> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Tracked24 Service Day Promise, Royal Mail > % of Tracked24 / 1st-class consignments delivered next working day - the contracted Royal Mail premium-service promise. How to read it, why it matters, and... **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Shipping & Courier](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > % of Tracked24 / 1st-class consignments delivered next working day - the contracted Royal Mail premium-service promise. ## At a glance > Share of Royal Mail Tracked 24 and 1st Class consignments that arrived at the addressee on the next working day after dispatch. This is Royal Mail's contracted premium-service promise: handed over today, delivered tomorrow (Mon to Sat, excluding Sundays and bank holidays). The card isolates the next-day promise from the broader [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/on-time-delivery-rate), because the Tracked 24 contract carries a tighter SLA, a higher service-credit ceiling, and a more visible customer promise on the merchant's PDP and checkout copy. | | | | --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(shipments WHERE service_code IN ('TPN24','TPS24','1ST') AND delivered_at_date = next_working_day(dispatched_at_date)) / COUNT(shipments WHERE service_code IN ('TPN24','TPS24','1ST') AND status = 'DELIVERED')`. | | **Service codes included** | `TPN24` (Tracked 24, the merchant Click & Drop premium next-day product), `TPS24` (Tracked 24 with Signature on Delivery), `1ST` (1st Class untracked, where Royal Mail's published *aim* is next working day). The card pools all three because the customer-facing promise is the same. | | **API endpoint** | Royal Mail Click & Drop Shipping API v3, plus Tracking API v2 for the delivery-event scan. Reads `serviceCode`, `aimDeliveryDate`, `actualDeliveryDate`, `dispatchDate`. | | **Delivery success criterion** | A delivery scan dated next working day after dispatch. For Tracked services this is the "delivered" tracking event; for 1st Class untracked the card uses Royal Mail's *aim* date (no contractual commitment) and where customer-confirmed delivery exists, prefers that. | | **What "next working day" means** | Mon dispatch → Tue delivery, Tue → Wed, Wed → Thu, Thu → Fri, Fri → Sat (Royal Mail delivers Saturdays for tracked services), Sat → Mon (no Sunday delivery). Bank holidays bump by one working day. | | **Returns / RTO** | Outbound only. Tracked Returns and Returns Portal consignments are excluded. | | **Geographic scope** | UK domestic mainland + offshore islands (BFPO, Channel Islands, Highlands & Islands have aim-only, no contractual SLA, but are included in the rate). | | **Industrial action handling** | Not auto-excluded. The 2022-2023 CWU industrial action depressed this rate to 60-75 percent for affected weeks; the card recorded the actual depressed rate. Annotate year-on-year comparisons spanning that window. | | **Time zone** | UK local (GMT or BST). | | **Time window** | `30D` (rolling 30 days). | | **Alert trigger** | `<95%`. Royal Mail's published Tracked 24 SLA is 93 percent (the floor); 95 percent is the operational benchmark for a healthy account. Below 95 percent for two weeks running is grounds for a service-credit conversation. | | **Currency** | n/a directly. | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Royal Mail data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A UK DTC beauty brand, around 980 Tracked 24 consignments per week (premium next-day on items £25+), additional Tracked 48 volume not in scope here. Reading taken at 09:00 BST on 12 Mar 26 for the trailing 30 days (10 Feb 26 to 11 Mar 26). | Service code | Consignments | Delivered next working day | SLA Rate | | --------------------------------- | ------------ | -------------------------- | ------------------------ | | TPN24 (Tracked 24) | 3,820 | 3,650 | 95.5% | | TPS24 (Tracked 24 + Signature) | 240 | 234 | 97.5% | | 1ST (1st Class untracked, aim-by) | 140 | 122 | 87.1% (aim-only, no SLA) | | **All next-day pool (this card)** | **4,200** | **4,006** | **95.4%** | The card reads **95.4 percent** on the dial, the alert at `<95%` is **just** clear. Five things to notice: 1. **Tracked 24 (TPN24) at 95.5 percent is the dial.** It is 91 percent of next-day volume; the headline tracks it directly. Royal Mail's published SLA floor is 93 percent; this account is comfortably above the floor but only just above the operational alert. A 1-point dip flips amber. 2. **TPS24 (Signature) overperforms at 97.5 percent.** Signature-required consignments get prioritised in Royal Mail's network because the delivery flow is more constrained (driver must hand over, not letterbox). Smaller volume, higher reliability. If the brand sells fragile or high-value items, push customers to the Signature uplift at checkout. 3. **1st Class untracked at 87.1 percent looks bad but is not part of the contractual SLA.** Royal Mail's 1st Class is "aim-only" (next working day intended, not guaranteed). The 87 percent here is roughly in line with Royal Mail's published 1st Class aim performance (\~85 to 90 percent steady-state). It pulls the aggregate down but does not create a service-credit conversation. 4. **The 194 misses (out of 4,200 next-day consignments) are the customer-experience loss.** Each is a customer who paid the Tracked 24 uplift at checkout (typically £4.50 to £5.50) and got the parcel a day late. Most do not complain; a small share generate WISMO tickets. The bigger downstream cost is the marketing damage when "next-day delivery" copy on the PDP loses credibility. 