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The development of airmail began long before the invention of the airplane, the dirigible or even the balloon. It began with the pigeon post, which was used by armies many years before the birth of Christ to send messages long distances. Since then, all the man-made vehicles of the air have been used to carry letters from one place to another. Lighter-than-air craft carried mail. Then came the airplane. In the Space Age, experiments have been conducted with missile mail, and messages have been carried on spacecraft and deposited on the planets and the moon for future explorers to discover.

The story of airmail really begins on May 15, 1918, when the world’s first regularly scheduled airmail route was inaugurated under U.S. government auspices between New York and Washington, D.C., with a stop at Philadelphia. The distance of the route was 218 miles, and one round trip per day was made, six days a week. Army Air Service pilots flew the route until August 10, 1918, when the Post Office Department took over the entire operation with its own planes and pilots.

Attempts to start airmail service had begun as early as 1912, when it seemed that the airplane might develop into a practicable means of transportation. Recommendations were made to Congress that year to appropriate $50,000 to start an experimental service. Many government permits were issued to make short exhibition flights with mail, but it was not until 1916 that sufficient funds were made available to begin scheduled operations. Advertisements for bids were issued but not one was received. However, the war in Europe caused improvements in aircraft to be made rapidly, and in the fiscal year ending

1. Airmail Envelopes History. Airmail service in the U.S began on May 15, 1918 with the U.S Army piloting the airplanes (This wouldn’t be the only time the U.S Army was involved in the program, but more on that later). It wasn’t until August 12, 1918, that the Post Office Department (POD) took full control and began using their own pilots.
2. Airmail M-Bag ® packaging is the most affordable way to send large amounts of printed material internationally, including newspapers, magazines, journals, books, sheet music, catalogs, directories, commercial advertising, and promotional matter. Delivery varies by destination. Prices start at $51.70 at a Post.
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4. All China Post services including airmail, ePacket and EMS have suffered the worst delay in history. Many parcels shipped from Wuhan between later January and early April are even cancelled and returned to shipper. To let our users Read More Alert: Many parcels shipped in early 2020 were returned to shipper to avoid virus speading.

On May 20, 1939, the US Post Office inaugurated its official trans-Atlantic airmail service to Europe. The flight wasn’t the first to carry mail from the US to Europe. As early as 1919, individual pilots had carried mail across the Atlantic.

June 30, 1918, Congress appropriated $100,000 for development of an experimental route between Washington and New York. Bids were to be delivered within 10 days.Much to the surprise of the Post Office Department, Colonel E.A. Deeds, head of the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps (later the Army Air Service), offered to operate the postal route with military planes and pilots. The offer had developed because of a request from Europe that pilots be given more cross-country experience before being sent overseas. Flying the mail over a fixed route system would give pilots valuable experience.

On March 1, 1918, the Post Office Department made an agreement with the War Department ‘to inaugurate an Aerial Mail Service between Washington, D.C., and New York beginning May 15th.’ Major Reuben H. Fleet, the executive officer to Colonel Henry H. ‘Hap’ Arnold in charge of planning instruction at Army Air Service schools, was concerned about training pilots at 34 fields in the United States; setting up an experimental airmail service was far from his mind. Consequently, when he saw the War Department order dated May 3, 1918, he paid little attention to it. Fleet, a tall, broad-shouldered man who would one day be president of his own aircraft company, had enough problems without worrying about what he considered unrelated responsibilities.

On May 6, Fleet received a summons from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker and was told that Arnold had recommended him for the job of getting the airmail route started. Baker said, ‘The first plane will leave Washington for Philadelphia at precisely 11 a.m. on May 15th. President Wilson will be there.’

Fleet was dumbfounded. ‘Mr. Secretary,’ he said, ‘we don’t have any planes that can fly from Washington to Philadelphia and New York. The best plane we have is the Curtiss JN-4D Jenny, and it will fly only an hour and twenty minutes. Its maximum range is 88 miles at a cruising speed of 66 miles per hour.’

Baker listened patiently while Fleet explained that the range of a plane was dependent upon its fuel supply, that the Jennies had dual controls and were designed to carry only an instructor and a student, and that they had no baggage compartment where mail could be stowed. He told of the shortage of pilots, of how very few Air Service pilots had any experience flying cross-country, of how there were no adequate maps available, and of how there was a lack of good, experienced aircraft mechanics. He said he would need much more than eight days to modify some planes, test them and train some pilots.

Baker was adamant. Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson had already issued a national press release announcing that the airmail route was going to be inaugurated at 11 a.m. on May 15th, and he was not going to back down. The schedule, already announced, called for daily flights five days a week between Washington, Philadelphia and New York.

Fleet was furious, but he knew he could not waste a minute. He made arrangements with the Curtiss Aeroplane Corporation on Long Island, N.Y., to convert six JN-4Ds to JN-4Hs, which involved replacing the standard 90-hp OX-5 engines with 150-hp Hispano-Suizas.

