Monthly Product Demo Watch Now

Sifted logo

Delivery Exceptions: How to Handle Them

Nov 11, 2022

6 min read

What Is a Delivery Exception?

A delivery exception (also known as shipment exception) is when package delivery gets delayed for unavoidable reasons such as a damaged or lost package, missing labels, or bad weather conditions.

Here’s how major shipping carriers define delivery exceptions:

  • FedEx delivery exception: A delivery exception means your package is temporarily delayed while in transit due to unavoidable circumstances.
  • UPS delivery exception: An exception occurs when a package or shipment encounters an unforeseen event, which could result in a change to the expected delivery day.
  • USPS delivery exception: A delivery exception happens when a package is delayed due to incorrect shipping information and postal holidays.
  • DHL delivery exception: A delivery exception (or shipment exception) occurs when a shipment is temporarily delayed or stalled in transit.

According to Digital Commerce 360, online sales in the U.S. increased from $762.68 billion in 2020 to $870.78 billion in 2021.

The growing demand for online delivery puts pressure on shipping companies beyond their existing capacity, particularly during the peak season. Customer expectations for fast delivery times, coupled with persistent errors from the delivery end puts a strain on shippers to maintain customer satisfaction.

In this article, we’ll talk about the different types of status exceptions and highlight the best practices to mitigate the impact of delivery delays.

Are shipping mistakes slipping past your glance? Take better charge of your shipping costs to avoid mistakes with Sifted Logistics Intelligence.

 

Different Types of Status Exceptions

Here are the common types of status exceptions generated by delivery delays:

Label Damage or Incorrect Address

A common reason why shippers receive delivery exception statuses is when the essential information on the shipping label is unreadable or incorrect. This can happen for various reasons including damaged labels, missing labels, wrong delivery addresses, and unscannable barcodes.

Shipping label failures can cause your package to be delayed or undeliverable, costing you time and money.

Pick Up Issues

In most cases, shippers are responsible for pick up delays. Common causes of pick up exceptions include shippers failing to place the order in time, mishandling over a package to the driver, or carriers not accepting the package in their system due to an incorrect shipping address.

In addition, inclement weather conditions and capacity constraints can also prevent a driver from picking up your shipment at the scheduled time.

Delivery Issues

Late shipments plague eCommerce businesses – often through no fault of their own. Delivery exceptions and delays can happen for a variety of reasons including wrong recipient address, customs delays, severe weather conditions, and damage to delivery routes due to a natural disaster like a wildfire.

Delay issues may also happen if the recipient is not available to accept the package for some reason. The delivery driver typically tries again to deliver the package the next day.

Holidays

Delivery employees take a break from their daily mail duties on federal holidays, causing a change in the scheduled delivery date. Shippers may also experience shipment exceptions during the peak holiday season because there is an increase in shipping volume, and off days accelerate the shipment backlog.

In addition, post offices may remain open on national holidays, but not deliver or pick up packages.

Loss and Damage

Carriers make every effort to make the shipping process seamless and hassle-free. However, packages get misplaced or damaged during transit from time to time. When this happens, shipping carriers decide to put a hold on the shipment and send it back to the delivery station. They send a “Damaged” or “Lost” delivery exception notice to the shippers to inform them about the shipment status.

 

How Shippers Can Handle Delivery Exceptions

Here’s the step-by-step process you should follow to effectively respond to delivery exceptions:

1. Contact the Carrier Right Away

If you receive a package exception notification, you should immediately contact the carrier to get the tracking status of the package and the reason for the incomplete delivery. In most cases, you can call the delivery driver and resolve the issue on the spot. For example, if the package has the wrong address, you can provide the correct address, allowing the driver to deliver the package on time.

Delivery guarantees usually cover the costs of delayed or failed deliveries. That means if the carrier damages the package or shipping, you should contact the carrier and claim a refund. Follow your carrier’s shipping guidelines to maximize your chances of getting a refund.

Refunds could be slipping through the cracks! Sifted’s automated parcel audit tracks carrier errors and files refund claims per the carrier’s Money Back Guarantee policy.

2. Contact the Customer

After you’ve communicated with the carrier, make sure you reach out to your customer to inform them about potential delays. Moreover, suppose the delivery issue is related to missing or incorrect shipping information on the package. In that case, you can contact the customer to get the correct details and share them with the delivery driver.

Offering greater visibility when orders are in-transit has a positive impact on customers’ future purchases from the same seller. According to a Dropoff study, 88% of online shoppers expect to monitor their order status at every step of the delivery process.

3. Resend the Package or Issue a Refund

Carriers and shippers do everything to ensure that packages are delivered on time and in good condition. However, if you find out that a package doesn’t reach its destination or if it is damaged when it’s delivered, you should issue a refund or replacement to the customer. In addition, you should file a claim for reimbursement with your carrier or insurance company to cover your costs.