5. **The "rate suddenly degraded" debug case.** During the 2022-2023 CWU industrial action this card would have read 60 to 75 percent on affected weeks (full national strike days dropped it to 30 to 45 percent). The pattern was strikes, not network breakage. Today (2026), the post-strike recovery has been complete since spring 2024; expect 95+ percent steady-state for any account in the South of England, 92 to 95 percent for the Midlands and North, and 85 to 92 percent for Highlands and Islands. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together The Tracked 24 SLA is the premium-tier sub-slice of overall delivery performance. Pair it with these: | Card | Why pair it | What the combination tells you | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [On-Time Delivery Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/on-time-delivery-rate) | The all-services aggregate. | If aggregate holds at 96 percent but Tracked 24 drops to 92 percent, Royal Mail is prioritising lower tiers (rare). If both fall together, a network-wide event. | | [Late Shipments](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/late-shipments) | Absolute count. | Each Tracked 24 miss is a candidate for service credit; the count translates directly to claim filings. | | [Exception Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/exception-rate) | Rising exceptions on Tracked 24 predict an SLA dip 24-48 hours later. | Leading indicator for this card. | | [Collection vs Post-Office Handover Failure Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/collection-vs-post-office-handover-failure-rate) | Where the parcel was handed to Royal Mail. | If collection-handed Tracked 24 holds 96 percent but Post Office handovers run 89 percent, the upstream issue is hand-off process, not Royal Mail. | | [P58 Claim Age Distribution](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/p58-claim-age-distribution) | Service-credit claims for missed Tracked 24 SLA. | Ageing P58s point at unfiled or stuck service-credit claims. | | [Royal Mail OTD by Sales Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/royal-mail-otd-by-sales-channel) | Per-channel slice. | A channel-specific Tracked 24 dip is often an upstream dispatch lag, not Royal Mail. | | Cross-connector: [`shopify.unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unfulfilled-orders) | Upstream cause. Orders not handed over by Royal Mail's last collection of the day cannot meet next-day SLA. | Climbing unfulfilled count predicts SLA dip 1 to 2 days later. | | Cross-connector: [`apc.apc_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/apc/on-time-delivery-rate) | Premium UK express peer at higher cost. | Useful when the merchant runs both Tracked 24 and APC NextDay in parallel to compare reliability per pound spent. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Royal Mail's own portal:** [Royal Mail Click & Drop](https://www.royalmail.com/business/shipping/click-drop) → **Reports → Delivery Performance**, filter by *Service = Tracked 24*. For Business Account customers, [Royal Mail Business Account](https://business.parcels.royalmail.com/) → **Performance → Service Performance Report**, the official monthly SLA report Royal Mail publishes for service-credit purposes. The closest like-for-like view is *Tracked 24, Last 30 Days, Outbound Only*. Royal Mail's portal also exposes the per-account credit-claim eligibility view; that figure aligns with this card minus any aim-only 1st Class slice. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Royal Mail's portal:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | --------------------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **1st Class inclusion** | Ours lower | Royal Mail's portal Tracked-24-only view excludes 1st Class untracked. This card pools both. To reconcile, filter the card to TPN24 and TPS24 only. | | **Timezone** | Boundary days off | Royal Mail's portal in UK local; the card stores in UTC for the rolling-window calc. | | **Tracking-event ingestion lag** | Ours lower for "today" | Royal Mail's tracking-event push lags 30 minutes (typical) to 6 hours (peak). Reconcile against T-2 days. | | **Bank-holiday handling** | Either | Royal Mail's portal is occasionally inconsistent on whether a bank holiday counts as the "next working day"; the card always advances by one working day. | | **Service-tier reclassification** | Either | If a merchant moves volume from Tracked 24 to Tracked 48 mid-month, the portal's per-service-code view splits at the cutover; the card uses the service code recorded at label generation. | | **Sat-collected, Mon-delivered** | Either | A Tracked 24 parcel handed over Saturday and delivered Monday is "next working day" by Royal Mail's definition; some portal views count it as 2 days. | **Internal identity (within Royal Mail):** `royal_mail_tracked24_sla` ⊆ `roy_otd_rate` (filtered to next-day services). The Tracked 24 SLA rate is a tighter sub-slice of the aggregate OTD; if the two diverge by more than 5 points, check whether Royal Mail is prioritising one tier over another (rare, but happens during peak). * [`royal_mail.roy_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/on-time-delivery-rate) * [`royal_mail.royal_mail_p58_claim_age`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/p58-claim-age-distribution) **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | Causes of legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`apc.apc_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/apc/on-time-delivery-rate) | Both are premium UK next-day services. APC is more expensive, contractually tighter (time-definite). | Different parcel populations; not a like-for-like reconciliation. | | [`shipbob.sb_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shipbob/on-time-delivery-rate) | When ShipBob is the warehouse and Royal Mail is the last-mile, ShipBob's OTD includes warehouse-floor time. | This card is carrier-only. | *** *Documentation cross-reference (other UK premium next-day services).