‘And leave out the front seat and the front set of controls and make a hopper to carry mailbags up there,’ Fleet ordered. He also asked that the gas capacity be doubled by hooking two 19-gallon gas tanks and two 21Ž2-gallon oil tanks in tandem for longer range operation. A total of 12 modified Jennies would eventually be required. Next, he made arrangements with the owner of Belmont Park, a racetrack on Long Island, to use the infield as a terminus so that the training of Army pilots would not have to be interrupted on Hazelhurst Field at nearby Mineola. Bustleton Field, located near the railroad station in north Philadelphia, was designated for the midpoint station. The Washington, D.C., field would be Potomac Park’s old Polo Grounds, a 900-by-300-foot grassy area surrounded by trees between the Tidal Basin and the Potomac River. Fleet wanted to use the airport at College Park, Md., but postal officials objected because it was nine miles outside the city, too far from the main post office.

Mechanics were hurriedly located and ordered to report to the three fields. Fleet asked for six Army Air Service pilots and was told to choose four; the Post Office Department would choose the other two. Fleet selected Lieutenants Howard P. Culver, Torrey H. Webb, Walter Miller and Stephen Bonsal. They were the most experienced pilots available who had not yet been committed to go to France; however, only Culver had more than four months of flying experience.

Post Office Department officials selected Lieutenants James C. Edgerton and George L. Boyle, two recent flight-training graduates. Fleet understood why these two were chosen when he learned that Edgerton’s father was purchasing agent for the Post Office Department and Boyle’s future father-in-law, Judge Charles C. McChord, was an Interstate Commerce commissioner who was credited with saving the parcel post for the Post Office Department at a time when private express companies were fighting the government in court for the business. This victory gave Judge McChord enough political power to persuade postal officials to let his soon-to-be son-in-law go down in the history books.

Edgerton and Boyle had graduated only a few days before from flying school at Ellington Field, Texas. During their training they had flown briefly on one cross-country training flight, a short hop from Ellington to another field about 10 or 14 miles away. Both had only about 60 hours of student pilot time in their log books.

Fleet was furious over the two assignments made solely on the basis of political contacts, but he had no choice. On May 13, he took the train to New York with five of the six pilots, leaving Boyle in Washington to take the first flight north to Philadelphia. The modified JN-4Hs had arrived at Hazelhurst Field by the time he arrived, but they were still in crates. Fleet had only 72 hours to get them assembled and into position to begin operations.

Mechanics and pilots worked around the clock to get the planes ready. By the afternoon of the 14th, only two were ready to go. Leaving Webb in charge of getting the other planes ready, Fleet commandeered a Jenny from Hazelhurst Field that had the smaller engine and no extra fuel and oil tanks. The plan was for Edgerton, Culver and Fleet to fly to Bustleton Field and stay overnight. Early on the 15th, Fleet planned to fly one of the modified Jennies on to Washington so that Boyle would have the honor that Judge McChord so keenly wanted him to have.

Webb would leave Belmont Park at 11:30 a.m. on the 15th and fly the New York mail to Philadelphia; Edgerton would then fly Webb’s mail pouch and the Philadelphia mail from there to Washington. When Boyle arrived at Bustleton from Washington, Culver would take the Philadelphia mail, along with the pouches that Boyle would bring from Washington, to Belmont. From then on, these four pilots, plus Bonsal and Miller, would make all the trips during the experiment.

Fleet’s best-laid plans went askew from the start. He took off from Belmont in the late afternoon of May 14 for the 90-mile flight to Philadelphia in thick haze and fog, followed by Edgerton and Culver in their faster JN-4Hs. Fleet soon lagged behind in his lighter powered Jenny, and he lost sight of the others.

Fleet described the flight: ‘I climbed through the fog and came out at 11,000 feet, almost the ceiling of the plane. I flew south guided only by magnetic compass and the sun until I ran out of gas and the engine quit. Since we didn’t have ‘chutes in those days, there was nothing I could do but ride the Jenny down. I broke out of the clouds at about 3,000 feet over lush farmland, so I just picked out a nice pasture and landed. A surprised farmer sold me a five-gallon can of tractor gas but I had trouble getting it in the tank without a funnel. Perhaps three gallons got in the tank and the rest all over me, but darkness was coming and I couldn’t wait to get more from town. I asked him to point out the direction Philadelphia was and took off. Two miles from Bustleton Field I ran out of gas again and landed in a meadow. Since no telephone was available, I persuaded a farmer to drive me to Bustleton Field. Culver and Edgerton had just arrived after similar experiences, so I sent Culver with aviation gasoline to get my plane and fly it in.

