Shipping has come a long way, and there are many delivery companies out there. They work to ensure that a business can delivery packages in the hands of the customer easily and convieniently.
For this reason, the delivery companies have gone through major changes, and one of them is introducing terms and concepts that might be confusing to normal readers.
If you’ve ever bought or sold anything on online on some website that uses FedEx or DHL, you may have come across the term tendered for delivery – but what does it mean?
What does tendered for delivery mean? It is one of the terms used to describe the stage of your parcel in the delivery cycle.
In this article, we take a look at this term and explain the delivery process in detail to help demystify any confusion around what tendered for delivery means, and how that impacts your buying and selling experience.
What Does Tendered for Delivery Mean?
“Tendered for delivery” is a phrase that you may have heard every now and then whenever you ordered something online. This phrase is becoming more and more popular in the shipping community and there is a certain reason for it.
The phrase “Tendered for delivery” is used when a parcel has been turned over to the final mode of transportation that will deliver the parcel to its destination.
You will either receive this notification phrase via email or text message.
This term comes from shipping terminology.
While the term may be confusing, it serves as a reminder that the last leg of your package’s journey has started and it will reach you soon.
Now you may be wondering the need for this phrase? It is used to by delivery companies like FedEx and DHL, when they can’t deliver the parcel to customer themselves and use a third party delivery option which will deliver it instead.
Usually there are many parties involved in the transportation of a parcel from a buyer to a consumer.
“Tendered for delivery” is sent to users to inform them that their parcel is now in its final stage of delivery. You will also see a message like “with delivery courier”, after you receive the tendered for delivery message.
This phrase is also used to describe the situation that your product is ready and that the buyer has handed it over to the delivery company.
“Tendered for delivery” phrase is only used when your courier uses the services of a third party delivery company.
What this means is that when your parcel is handed off to some other delivery company for the last mile delivery, your parcel has been tendered and is enroute to your location.
What Does Tendered For Delivery mean for DHL?
If you’re working with a third-party logistics company like DHL, you might be wondering what it means when they say tendered for delivery.
It means the same as we described before: tendered delivery for DHL means that your parcel has been picked up by a delivery company and is now enroute to your location.
Tendered delivery for DHL is used to let the buyer know that their product has left the warehouse or the seller’s hands and is now in transit.
DHL uses third-party delivery companies, for example USPS and FedEx, to deliver parcels to places where they can’t reach.
In such cases, DHL will send you a “Tendered for delivery” message to let you know that your parcel is in the hands of a delivery company and will reach you soon.
In even more simpler terms, “tendered for delivery” is used to let the buyer know that thier parcel has been handed off to a delivery company for the “last mile delivery”.
Tendered Delivery Meaning for FedEx?
Tendered for delivery holds the same meaning, doesn’t matter if you are using DHL, or FedEx.
FedEx rarely uses the services of some other delivery company to make deliveries for them, but when they do, they’ll send you the “tendered delivery” message.
It simply means that your parcel is in the hands of the final delivery person and is now being delivered to your address.
This usually occurs when FedEx can’t deliver to your exact address due to limitations.
Whenever you order something online, your product may be transported by several different delivery companies until it finally reaches your hands.
When the product is in the hands of the last delivery person, it means that your deliver has been tendered.
Tendered Delivery Meaning for UPS?
In most cases, UPS takes takes the matter of delivering the parcel to the customer in its hands and rarely uses any other couriers to make deliveries for them, but it is possible.
For Example, UPS SurePost service uses a “last mile” delivery through USPS.
This means that UPS will first deliver your product to USPS, who will then deliver it to your exact location.
UPS SurePost is a lot cheaper as compared to traditional UPS deliveries.
In such cases, when the delivery is not handled entirely by UPS, they will send you a “tendered for delivery” message when they have handed over your product to the delivery company responsible for the “last mile” delivery.
This information is conveyed through an email or text message, which should provide some helpful information about who might be delivering it and why they’re doing so.
After all, it’s best that you prepare yourself in advance! Sometimes USPS takes extra time and delivers after one day even though your shipment was tendered for delivery earlier than that.
This can be very frustrating if you are waiting at home all day and nothing shows up on its expected date of arrival.
What does “Tendered To The Post Office” mean?
Many times, your shipping company might send you a message that says “tendered to the post office.”
This means that your parcel was paid at the post office. Confused? In simple terms, your original delivery provider was not able to make the delivery to your exact location, so they dropped your parcel to your nearest post office and paid them to make the delivery instead.
So in case you receive a “tendered to the post office” message, it means that your parcel will now be delivered by your local post (usually USPS) to make the last mile delivery.
Arrived At Facility Partner Meaning
There are so many shipping terms and concepts that a normal person will surely have trouble understanding it all.
For example, you might see a delivery update notification that reads “arrived at facility”, and afterward, you might receive the usual “tendered for delivery” message.
This is most common with FedEx.
“Arrived at facility” means that your package has arrived at the third-party shipping partner, and that your product will usually be moved again in the future to another facility.
This mostly happens when the product is close to the “last mile” location and before your order is handed off to the third party courier like USPS, so it can make the final delivery to your location.
When the parcel leaves the partner facility and is handed off to the delivery person responsible for the ‘last mile” delivery, you will receive the “tendered for delivery” message.
Once you see tendered for delivery, you’ll know that your package is out for delivery.
What Should I Do If I see a Tendered Delivery Message?
You don’t need to do anything when you see the tendered delivery message.
This message is just sent for informational purposes so the buyer is kept in loop of their parcel’s delivery status.