* Premium next-day SLA cards exist on most UK shipping connectors but with different definitions. Use only for documentation navigation. * [`apc.apc_nextday_9am_sla`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/apc/nextday-9am-service-promise) (premium time-definite) * [`dpd.dpd_predict_slot_accuracy`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/dpd/predict-slot-accuracy) (premium 1-hour window) ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **My Tracked 24 SLA dropped below 95 percent, can I claim service credits?** Yes if the rate falls below Royal Mail's contractual SLA floor (typically 93 percent on Tracked 24, slightly different per Business Account contract). Service credits are issued on the *individual missed shipment* basis: each parcel that missed next-day SLA is a credit candidate; the merchant files via the [P58 form](https://www.royalmail.com/business/help/missing-or-delayed-mail-claim) within 28 days. The card is the leading indicator; [P58 Claim Age Distribution](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/p58-claim-age-distribution) tracks the filing pipeline. **Why is the 1st Class untracked component so much worse?** 1st Class is *aim-only*. Royal Mail's published target is "next working day", but there is no contractual commitment and no service credit. Aim performance varies 80 to 92 percent depending on region and season. Including 1st Class in this card's pool drags the headline down because the 1st Class slice has structurally lower performance than the tracked tiers. Filter to tracked-only via the connector settings if the merchant only cares about the contractual SLA. **My customer paid for Tracked 24 but the parcel arrived 2 days late, what do I tell them?** Start with the facts: Royal Mail aims 93 percent on Tracked 24, so 7 percent of parcels routinely miss. Apologise, refund the carriage uplift (typically £4.50 to £5.50), and consider a goodwill voucher for the inconvenience. Then file the P58 service-credit claim with Royal Mail to recover the carriage cost. Do not promise customers 100 percent next-day delivery in the first place; the published SLA is the honest floor. **The card dropped 5 points overnight, what is the playbook?** In order of likelihood: (1) **Check the CWU strike calendar and Royal Mail service updates**. Even though the 2022-23 strikes are over, occasional regional industrial action and weather events still depress performance. (2) **Check [Exception Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/exception-rate)** for upstream label-data issues. (3) **Check [Collection vs Post-Office Handover Failure Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/collection-vs-post-office-handover-failure-rate)** if the merchant has changed dispatch routine. (4) **Check [OTD by Route](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/royal-mail/otd-by-route)** for region-specific drops. (5) **Open a Royal Mail Business Customer Services ticket** if (1) to (4) do not explain the drop. **Tracked 24 vs Special Delivery 1pm, when do I use which?** Tracked 24 is the everyday next-day premium; Special Delivery 1pm is the time-definite-by-1pm premium for fragile or high-value items. Tracked 24 typically hits 93 to 96 percent SLA at £4 to £5 per parcel; Special Delivery 1pm hits 99 percent SLA at £8 to £10 per parcel and carries Royal Mail's £100+ insurance. Use Tracked 24 for £25-100 AOV; use Special Delivery 1pm for £100+ AOV or for time-critical items. The card pools Tracked 24 only; Special Delivery is on a separate slice. **Is Royal Mail Tracked 24 still worth using, or should I switch to a courier?** Most UK DTC brands still use Royal Mail as the cost-effective next-day default for sub-£100 AOV. APC NextDay-12 and DPD Predict cost roughly 2 to 3x per parcel; the SLA is tighter (time-definite vs day-definite) but for £30 AOV products the carrier premium isn't justified. The healthy multi-carrier pattern is Royal Mail Tracked 24 for everyday DTC, courier (APC, DPD) for high-AOV / fragile / B2B. **Why does the card sometimes show "no data" for a day?** Royal Mail's tracking-event feed has occasional outages, typically 30 minutes to 4 hours. During a feed outage the card cannot calculate the SLA for newly-delivered parcels until events flow again. The historical readings are unaffected. **Why is post-strike recovery still showing slightly lower than pre-strike?** The 2022-23 CWU industrial action permanently shifted some Royal Mail volume to Evri, DPD, and Yodel. Royal Mail's post-strike network is leaner, with fewer drivers per round and tighter capacity at peak. Steady-state Tracked 24 SLA today is 93 to 96 percent, vs 96 to 98 percent pre-strike. Most accounts have adjusted expectations; a few are still measuring against the pre-strike benchmark and seeing a "structural" gap that is actually the new normal. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Tracked24 Service Day Promise* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Royal Mail and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.