‘There were so many things wrong with our planes and their engines that we worked all night to get them in safe flying condition. For example, one gas tank had a hole in it and we had to plug it up with an ordinary lead pencil. Next morning, one machine was flyable, so at 8:40 a.m. I took off for Washington, where I landed at 10:35 at the [Polo Grounds] in Potomac Park. The mail was due to start twenty-five minutes later.’

While Fleet had been worrying about the technical flying details, Captain Benjamin B. Lipsner had been detailed to take care of administrative matters. He was waiting nervously at Potomac Park, wondering if he had taken care of all the necessary details. Although not a pilot himself, he knew he would be criticized if anything went wrong with the arrangements, especially since President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and many other VIPs, such as members of Congress, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and his assistant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had been invited to witness the takeoff of ‘the first plane in history to carry mail at an announced time to and from designated places on a regular schedule irrespective of weather.’

The Polo Grounds had never been intended to be a flying field, but it was the only open flat space available in the city at the time. Towering trees stood like sentinels around the field. On earlier demonstration flights, Jennies had barely cleared the trees.

Lipsner was greatly relieved when Fleet circled the field, squeaked his way among the trees and landed. Lipsner asked him if Boyle did not show up, would he take the first run. Fleet said he would, but Boyle–accompanied by his fiancée, who was holding an armful of roses–arrived at that moment.

Producing a road map he had strapped to his thigh, Fleet instructed Boyle to follow the railroad tracks northward out of Washington’s Union Station all the way to Philadephia. As they were talking, a long line of shiny black cars chugged into the entrance to the Polo Grounds while Army guards held back a cheering crowd. Secret Service agents surrounded President and Mrs. Wilson as they stepped down from the lead car, smiling. The president’s left hand was bandaged because of a burn he had suffered from having inadvertently touched a hot cannon the day before at a military ceremony.

As the president shook hands with the two pilots, a siren blared across the field and a motorcycle escort sped ahead of a mail truck. The truck parked nearby, and four mail bags were unloaded that contained 3,300 letters and weighed 140 pounds. Merrill Chance, the Washington postmaster, held one of the bags open and President Wilson dropped in a letter addressed to Postmaster Thomas G. Patten in New York City. The president had written his name at the top of the envelope above the fresh cancellation of a new airmail stamp that had just been released. Six ranking Post Office officials also placed their initials on the white selvage attached to the stamp. Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson called this the ‘first aeroplane stamp to be sold by [his] department.’

Burleson presented Boyle with a bouquet of flowers and presented Fleet with engraved watches for himself and the six pilots. When the bags were placed in the plane, Boyle climbed into the cockpit. ‘Switch off!’ he shouted to Sergeant E. F. Waters. Waters turned the propeller three times.

‘Contact!’ Waters yelled, and Boyle replied, ‘Contact!’ Boyle turned the switch on and Waters used all his strength to spin the propeller. The engine coughed once and died. Waters tried again. And again. And again.

Fleet, standing nearby, thought the problem might be the spark plugs. While Sergeant Waters tried to find the problem, Fleet heard the president, visibly annoyed, whisper to Mrs. Wilson, ‘We’re losing a lot of time here.’

‘Sergeant, check the gas tank,’ Fleet ordered. Waters climbed up on the plane’s wing with a dip stick. It came out dry. In the excitement, the formalities and picture taking, everything had been checked but the gas tank!

Fleet ordered that the tanks of three aircraft parked nearby should be drained of fuel for Boyle’s plane. He also sent a truck to the Navy yard to borrow replacement gasoline. Several more cans were filled, and the engine was finally started. Everyone, including the president, smiled with relief.

Lieutenant Boyle taxied out and began the takeoff run. Bumping stiffly on its tail skid at first, the frail machine slowly gathered speed–but it was heading for the trees!

The crowd gasped and fell silent. At the last second, Boyle eased back on the stick, missing the treetops by about three feet. The crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief.Except for the fact that Boyle was 45 minutes late getting off, everything seemed to have gone just as the Post Office Department press releases said it would. While Fleet remained to greet Edgerton on his arrival from Philadelphia, Lipsner returned to his office to find a telephone call waiting from New York. After appropriate ceremonies there, Lieutenant Webb had departed Belmont on schedule, carrying mail from New York. An hour later, another phone call came in from Bustleton Field. Webb had arrived there and turned the mail over to Edgerton, who loaded it aboard, along with the southbound Philadelphia mail.

Culver loaded his northbound Philadelphia mail and waited for Boyle. When Boyle did not arrive in a reasonable time, Culver took off anyway at 2:15 p.m. and arrived at Belmont to a rousing welcome–even though he carried no mail from Washington.

Meanwhile, a call came to Colonel Arnold from Boyle about an hour after he had departed the Polo Grounds. Lost and nearly out of gas, he had landed in a farmer’s field at Waldorf, Md., 20 miles southeast of his takeoff point. The plane had flipped over on its back and the prop was splintered, but he was unhurt. Ironically, he had crashed on property next to that owned by Otto Praeger, second assistant postmaster general, who was in charge of the airmail operation. His mail was quietly trucked back to Washington.

