Royal Mail Tracked 24 Guidelines
This guide explains the shipping process when you select the Royal Mail Tracked 24 service to help you understand the journey your order will take, and how you will be kept up-to-date.
Using our Royal Mail Tracked 24 shipping option
We offer FREE Royal Mail Tracked 24 for orders over £20
Our FREE delivery method is Royal Mail’s Tracked 24 service when you spend £20 or more.
If your order doesn’t meet the £20 free shipping threshold, you are charged £2.99 for this service.
Although Royal Mail does advise allowing 1-2 days for delivery to take place, we’ve seen around a 97% success rate on next-day delivery.
The service is fully trackable and does NOT require a signature on delivery.
Order up to 9pm
7 days a week
for same-day dispatch
and next day delivery
Royal Mail’s Tracked 24 service is delivered 7 days a week, including Sundays. This excludes Bank Holidays.
Our Royal Mail collection times
Orders that are collected throughout the day are transported to Gatwick Mail Centre (Gatwick MC).
On the evening collection, parcels are transported directly to Royal Mail’s Princess Royal Parcel Hub (PRPH) in London.
| Monday - Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| 17.30 to Gatwick MC | 11.30 to Gatwick MC | N/A |
| 22.30 to PRPH | 22.30 to PRPH | 22.30 to PRPH |
No collections are made on Bank Holidays, but additional collections may be made after busy holiday periods.
| Monday - Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| 17.30 to Gatwick MC | 11.30 to Gatwick MC | N/A |
| 22.30 to PRPH | 22.30 to PRPH | 22.30 to PRPH |
No collections are made on Bank Holidays, but additional collections may be made after busy holiday periods.
Your parcel's journey
Your parcel is collected from Vape UK.
Delivery to you
The Tracked 24 service is delivered 7 days a week (excluding Bank Holidays and depending on location) and can be delivered as late as 19.30.
Email communication
Order confirmation email
This is sent to you from Vape UK immediately after your order is placed.
Shipping confirmation email
This is sent to you from Vape UK at roughly 23.30 once your order has been collected by Royal Mail.
The email’s subject line is ‘Your order is on its way’, and it contains the unique number with which to track your parcel.
SMS communication
You will be updated with text messages directly from Royal Mail. The message content depends on whether your parcel was transported to PRPH or Gatwick MC.
Orders placed before 5pm
If your order is placed in time for our early Royal Mail collection, then your parcel will be processed at Gatwick MC.
You will receive a text from them on the same day letting you know that your parcel has been collected from us.
It includes a tracking link which will take you to the Royal Mail website, or directly to their app (if you have it on your phone).
Delivery window allocated
The day before delivery is due, you will receive a text advising the two or four-hour delivery window which they expect to deliver between.
Your unique tracking link to the Royal Mail website will be included again, so that you can change your delivery options, such as selecting a Safeplace.
Delivery window confirmed
On the day of delivery, a further text is sent confirming your time slot.
Delivery confirmed
Royal Mail will send a final text once delivery is successfully completed. Tracking information is also provided to show the delivery image and location.
Delivery to Safeplace confirmed
If you’ve opted for your parcel to be delivered to your Safeplace, then your delivery confirmation text will confirm this. You can now go and retrieve your parcel.
Orders placed between 5pm and 9pm
If your order is placed in time for our late Royal Mail collection, your parcel will be processed at PRPH.
The same day text messages will be deferred to the following morning, to avoid disturbing you late at night.
You will receive a text after 7am advising the delivery date and time and a further message confirming the estimated delivery time on the day of delivery.
As Tracked 24 service is a next-day service, you will likely receive both text messages on the same day before the delivery confirmation text when delivery is made.
Tracking your order using your web browser
Royal Mail’s text communications include unique tracking links to their website where you can check details of the parcel's journey to you.
The parcel collection and path to you determine the tracking information provided.
The links will take you through to the Royal Mail website through your default browser.
NB: the easiest way to track your order is through the Royal Mail app (here), where you can do everything you’re able to on the website, but you’ll also receive push notifications if desired.
Gatwick Mail Centre:
Princess Royal Parcel Hub:
"Sorry, unable to confirm status"
If you attempt to track your order BEFORE the Royal Mail tracking number has been activated, the results will look like the following:
"We’re expecting it"
Tracking your order AFTER the Royal Mail tracking number has been activated shows a "We’re expecting it" result.
Important: This tracking information will only show in the evening of the day your order was shipped.
"In Transit"
Your parcel will reach the relevant Delivery Office after passing through either Gatwick MC or PRPH.
Or potentially through a Mail Centre closer to your address, such as the example below (Preston MC):
"Ready for delivery"
The tracking will update to show that your parcel is due for delivery once your order arrives at your local delivery office.
A two or four hour delivery timeframe might also be displayed if available.
"In case you're not in"
Your tracking link gives you the ability to change your delivery requirements while your parcel is in your delivery network.
This option is only available before the parcel leaves the delivery office to go out for delivery.
Choose a delivery day that suits you - The ability to change the day of delivery can be achieved by selecting the desired day from the options available on the dropdown menu.
Try my neighbour - Use this option to select a preferred neighbour to take delivery of your parcel.
Choose a Safeplace - If you’re not going to be in, you can select a Safeplace for the parcel to be left from the following:
- Enclosed Porch
- Shed
- Greenhouse
- Garage
- Outbuilding
- Other
Deliver to my address - You can confirm the delivery of your parcel to the original shipping address.
Deliver to another address - Redirect the parcel to an alternative address elsewhere by entering the delivery information and selecting the new desired address.
"Collect from Post Office"
If preferable, you can locate and select your nearest Post Office for your parcel to be delivered safely to, and collect when convenient.
"Delivered"
When a parcel is confirmed as delivered by Royal Mail, the delivery officer will take an image on delivery as proof.
Ideally the recipient (you or your chosen neighbour) will be in the image receiving the parcel.
Letterbox deliveries - If you or your chosen neighbour are not in when Royal Mail attempts delivery, and they are able to post the parcel through the letterbox, the delivery officer will take a photo of the parcel halfway through the letterbox and confirm its method of delivery.
The parcel is pushed fully through the letterbox after the photo is taken and not left partially hanging out.
Map of delivery location - The map shows a location marker of where the parcel was scanned on delivery, along with GPS coordinates, for reference.
Tracking your order in the Royal Mail app
The easiest way to track your orders, book a redelivery, divert your parcel to another address, or let your postie know your Safeplace is by using the Royal Mail app.
You can download it from the App Store if you have an iOS device, or from Google Play if you’re on Android.
Register and login
You can use the app as a guest, but setting up an account is worthwhile if you get regular deliveries.
That way you can save all your delivery preferences, and never miss an order from us.
Navigating the app
The app couldn’t be more simple to use. The menu is clear and user friendly, and you can track multiple parcels from the same place, as well as see the history of your recently tracked and delivered items.
Stay notified!
As well as SMS, you can also opt to receive push notifications from Royal Mail with up-to-the-minute delivery status updates.
Delivery information:
Proof of delivery:
Arrange a collection
If you need to return anything to us, you can arrange for a postie to come and collect it from your doorstep, or your Safeplace. They’ll even bring the label if you don’t have a printer.
Plus, online sending costs via the app are cheaper than over-the-counter prices. Win win!
We're here to help
We hope you’ve found this guide to our Tracked 24 service helpful. If you have any questions about your shipping options, or anything else, our friendly team will be more than happy to help you. Give us a call, or drop us an email with your query.
We also have guides to the shipping process if you select our Royal Mail Special Delivery service, or our DPD local service. You can find a whole host of other useful information on vaping here.