simple parcel delivery confirmation does not guarantee that the parcel was delivered to the intended recipient. Marking a package delivered might simply mean that it was handed over to someone who was present at the location (not necessarily the intended recipient) or left around the house.
A lot of mix-ups in the information can lead to receiving the wrong email. There are many reasons why this happens and we covered them all in this article. One of the most common cases is of packages being in fact delivered to the local depot of the courier company. When the couriers cannot find someone at the delivery address, they usually store the parcel in their local depot. And the parcel is marked delivered.
What is the best way to know that the parcel was delivered to its intended recipient?
Different from the parcel delivery confirmation, the signature confirmation is a confirmation option that requires the signature of the intended recipient. Therefore, it means that the package will not be handed over to any other person and it will not be left at the neighbours’ or around the house.
This is the safest option against fraud as it ensures that the parcel won’t be released without a signature. However, take into account that most of the time, the signature confirmation is an additional service for which you have to pay extra.
More about delivery confirmation…
Many courier companies in Europe have already implemented a system of sending notifications to their customers whenever a parcel is ready to be delivered. This helps to ensure that the consignee will be at the address when the courier will try to deliver them. It is also meant to reduce the complaints customers have about receiving a notification with a parcel delivery confirmation, when in fact, the package is nowhere to be found.
In conclusion, while the parcel delivery confirmation is a good way to get an update on the delivery of a parcel, it is not a bulletproof solution. If you are working with clients or business partners and want to make sure that there will be no mash-ups and the parcel reaches the intended sender, you should rather opt for a signature confirmation whenever the service is available with the selected carrier.
Still have questions?
Check our articles that answer the most common questions about shipping.
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About the author
Marcel Nahtigal is Head of Marketing at Eurosender, specializing in digital strategies to enhance customer connections in logistics.