Instead of following the railroad tracks northward, Boyle had followed a branch line out of the Washington rail yard that took him southeast instead of north. His unreliable compass was no help. The young lieutenant had become not only the first official, scheduled-airmail pilot to depart with mail from Washington but, unhappily, had also become the first airmail pilot to get lost and the first to have an accident.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Edgerton had landed on schedule at the Polo Grounds that afternoon to be greeted by a relieved Fleet and a small but enthusiastic crowd. He carried 150 pounds of letters and copies of The New York Times.

Boyle’s mail bags were sent by air next day on the scheduled northbound flight. That flight carried 600 letters, including the one President Wilson had autographed. (This letter was later auctioned off for the benefit of the Red Cross in New York City for $1,000.)

The first day of the airmail service was termed a complete success by Post Office Department officials, although Fleet, Lipsner and a few other government personnel felt differently.

While no one else seemed to worry about Boyle’s flying skill, Fleet was very concerned. He wanted a replacement pilot assigned immediately, but Postmaster General Burleson asked Colonel Arnold to ‘give the young man a chance.’

Two days after his forced landing, Boyle took off again, this time with Edgerton flying ahead following the four-track Pennsylvania Railroad in a training Jenny to make sure Boyle was headed in the right direction. About 50 miles north of Washington where the railroad crossed the Susuehanna, Edgerton waved Boyle ahead, confident that he could not get lost going the rest of the distance to Philadelphia, and returned to Washington.

But Boyle did get lost again. Completely disoriented after Edgerton turned back, he edged southward again in the area’s typical spring haze and followed the shoreline of Chesapeake Bay in a semicircle. After three hours and 15 minutes, he landed in a pasture at Cape Charles at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. As Fleet commented in his report of the first day’s operation, ‘[Only] the Atlantic Ocean and lack of gas prevent[ed] him going farther.’

Boyle bought tractor gas and oil from a farmer, asked for directions and took off again. He found Philadelphia this time and flew around the city looking for Bustleton Field until he ran out of gas. He crash-landed between two birch trees on the golf course of the Philadelphia Country Club, only a few miles from his intended destination on the north side of Philadelphia. Although both wings had been sheared off and the landing gear and fuselage were badly smashed, Boyle escaped unhurt. Once more, his mail was trucked to a take-off point.

To Fleet’s dismay, postal officials again requested that ‘Lieutenant Boyle be given a third chance and, if he fails, the Department will take the responsibility for his failure.’ Fleet protested and denied the request, saying with uncharacteristic restraint, ‘The conclusion has been reached that the best interests of the service require that Lieutenant Boyle be relieved from this duty.’ He was backed up in his decision by Secretary of War Baker. Boyle was replaced by Lieutenant E.W. Killgore, who served successfully during the three-month experiment but was involved in five forced landings due to mechanical failure.

In a mid-1960s interview, Reuben Fleet told the author that Boyle’s performance was understandable: ‘There were no maps of much value to airmen in those days. Major E. Lester Jones, chief of the Geodetic Survey Office, made up maps for the airmail pilots. The official state maps of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland were all of different scales and they showed only political divisions with nothing of a physical nature except cities, towns, rivers, harbors, etc. We had to fold large maps of the United States in a strip in order to have everything on a uniform scale. Naturally, they contained little detail.

‘In addition to poor maps, the magnetic compass in any airplane was highly inaccurate and was affected by everything metal on the airplane. Pilots almost had to have a sixth sense about navigating and many didn’t acquire this until they had flown a long time. Lieutenant Boyle simply didn’t have enough training to do the job and should not be criticized too severely for his mistakes.’

Lieutenant Edgerton, the other Post Office Department selectee, served during the entire three-month experiment without accident and flew more trips and had more flying time (106 hours) than any of the other five pilots; he had only one forced landing, which was caused by mechanical difficulties. Postmaster General Burleson gave him a special commendation for his ‘judgment and courage as well in storms as in fair weather.’

Army Air Service pilots continued to fly the New York­Washington route between May 15 and August 10, 1918, without much more public notice beyond the first two or three days. Although few people knew it, the pilots still had their difficulties. The pledge to keep on a regular schedule six days a week ‘irrespective of weather’ drove the pilots to take exceptional risks. However, unplanned landings due to mechanical malfunctions were relatively infrequent considering the times. The airmail pilot’s greatest threat–then, as always–was the weather.

At the end of the first month of operations, the Post Office Department published a press release noting that 10,800 pounds of mail had been flown over 1,000 miles at an average speed of 70 mph. Edgerton was mentioned as having made 20 perfect flights without ‘a stop en route, and without damaging a plane.’