You will see this message as soon as your parcel is handed of to the third-party courier responsible for making the “last mile” delivery.
Notice the word “third-party courier”. When the shipping company doesn’t make the “last mile” delivery itself and hires a third-party delivery company, only then it sends the tendered delivery message.
If the shipping company makes the delivery themselves, regardless of whether it makes a “last mile” delivery or not, they will not send the “tendered for delivery” message, instead they will send something like “with delivery courier.”
Because that means it is in their possession and under their responsibility to make the delivery. It can’t be transferred to anyone else. So you will not see any messages at all.
Usually if there is an issue in delivering your parcel, then you would see other kinds of messages such as delivery attempted and so on. All those are different from tendered for delivery though as explained above.
What Does Tendered To Mean?
When talking about delivery terms, you may also come across “Tendered to” in addition to “Tendered delivery”.
It usually means the same thing i.e. your parcel has been handed of to some local post office (mostly USPS) to make the last mile delivery.
Tendered to means that your parcel has been “given to”, see the meaning there?
So in simple terms, “tendered to” is used to tell the buyer that their parcel will be delivered to them through local mail.
Is Tendered For Delivery Bad?
One question that is constantly asked by people with when they order or send something through delivery companies is whether or not tendered for delivery status is bad.
The short answer to that question is no, it isn’t bad, and in fact it can actually be beneficial.
It can be a lot cheaper as compared to having a premium company take responsibility of delivering the product to your exact location.
In case you order something or send it through delivery companies, and that particular service doesn’t offer tendered for delivery service, but rather has one which is premium, you’ll still be liable for paying that higher amount in order to ensure it gets delivered to you.
What Does Tendered For Delivery Service Provider Mean?
There are many different forms of the “tendered delivery” term when we talk about delivery company.
When you receive a message from your courier, let’s say DHL, that says “tendered for delivery service provider”, it means that your order has been handed over to the courier responsible for the last mile delivery.
To make you understand what this means, you first need to know that your order may fall in the hands of different couriers during its journey to your location or home.
Whenever a company uses the services of some other delivery company to make deliveries on their behalf, they’ll let you know once they’ve handed the parcel to the third-party delivery company.
This is usually done on the very last step of delivery and when the original courier cannot deliver to your exact location.
Delivery companies in the US mostly use the services of USPS for tender deliveries when they cannot make the last mile delivery themselves.
How Long Does Tendered For Delivery Take?
It usually depends on who is making the tendered delivery, but it generally takes about 2-3 business days. That’s because it will typically take 24 hours from when your package is actually in transit and handed over to the local post office until you get notified.
I’ve been seeing “Tendered for delivery” for over weeks and don’t know what to do
Sometimes, you receive the “tendered for delivery” notice and don’t get your product after waiting for a few days and even weeks.
Unfortunately, the product is usually misplaced in such cases.
When your parcel is handed over to the local post office or third party delivery company to make the last mile delivery, it may get misplaced and you will not receive your parcel.
These situations are rare, but they do occur.
If you haven’t received your order for over weeks now, you should immediately contact your shipping company or the buyer so the exact error can be tracked.
They will give you information on who they handed your parcel to, and in most cases, this is USPS.
If it does turn out to be true, you can try visiting your local post office and telling them the details of your parcel. Chances are, they still have the parcel laying around in their warehouse ready to be picked up.
Keep in mind to bring your shipping details and receipt so you can actually proof the ownership of the parcel.
What Does “Tendered to Final Delivery Agent” Mean for Amazon?
If a seller’s item is tendered to final delivery agent, that means it’s in transit, ready to ship and has been paid for by Amazon.
This can be different from your tracking information, which will indicate delivery time at buyer’s doorstep. In case you are a seller and sent the item, make sure you watch your buyers’ feedback so you’ll know when they’ve received their items.
If there are any issues with shipping or customer service, address them immediately!
Sellers can’t cancel orders once they have been tendered to final delivery agent.
What is the need for Tendered For Delivery?
So, now that we know tendered for delivery means that your parcel has been handed off to a third-party courier for the last mile delivery, let’s look into why it is even used.
When you place an order or send something through a courier, the courier company may face hurdles in sending a parcel to a certain address, or they might have limited resources.
In such cases, your delivery company will hire the services of a third-party courier to deliver your parcel on their behalf.
This is the main reason behind delivery companies using third-party delivery companies for making the last mile delivery.
More often than not, when a delivery company can’t deliver to a certain address because of different reasons such as the address being too far from the normal route, they’ll hire the services of a third party courier.
When such situations arises, and your order is handed off to the third-party seller, your original courier will send you a “tendered for delivery” notification to make you aware that your parcel is in its final steps of being delivered.
Conclusion (Tendered For Delivery)
Shipping has become more and more diverse over the years to facilitate buyers and sellers so parcels and products get transported to their destination.
With this diversity, we’ve also seen a plethora of new terms pop up like “tendered for delivery”.
When a delivery company uses a third party delivery company to make the last mile delivery, then they will send a “tendered for delivery” notification message to the customer.
This phrase serves the purpose of informing the user that their parcel is in the hands of their local post office, usually USPS, and that they will deliver it soon.
Keep in mind that when a delivery company makes the full delivery by itself, it will not send you the “tendered for delivery” message, instead it will send you something like “out for delivery.”
In case you do get this message, worry not because your parcel is enroute to your location and will reach you soon!
With that all covered, you should read our other articles as well such as “petsmart return policy“, “who owns target“, and “can you take tylenol on an empty stomach.”