Parcel Labelling Best Practices: Reduce Delivery Errors and Improve Scan Rates

A parcel in a modern network is read far more often than it is handled by a person. Scanners at induction, at sortation, at bag close, at hub arrival, at the delivery centre. Each of those reads takes a fraction of a second when the label is clean, and turns into a manual exception when it is not. A parcel that has to be read by eye still moves, but it moves slower and it accumulates more chances to go to the wrong bag.

Labelling is not paperwork. It is the interface between your packing table and an automated system, and it costs nothing to get right.

Contents of the Label

Whatever your label template looks like, these elements are non-negotiable:

●        Waybill number, printed as text and as a barcode.

●        Order number, so your system and the network are talking about the same shipment.

●        Barcodes at a minimum of 8mm height. Shorter barcodes fail more often on a moving belt, particularly when the print has begun to fade.

●        Consignee address in full, with a verified phone number and pin code.

●        Return address, complete, not an abbreviation only your team understands.

●        Invoice, attached or printed as part of the label where the format supports it.

The return address deserves more attention than it usually gets. When a shipment cannot be delivered, that address is what it moves to. An incomplete or outdated return address turns a routine return into an exception that sits unresolved, and it is a five-minute fix in the shipping label configuration on Delhivery One.

Place it Where a Scanner Can Read it

Paste the label on a seamless, flat face, away from seams. The rules behind that are simple physics.

●        A label across a seam sits at an angle to the scanner and can crease when the flap flexes.

●        A label wrapped around a corner presents a curved barcode, which reads poorly at every angle.

●        A label over tape has a glossy surface that reflects the scanner beam back at it.

●        A label on the smallest face of an oddly shaped parcel is the face least likely to be facing up.

Apply the whole label flat, with no bubbles or lifted edges, and do not tape over the barcode. If the parcel is a polybag, smooth the bag first so the label lies flat rather than on a fold. If the surface is genuinely unsuitable - a textured or waxy pack - put the item in a plain outer and label that.

Print it Properly

Thermal-printed labels are preferred, and a thermal printer is one of the cheapest pieces of equipment that improves a dispatch operation. Thermal output is crisp, does not smudge when a parcel gets damp, and prints one label in a couple of seconds without consumables to run out mid-shift.

If you are printing on an inkjet or laser and pasting, watch three things: ink that smears under tape, a label sheet that peels at the edge in humidity, and scaling. Never print a label "fit to page" or at 90 per cent - that shrinks the barcode below the 8mm minimum without anything on screen telling you it happened. Print at 100 per cent, and check the height of a printed barcode with a ruler once, so you know your setup is correct.

Watch print quality over time. A thermal head with dust on it produces barcodes with fine white lines through them, which read on a desktop scanner and fail on a belt. Clean the head weekly.

Manifest Discipline at Handover

The manifest is the agreed record of what changed hands. Treat it as a document, not a formality.

1. Close the manifest only when every parcel for that pickup is packed, labelled and physically present.

2. Count the parcels against the manifest before the vehicle arrives, not while the driver waits.

3. Keep the acknowledged copy - digital or signed - filed by date. It is your evidence of handover if a shipment is queried later.

4. Anything packed after the manifest closed goes on the next manifest. A parcel handed over outside a manifest is a parcel with no clean record.

5. Reconcile at day end: orders dispatched in your system versus waybills on manifests. The two numbers should match every day, and if they do not, find the difference the same evening.

That last habit catches the two most common dispatch errors - a labelled parcel left on the table, and two orders swapped between boxes - while there is still time to fix them.

What You Can Do

●        Print one label and measure the barcode height. If it is under 8mm, fix your print scaling today.

●        Check your label configuration carries a complete, current return address and the order number alongside the waybill.

●        Walk your packing table and correct any labels sitting across seams, on corners or under tape.

●        Clean your thermal print head, or price a thermal printer if you are still pasting inkjet labels.

●        Add a daily reconciliation of dispatched orders against manifested waybills to your end-of-day routine.