On June 3, the first airmail flight was scheduled to be made between New York and Boston on a single round-trip basis. For public relations and goodwill purposes, Lieutenant Gustave Vannelle, a French aviator, was chosen to make the first flight, along with a mechanic. He crashed on takeoff, and both men suffered minor injuries. On June 6, Lieutenant Torrey Webb was assigned a Curtiss R-4 for the trip; Robert Heck, a mechanic, was to accompany him. Webb got lost en route in a severe rainstorm, landed in a pasture to ask for directions and finally landed at the Franklin Park Aviation Field in Saugas, Mass., where the plane hit a mudhole and flipped over on its back. Neither Webb nor Heck was hurt.

After his plane was repaired, Webb returned to New York in bad weather on June 11 with 64 pounds of mail and Boston Postmaster William Murray as a passenger. As Webb recalled later, ‘Visibility was zero-zero and I just skimmed over the telephone poles all the way.’

Although postal officials bragged about the new postal service, the public did not want to pay the extra charge for airmail stamps. Planeloads of mail averaged less than 50 pounds daily. However, when the airmail experiment with the Army Air Service ended after three months, the operational statistics were impressive for the time period, despite the mishaps and interrupted schedules.

The Army pilots had successfully completed 270 flights and had carried 40,500 pounds of mail. They had flown a total of 421:30 hours without a fatality or serious injury. Of the trips flown, 53 were forced down because of bad weather en route and 16 had ended in forced landings due to mechanical difficulties. Lieutenant James Edgerton had the best record, with 52 trips covering 7,155 miles and only one forced landing.

The Army Air Service pilots had proved they could maintain a fair semblance of regular schedules if a suitable system was set up, the airplanes were properly maintained and the pilots were trained. These pioneers had set an enviable standard of performance for those who followed as civilian employees of the Post Office Department.

The last flight by the Army Air Service pilots took place on Saturday, August 10, 1918. The Post Office Department took over the airmail operation officially the following Monday and continued until September 1, 1927. By the time the Air Mail Service of the Post Office Department was fully replaced by commercial operators flying the mail under government contract, a transcontinental route had been established, radio aids to navigation and ‘blind flying’ instruments were being developed, and planes were flying day and night. Today’s modern airline industry is the direct outgrowth of those pioneering efforts.

This article was written by C.V. Glines and originally published in the May 1994 issue of Aviation History. For more great articles subscribe to Aviation History magazine today!

Welcome to China Post Track, an online service of tracking international delivery from China and other countries. No matter where you have bought the product, in which online store - Aliexpress, Amazon, eBay, Wish, Banggood, LightInTheBox or SammyDress, we will help you track any parcel. If you have made your purchases in different online stores, you need to remember what the store was, where to track the parcel, on which website, from which carrier and many other things that make a buyer’s life difficult.

We offer you to simplify the process of delivery tracking and management. You need to know only the tracking number. China Post Track helps track packages in one click, just insert the tracking number in the input field and press TRACK. We automatically save your parcel in the parcel manager, identify international post carriers and prepare detailed information about the movement of the parcel from the country of consignment to the country of destination.

We don’t restrict our clients as for the number of parcels. All your parcels are kept in the left panel of the website and you have access to them 24/7. You can add several carriers to one parcel, which makes it possible to get more detailed information about its status. You can add a link to the product or to the store, where you have bought it, to every parcel. You can also write your notes about the parcel or the description of the product you have bought. If you have difficulties in tracking the parcel, we will be glad to help you.

Development of international shipment, reasons and consequences

For the last years the number of parcels has been growing exponentially. The leaders in shipment are China Post, USPS, PostNL (Netherlands), British Royal Mail. National post operators are followed by private firms, which are also increasing the volumes of correspondence delivery. The most popular private international carriers are DHL, FedEx, UPS. What is the reason of such delivery boom in recent time? The answer is simple - e-commerce. The development of online trade has led to globalization of the delivery market. If you want to buy a product from China, you don’t need to go there yourself. You can buy it online in any part of the world and order home delivery.

The product itself is not a problem nowadays. There is no shortage of goods. Consumers currently have absolutely different issues compared to problems 10 years ago. What concerns do customers have now?

• To choose a high quality product at a low price;
• To choose quick inexpensive delivery;
• To manage and track parcels.

Mail operators and carriers deal with the solution of the second problem and improve their services to keep up with the development of e-commerce and its growing volume.

What happens in the market of international shipment and logistics? There is booming growth of new courier companies in attempt to conquer a part of the growing delivery market. Experienced companies adapt and adjust to market tendencies and to increase of delivery volume. Reduction of the price and decrease of delivery time have become the main targets for delivery services. The time of monopolies on international shipment is finishing. In the nearest future we can expect creation and quick growth of new, more technological companies, which can drive out the current leaders of delivery. What does it give to the end user? The benefit for the consumer is really substantial. Everybody wants to have best quality service at the minimal price.