 

Prepare for Status Exceptions with Sifted

Damaged packages, shipping errors, and peak shipping season are some of the most common causes of delivery exceptions. You can overcome these shipping problems by communicating with your carrier and customers in a timely manner to resolve issues as soon as you receive a status exception.

Sifted’s Parcel Insurance helps you deal with delivery exceptions by insuring your shipments (limited to a certain amount). You can use the parcel invoice feature to make the claims and refunds process easy and fast.

Get the right insurance coverage for your parcel deliveries. Get a free demo from Sifted!

Topics: Parcel, Peak Season
Topics

Check out related resources at Sifted.

The Future of Shipping: How These 7 Companies are Leading the Way in Sustainability

The Future of Shipping: How These 7 Companies are Leading the Way in Sustainability

‘Sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ aren’t just buzzwords but a way of life. Consumers are becoming increasingly ...
Read More
3/20/23 Monday Parcel News Update

3/20/23 Monday Parcel News Update

1. Despite Volume Normalization, FedEx Raises Earnings Outlook On an earnings call last Thursday, FedEx raised ...
Read More
3/13/23 Monday Parcel News Update

3/13/23 Monday Parcel News Update

1. Amazon Air Shifting To Model Similar to FedEx and UPS According to a report from the Chaddick Institute for ...
Read More
Understanding your Amazon Sales Reports to Calculate Performance

Understanding your Amazon Sales Reports to Calculate Performance

Why Understanding Your Amazon Sales Reports is Important Amazon sellers have access to endless reports in Seller ...
Read More
Striking a Balance: The Potential Impact of the Teamsters Agreement on the Parcel Logistics Industry

Striking a Balance: The Potential Impact of the Teamsters Agreement on the Parcel Logistics Industry

If your shipping business relies on UPS to deliver packages (inbound or outbound) to operate, scale up, or even ...
Read More
3/6/23 Monday Parcel News Update

3/6/23 Monday Parcel News Update

1. FedEx Urges Customers To Shift Volume From UPS Ahead of Potential Labor Strikes In a letter to various UPS ...
Read More
Who Is at Fault for Damaged Packages in Transit?

Who Is at Fault for Damaged Packages in Transit?

Who’s at Fault for Damaged Packages? Whether you sell products online or in a brick-and-mortar store, there’s ...
Read More
UPS Large Package Surcharges in 2023: How to Lower Surcharge Fees

UPS Large Package Surcharges in 2023: How to Lower Surcharge Fees

What is the UPS large package surcharge? UPS is actively trying to eliminate large, oversized shipments that are ...
Read More
Carrier Management: Critical Functions and Why It’s Important

Carrier Management: Critical Functions and Why It’s Important

What Is Carrier Management? Carrier management is important for healthy operations and relationships between the ...
Read More
2/27/23 Monday Parcel News Update

2/27/23 Monday Parcel News Update

1. FedEx Express Pilots One Step Closer to Potential Strike The FedEx Express pilots union unanimously approved an ...
Read More
How Amazon’s Buy With Prime is Competing with FedEx and UPS

How Amazon’s Buy With Prime is Competing with FedEx and UPS

In early January, Amazon announced the expansion of their “Buy with Prime” (Buy With Prime) service to all ...
Read More
The Impact of FedEx and UPS’s New Fees: Strategies for Managing Shipping Costs in 2023

The Impact of FedEx and UPS’s New Fees: Strategies for Managing Shipping Costs in 2023

Looking for a better explanation of the new FedEx and UPS fee changes for 2023? You’ve come to the right ...
Read More

How Sifted Works

Connect to
your account

Sync
your data

Power your
dashboards

Get Your Logistics
Intelligence Demo

Strategic ways to prevent loss down the line

Services you could be utilizing right now for savings

Ways to cut material costs without cutting quality

Are you an FBM (fulfillment by merchant) Amazon seller?

Check out our Marketplace Intelligence solutions to protect your bottom line.

Shipping Insights & Alerts
Get updates and track the things impacting your business most

Decision Support
See how supply chain adjustments pay off before you pay out

Carrier Management
Streamline how you manage your carrier operations and contracts

Business Automation
Let software do what it does better than people can

Seller Insights
Measure and monitor with confidence.

Sales Visualization
Shed new light on your sales data.

Fee Analyzer
Understand the impact of ever-changing FBA fees.

FBA Audit & Recovery
Secure money you’re owed from Amazon.

Blog
Discover news, tips, and industry best practices

DIM Weight Calculator
See how DIM is impacting you

Customer Stories
Learn how other brands use
Logistics Intelligence

Carbon Calculator
Calculate your CO2 Emissions

Guides
Download free reports and expert how-tos

Demo
Get a personalized tour of our software

Logistics Intelligence
For parcel shippers

Marketplace Intelligence
For Amazon FBA sellers

Let's get you to the right place!

SIFTED DASHBOARDS
For parcel shippers

AMAZON Marketplace Intelligence

Not sure if you have an account? Email [email protected].