Add Pre-Assigned Tracking Numbers to AfterShip Shipping

Overview

This article outlines how to enter pre-assigned tracking numbers into AfterShip Shipping system for your shipper account. The tracking number will be automatically used whenever a label is created successfully. 

What are pre-assigned tracking numbers?

Some carriers (e.g. DPD NL, SF Express, and Asendia HK) pre-assign tracking numbers to your shipper accounts so that you can generate shipping labels with those tracking numbers. Carriers like DHL, UPS, and FedEx that assign tracking numbers automatically when creating the shipping labels do not require this setup. 

For businesses that ship in high volumes, pre-assigned tracking numbers allow for smoother and faster processing.
Pre-assigned tracking numbers streamline operations by ensuring that shipments are linked with tracking information immediately, rather than waiting for the tracking number to be created at the time of dispatch.
Since these tracking numbers are assigned in advance, customers and systems can track the package even before it is physically shipped, depending on the carrier's processes.

Add pre-assigned tracking numbers to AfterShip Shipping

Once tracking numbers are pre-assigned by carriers, you can add those tracking numbers to the shipper accounts by visiting the Carriers accounts tab in your AfterShip Shipping admin.

Under My carrier account section, click Tracking number button after you setup the shipper account. This option will only be visible for carriers that support pre-assigned tracking numbers.

There are two types of formats supported by carriers when pre-assigning tracking numbers. 

Type 1: Randomly assigned tracking numbers

Some carriers just randomly provide you a list of tracking numbers to you. Enter the tracking numbers one per line.

Type 2: Tracking number range

Some carriers provide you a tracking number range with a beginning and an ending number, which you can enter in the tracking number settings.

Starting Tracking Number (From number): 1000000001
Ending Tracking Number (To number): 1000000100

In this case, the carrier has provided 100 possible tracking numbers, ranging from 1000000001 to 1000000100.

Updated on: 29/11/2024