What will happen to the delivery companies that will not be able to adapt to the quickly growing market? They will be replaced by more competitive and perspective carriers. Now we can see the ongoing reformation of the market, some carriers are leaving the market, others are trying to expand their influence in different areas of the world. There happen mergers, collaboration, associations. The main thing is that all these changes lead to the improvement of services for the end user.

China Post as the leader of international shipment

China Post is the leader of international shipment and logistics. As for the number of delivered parcels it is the busiest mail service of the world. To manage a big flow of packages, China Post introduces new technologies that help optimize processes of sorting, logistics and delivery of parcels to the end user.

China Post is closely integrated in the global transport network. This postal service is a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which unites almost all world mail services (192 countries). The members of the Postal Union have signed an agreement which regulates issues to simplify the exchange of international correspondence and establish single tariffs for international shipment. Disputed issues among the members of the union are also resolved within this agreement.

China Post closely cooperates with mail operators of other countries and opens new logistics directions to increase the volume of shipment. Priority directions for development are the USA, Great Britain, Australia. The number of packages delivered from these countries is increasing year by year. This cooperation is aimed at decrease of shipment time and reduction of tariffs. China Post is open for cooperation with delivery services of other countries and always does its best to improve the quality of customer service.

Influence of COVID-19 on parcel delivery from China

In the end of 2019 mankind faced a new coronavirus disease COVID-19. In the beginning of the pandemic, there was very little information about the virus, its ways of spreading, its influence on people, which caused panic in the sphere of international shipment. The People’s Republic of China, being the source of spreading for the virus, introduces efficient quarantine measures to fight the virus. Informing people about the ways of spreading, symptoms and means of prevention of this disease made it possible to decrease panic mood among the population.

The number of packages reduced during the peak period of the pandemic. People were concerned that they might be able to contract the coronavirus from packages and stopped using delivery services. The second negative factor is delays in parcel delivery in sorting centers and at the customs because of quarantine measures. Post offices restricted reception and delivery of parcels, offices in the quarantine zones were temporary closed, which also had its negative impact on shipment terms. The third factor that decreased the volume of package delivery from China is closing down online stores for the quarantine period and making it impossible to send goods because of disruption in the work of post offices.

Eventually, the virus has been studied in detail. Possibilities to contract the disease via packages haven’t been proved scientifically. As a result, people stopped being concerned to receive and send parcels. Whole countries and separate cities started going out of the quarantine. Transport flows started to restore, which made it possible to return to the usual schedule of people’s lives and the global system of international shipment. By the end of 2020 there appeared vaccines against the coronavirus. Many countries started their national programs of vaccinating their population. This factor has also had a positive effect on the transportation market.

Years 2020 – 2021 have become very difficult for the whole branch of e-commerce and this has had its impact on international postal delivery. Not all shipment companies will be able to get over the recession caused by COVID-19. But there are some positive effects of the crisis. The market will be filled by more professional and flexible carriers that will be able to adjust to the current situation.

International and postal carriers

You have lost your parcel or you can’t track it? We help find and track packages bought in Chinese online stores. Use China Post Track to track international packages sent from the People’s Republic of China and other countries. We are able to track one parcel from several carriers. We have gathered comprehensive information on all shipping companies in one place. Our phone number, e-mail and courier’s website are always available in our directory.

Tips for users and FAQ

I received a parcel that I did not order, what should I do?

If you received a package from China, but you did not order it. This is unexpected for you, but how can this happen and what to do in this situation.

• Recheck all your online purchases, maybe you forgot;
• Ask other family members with whom you live if they ordered anything;
• Check with the delivery service for the exact address and who the recipient is;
• Specify who the sender is, can the name and address remind you of the parcel.

If the address and your name match but you are not waiting for the package, it is possible that you have already bought online and your data remained with the seller and you were sent promotional products to remind you about the product or store.

Nowadays in the world of e-commerce it is very difficult to compete with many of the same type of goods. Online stores operating on Chinese sites, such as Aliexpress, strongly compete with each other. To promote their brand and product, they need positive reviews and ratings. In order to evaluate the product and the seller, you need to buy the product, and upon the receipt of it, you can put an assessment. In order to deceive the algorithm for issuing goods in the search for a store, less successful stores buy goods from themselves on behalf of other people (fake accounts registered on your behalf) and send a parcel with trifles. Usually scammers use the cheap ePacket type from China Post. Why is it important for them to send a real package? The fact is that trading networks check and track parcels by tracking number. After the parcel is delivered, it is possible to set a rating for the product and the seller. The store algorithm evaluates the number of positive ratings and the total number of items sold and raises the store in the search results. Which in turn increases the sales and earnings of the store.

If you are sure that you did not order the goods, then we advise you not to take the parcel. After the expiration of the storage time, it will be sent back to the addressee.

What should I do if the parcel is not tracked in the destination country?

