"The sender has advised they have despatched your item to Royal Mail" is the first line most Royal Mail tracked parcels show, and the one people paste into Google whole, because it reads like movement and records none. This page explains what the line actually records, which scan should follow it, how long it normally sits there by Royal Mail's own delivery aims, what it means on a Vinted or Depop parcel, and the point at which to act. Royal Mail's own wording is taken from its pending-status page and its help centre, fetched on 2026-10-22.
Short answer: The line means the sender has created the label and sent Royal Mail the parcel's details electronically; Royal Mail has the tracking number but has not scanned the parcel. In Royal Mail's words for the same state, which its tracker also shows as "Pending", the status "shows that Royal Mail recognises your mail's tracking number, but no scanned data has been recorded in our system yet", and the parcel is likely "in transit to Royal Mail", "at a Royal Mail facility" awaiting processing and scanning, or still with the sender. The next scan is the first real one, "We've got it" or "Item received at" a Royal Mail site, followed by "It's on its way", "Ready for delivery" at your delivery office and "Out for delivery". Royal Mail's delivery aims give the clock: Tracked 24 the next working day, Tracked 48 within 2 to 3 working days, and compensation only after 7 working days past the due date on tracked services, which is the point to involve the sender.
What the line records
Two things happen before a Royal Mail parcel moves: the sender prints a label, and the sender's system sends Royal Mail an electronic pre-advice of the parcel, its service and its addresses. "The sender has advised they have despatched your item to Royal Mail" is Royal Mail's wording for that pre-advice. It is a data event, not a physical one: the sender has told Royal Mail the parcel is coming. Royal Mail's pending page says the same of its "Pending" status: Royal Mail "recognises your mail's tracking number, but no scanned data has been recorded in our system yet", and the parcel "could be en route to a Royal Mail facility but hasn't been scanned in yet", or "might have arrived at a facility but it's awaiting processing and scanning". Royal Mail adds that the status "doesn't necessarily signify a problem; it often reflects the early stages of your parcel's journey".
The generic version of this status on every carrier is "shipment information received", which means the seller has created the shipping label and sent the carrier the parcel's electronic details but the carrier has not picked it up or scanned it yet; that page explains the pattern across carriers in what does shipment information received mean. The Royal Mail hub lists the status in its table as "Sender despatched / We've got it", and the whole Royal Mail sequence is in Royal Mail tracking statuses.
The next scan
The first physical scan ends the status. On Royal Mail it reads "We've got it" or "Item received at" followed by the site, which means Royal Mail has taken the parcel in. After that the sequence is "It's on its way" (moving through the network), "Ready for delivery" (arrived at the delivery office that serves your address, not yet with a postie; delivery usually follows the same working day or the next), then "Out for delivery" and "Delivered". The "ready for delivery" stage, which is the most searched Royal Mail status after this one, is explained in ready for delivery meaning. Royal Mail scans less often than express carriers, so a day on one status after the first scan is normal.
How long it normally stays
Royal Mail does not publish a time for the pre-advice stage itself, because it depends on when the sender hands the parcel over. What it does publish is the delivery aim per service, which is the clock to measure the whole journey against:
| Service | Royal Mail's delivery aim | When Royal Mail says the sender can claim |
|---|---|---|
| Tracked 24 | "the next working day" | 7 working days after the due date |
| Tracked 48 / Tracked Returns | "within 2 to 3 working days" | 7 working days after the due date |
| 1st Class (incl. Signed For 1st Class, Royal Mail 24) | "by the next working day" | 10 working days after the due date |
| 2nd Class (incl. Signed For 2nd Class, Royal Mail 48) | "within 3 week days" | 10 working days after the due date |
| Special Delivery Guaranteed | by 9am or 1pm the next working day, guaranteed | per the guarantee |
Royal Mail asks you to add an extra working day if there is a Redirection in place, and notes that "Royal Mail Signed For and 1st and 2nd Class parcel services aren't tracked throughout their journey", so on those services the despatch line may be followed only by the delivery scan. In practice the pre-advice line sits for the time between the label being printed and the handover: hours if the sender posts the same day, a day or two if the label was printed early or the parcel waits for a collection, and longer over a weekend.
What it means on Vinted and Depop parcels
Marketplace sellers print the prepaid label when they accept the sale, often days before they post the parcel, so Vinted and Depop buyers see this line more than most. On Vinted's UK shipping pages the named delivery providers include Royal Mail alongside Evri, InPost, DPD, Relay, AnyVan and DHL Express, and Vinted's own rule is that tracking can take up to 48 hours to appear after "shipped", with the parcel treated as a problem only after a long transit window; the Vinted side is in Vinted tracking statuses. On Depop, Depop Shipping orders in the UK are fully tracked and the seller is expected to ship within 2 days in most cases; the Depop side is in Depop tracking statuses. Either way the despatch line tells you the label exists, not that the seller has posted, so the question to ask a seller whose parcel sits on it is "have you posted it, and do you have the proof of postage".
When to act
- The line appears and sits for a day or two. Normal: the label exists and the parcel is between the sender and Royal Mail's first scan.
- No scan after a few days. Ask the sender whether the parcel has been posted and for the proof of postage; Royal Mail's own advice for a parcel that stays pending is to contact the sender to confirm it has been dispatched. The generic version is in shipping label created but not moving.
- Past the due date for the service. Royal Mail's rule is that the sender, not the recipient, raises the enquiry: "If you're the recipient, please contact the sender. They will contact us to enquire on your behalf." Claims open 7 working days after the due date on Tracked 24 and 48, and 10 on 1st and 2nd Class, and Royal Mail notes that "early claims cannot be processed".
- "Pending" after a failed delivery. A different case: Royal Mail says the parcel is then likely at your local delivery office awaiting collection or redelivery, holds it "for up to 18 days" after a missed delivery, and may return it to the sender if the holding period passes; arrange redelivery through its Redelivery Service.
For merchants
This status is the gap between printing a label and the carrier's first scan, and on Royal Mail it has a sentence of its own that customers read as a stall. A brand that prints labels in batches before the parcels are packed makes the gap longer, and a marketplace seller who prints on sale day makes it longest. The fix is operational and then verbal: print the label at the bench when the parcel is packed, hand over the same day, and show the customer a status that says "label created, with the carrier soon" rather than the carrier's sentence. Pango runs pick and pack, label printing and tracking on one order record, so the label is printed when the parcel is packed and the first scan closes the gap on the same record, and the brand's tracking page shows the stage in plain words. If this status is generating tickets, the options to compare are in carrier management software.
The bottom line
"The sender has advised they have despatched your item to Royal Mail" is the label and the pre-advice, not the parcel: Royal Mail knows the tracking number and has scanned nothing. The first real scan ends it, the service's delivery aim is the clock, and the sender is the one to ask, both for proof of postage early and for the claim after 7 or 10 working days past the due date.
