Reviewed 2026-09-30 · quarterly cycle
Transit track: the six stages, and what to check when one stalls
Where should this parcel be right now, and what do I check if it is not?
- Total range
- 1 to 11 days
- Current stage
- Not positioned — enter an order date to map a stage
- Basis
- Community-reported ranges. No average is published, because we do not have a defensible sample for one.
The six stages
- Stage 1: payment not settled
- Stage 2: dispatch never happened
- Stage 3: QC window running out
- Stage 4: line queued behind a backlog
- Stage 5: documentation request
- Stage 6: released but not collected
- Stage 1 — Order and payment
- 0 to 1 days. Most common stall: payment not settled
- Stage 2 — Seller dispatch
- 0 to 1 days. Most common stall: dispatch never happened
- Stage 3 — Warehouse intake and QC
- 0 to 1 days. Most common stall: QC window running out
- Stage 4 — International leg
- 1 to 4 days. Most common stall: line queued behind a backlog
- Stage 5 — Clearance
- 0 to 2 days. Most common stall: documentation request
- Stage 6 — Last mile
- 0 to 2 days. Most common stall: released but not collected
Line comparison
| Line type | Total window | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Express air courier | 3 to 10 days | Community-reported |
| Postal air economy | 9 to 30 days | Community-reported |
| Consolidated air freight | 12 to 42 days | Community-reported |
| Bulky-goods air service | 14 to 38 days | Community-reported |
| Mid-tier destination-handled line | 13 to 45 days | Community-reported |
Inputs and defaults
- Destination region (default United States; six regions)
- Line type (default air economy)
- Order date (optional; leaving it blank shows ranges only)
How it computes
- Six stage ranges are read from the region and line data: order and payment, seller dispatch, warehouse intake and QC, international leg, clearance, and last mile.
- Where an order date is supplied, today is mapped into a stage using the cumulative ranges, and that stage is highlighted.
- Each stage carries a stall marker naming the most common cause of a delay at that point, and a link to the matching check.
What you get out
- The transit rail: a six-segment track with stage names, day ranges and stall markers
- Six stall-check links, each anchored to the relevant stage detail below the rail
- A line comparison table showing total ranges per line type
- The same figures rendered as a definition list, so nothing depends on the graphic
Boundaries and failure behaviour
- A line with no verified range shows Not verified rather than an estimate.
- An order date in the future returns a message that the order has not been placed.
- An order date beyond the upper bound of the range highlights the final stage and points to the region page for hold handling.
- No output is ever labelled as an average, because we do not have a defensible sample for that.
Used with
Background reading: Deep dive: the six-stage parcel timeline in detail