China Post has a cheap type of parcel that cannot be tracked in the destination country. You can see the status of the parcel without being updated for a long time and the parcel is in China. What steps do you need to take to find out where your package is?

• Please check that the tracking number format is the same as for China Post. The format should be ##*********CN (For example: LZ719363085CN);
• Try to track the package with your local postal operator. For example, for the USA it is USPS, for Canada it is Canada Post;
• Always be in dialogue with the sender of the parcel or the seller about the delivery and what difficulties we encountered;
• If you bought a product in an online store, then read the rules of delivery, return of goods and compensation for lost goods. It is important to know the guaranteed delivery time. If this period has expired, then you can start the procedure for a refund or require the sending of another product.
• Find out the average delivery time of the goods by the carrier. To do this, you need to go to the China Post page and find your country in the 'Delivery time for the carrier China Post' section. Delivery time is an average value and do not panic if your package has exceeded this time;
• After the delivery time has expired, you must claim compensation from the online store. If the procedure is delayed, then we advise you to contact the payment system or the bank to cancel the transaction and return the money to you.

It's hard to realize that you don't know where your package is. But be patient. Possible delays and lost parcels, but the probability of such a case is not very big. In any case, these actions above will help you understand the situation and make the right decision. In the future, in order not to get into such situations, order delivery with the ability to track the parcel. Such a parcel may be more expensive, but you can be more informed about the status of the shipment.

Why is my package from China not being tracked by USPS?

If you are expecting a parcel from China and your country of destination is the United States, you will receive the parcel at your nearest USPS office or the parcel will be delivered to your door. But not all parcels are tracked in USPS. Why does this happen and what to do in this case?

Some types of china post mail does not support destination country tracking. 'China Post Ordinary Small Parcel' and 'China Post Direct Xpress Mail' are the cheapest parcel types and therefore no tracking is available. If the tracking number starts with A (A#*********CN) or U (U#*********CN), these types of shipments are not tracked in USPS.

You just need to wait for the package. If you have not received the parcel for more than the period specified in the online store, then we advise you to open a dispute and demand a refund. For example, for Aliexpress, this period is about 60 days. If you do not receive the goods, then you will be compensated for all monetary costs or they will send it again.

How can I track a parcel of China Post?

If you have bought a product in an online store, you should have a tracking number from the seller. This unique number identifies the package. While using this number you will be able to find out the location of your parcel. In order to track the parcel and identify its status, you should follow the link Track & Trace China Post, insert the tracking number of you parcel in the input field and press the button Track. In some time you will see full information about the movement of your package.

Why is my parcel tracked by several mail operators?

International packages delivery from the country of consignment to the country of destination. A parcel is usually registered in two post services. For example, you live in the USA and you are waiting for a package from China sent by China Post. American postal service – USPS - will deliver the parcel to you. The same principle works for other countries. E.g. a package from Canada is being shipped to Australia. There will be two carriers for this parcel – Canada Post and Australia Post.

It is possible for the postal service of the country of destination to redirect delivery to another carrier inside the country. In this case there can be 3 and more shipping companies for one package. Follow the information in messages about the parcel’s movement.

How can I change the address of the parcel recipient?

If the sender has made a mistake and pointed out the recipient’s address incorrectly, then, according to the instructions, postal services can’t change the address, and the parcel will be sent back to the sender when storage time expires. The recipient usually finds out about the incorrect address when the parcel has already reached the country of destination, and the postal operator can’t find the address of delivery. There appears a corresponding warning in the messages about the parcel tracking.!!! What should the addressee do in this situation:

1. Address the local post office and clarify the possibility to change the delivery address;
2. Identify yourself as the recipient (report the tracking number of the parcel, information about the sender, your own full name, phone number and precise address);
3. Change the address (if your identification has been approved, you will be able to change the delivery address to your address and plan the delivery. Some operators can charge additional fees for this service).

If this service is not available with your shipping company, or you failed to prove that you were the recipient of the parcel, wait until it returns to the sender and ask them to send it again to the correct address. Of course, it is reasonable if the package is valuable. But if the purchased product is not expensive, and you need it urgently, it will be easier to buy it again and ask the seller to give the refund while returning the parcel.

If you are a sender and you have sent a parcel to the wrong address, clarify the location of the parcel in the postal service. If the parcel is still in the post office or a local sorting center and hasn’t been sent to its itinerary, you might be able to change the parcel’s address. Clarify all possible options at the post office.

Why can’t I track the parcel by the tracking number?

If your parcel is not found, there can be several reasons.

• You insert the wrong tracking number;
• Your package hasn’t been registered in the tracking system yet.

Check the correctness of the tracking number of your package.

The tracking number is formed according to UPU S10 standard.

• 2 letters – prefix (type of delivery)
• 8 digits – number of the parcel
• 1 digit – verification code of the number of the parcel
• 2 letters – suffix (code of the country of consignment)

E.g.: EB735462841CN, EB – express delivery, 73546284 - number of the parcel, 1 - verification code, CN - code of China (China Post) People can often confuse letter O with digit 0 or letter I with digit 1 in two symbols in the prefix of the tracking number. Be attentive when writing the number of the parcel.

