Parcel tracking question

Aristotle67

I wonder if anyone can advise me?

I ordered an item which has been sent from Prague. By using the tracker I know it has departed from The Hague, it arrived at Crossdock Hounslow, the import declaration was released and it departed from International Transport Hounslow at 11.58 on 17 May. Considering that it only departed from Prague at 23.53 on 15 May I was rather impressed, though I have never made a purchase from abroad before which has undergone this delivery method.

It is now 20.36 on 19 May and I have heard nothing else. The Royal Mail tracker says that they are "expecting" the parcel and has done so since it was dispatched from Prague.

This is what I don't follow. I live in Berkshire. Hounslow is just half an hour along the M4 from me. Considering how quickly it got from Prague to Hounslow, I don't understand why Royal Mail do not have it yet as it has been over 56 hours since it left Hounslow. 

Perhaps this is normal or there is a simple explanation for it, but as someone who is new to this I am struggling to understand the delay. 

Aylesbury_Duck

It could be making a pretty circuitous route to your house.  Your proximity to the airport probably doesn't come into it, all parcels will go to a regional depot of some sort, which could be 50 miles in the other direction.

Is there likely to be some sort of customs process involved now it's reached the UK?  What's the item and approximate value?

ThumbRemote

Probably one of two scenarios:
1. It's still sat in Hounslow, waiting to be collected by RM. 
2. RM have the parcel, but haven't scanned it into their system. 

forgotmyname

There are people on YouTube that send airtags in the post to see where envelopes and packages are going and there
have been some really odd ones.

Tag going within the same City posted 1st class left the area and went 120 miles north by plane from the times between
showing at the City and then at the other location. It then went by road to a major sorting office and then took 3 days to
come back to the City by road seemingly stopping off at various locations along the way.

The online tracking just said collected, at sorting office.  That was a fair while back now though so the tracking is probably
more accurate but sometimes stuff seems to goes on a long detour.

PHK

Is that Woodland International Transport? If so, they'll be handling customs. Since Brexit, I've known this take up to 2 weeks. 

Aristotle67

Thank you to everyone for the responses. Much appreciated and I understand the situation better now. 

I have heard from the Royal Mail that they received the parcel overnight and are expecting to deliver it today, but this is not guaranteed (as I would expect them to say). Fingers crossed.

Possibly not an option but if in future I order something from the same company I might enquire if I can collect it in person from Hounslow. 

Thans again!