If your package hasn’t been registered yet, you need to check it later. If the parcel is not tracked within more than 5 days, address the seller or the sender urgently and check the number of the parcel once again. There is a possibility to be deceived by swindlers, who can send you a fake tracking number. In this case you ought to inform the administrator of the online store about the issue and try to get your money back through the payment system.

What can I do if the status of China Post parcel hasn’t been updated for a long time?

An international parcel goes though the following stages on its way:

• Receiving and registration of the parcel;
• Transporting of the parcel to the sorting center of the country of consignment;
• Exporting the parcel;
• Air transportation to the country of destination;
• Importing the parcel;
• Moving the parcel to the sorting center of the country of destination;
• Delivery of the parcel to the point of destination;
• Delivery of the parcel to the addressee. In reality there are more stages in movement, and the real scheme is not that simple.

Every stage is recorded in the parcel’s status, and you need some time to move to the next stage. For example, exporting of the parcel can last long because of big workload at the customs or other factors. Air transportation occurs not at once, there are many packages which need to be brought, loaded and unloaded. There is also a time-table of flights, which also follow the schedule. You shouldn’t worry if the status of the parcel hasn’t been updated for a few days, wait a while and check the status again. If you parcel hasn’t been delivered within 60 days, we advise you to contact the shipping company and the seller. Some online stores assume such cases and return money for lost packages. E.g. you can complain to Aliexpress after 60 days and get a refund for the parcel you didn’t receive.

How long will it take to deliver a package from China?

Delivery time depends on the country of travel, the country of destination and the selected delivery type. Shipment will be quicker for the directions which are more developed and not overloaded. For example, the priority direction for China Post is the USA, where there are a lot of logistic routes, which allows to deliver packages without delay. The second factor is the type of the parcel. If you use express delivery, it is obvious that this type of delivery is quicker than usual mail. The distance between countries also matters. The bigger the distance, the more postal hubs the parcel will go through and the longer delivery will take.

How to find out average travel time for the parcel on China Post Track website:

1. Go to the page China Post;
2. In the section average delivery time find the country of destination (the average time is shown in days according to the statistics of previously delivered packages).

If the delivery time of your parcel takes longer than it is written, don’t panic and worry – it is the average figure which can be bigger or smaller. But if your package hasn’t been delivered to you within 60 days, we advise you to complain to the online store and demand a refund for the lost item.

Which local carrier delivers China Post packages?

International delivery means that a parcel is sent from one country to another. Chinese postal service is China Post, but it is not always clear which shipping company receives your parcel in your country and who will deliver it.

According to the agreement of Universal Post Union (UPU), national post offices or carriers that are responsible for postal services in the country receive international packages and deliver them to the recipient. Thus, if you live in the USA, your parcel will be delivered by USPS, if you live in Australia - by Australia Post, Great Britain – by Royal Mail, Singapore – by Sing Post.

Shipping companies can be different for express parcels and for usual international packages. In order to find out which carrier will deliver your parcel, you should know the parcel’s type. Usual packages will be delivered by national mail service. If it is express delivery, you may find out information about the carrier in the EMS list of shipping companies in your country.

Otherwise, you may contact China Post Track & Trace, and we will identify all carriers who deal with your parcel.

Which type of China Post delivery should I choose? Which delivery type is better: express or usual?

When buying goods in Chinese online stores, you are able to choose or order the type of shipment. China Post offers a few international delivery types, such as express delivery and usual air mail. Obviously, express delivery is quicker, but its cost is higher. Some online platforms either pay for the usual delivery themselves or include its cost in the price of the product (e.g. Aliexpress). Users even may not know about it because such type of delivery is cost-efficient. So, which type to choose? We advise to choose express delivery in case:

• It is important to deliver the product quickly and on time
• It is important to track the parcel
• The product is expensive and valuable

Airmail Postage Cost

In all other cases it is reasonable to use a cheaper means of shipment.

Airmail Postcards Print

How can I know that my tracking number is not fake?

The ideal scenario for a buyer is to purchase a product online and receive it on time. But there are a lot of swindlers in e-commerce, who use the trust of customers and deceive them by not sending the parcel. They can give fake tracking numbers to customers in order to mislead them. While you are waiting for your parcel and tracking its movement, swindlers can close their online store.

Signs of fake tracking numbers:

• Your parcel can’t be tracked (wrong format of the tracking number);
• The parcel’s date of start of movement is different from the date of purchase (e.g. you bought a product on February 14, bur the parcel started its movement from February 12, i.e. earlier than you purchased it);
• The parcel goes to a different country or a different region.

Airmail Postage Stamp

Check the format of tracking numbers of international packages.