Shipping glossary — logistics terms explained plainly

Consignment number, volumetric weight, manifest, RTO, postal circle, induction point — the vocabulary of Indian parcel shipping, defined in plain words.

Daakly shipping glossary

The vocabulary of Indian parcel shipping — India Post services, tariff mechanics, weights and tracking — defined in plain words.

Billable weight: The weight a shipment is actually charged at: the greater of its actual weight and its volumetric weight, rounded up to the next step on the rate card.
Business Parcel: The India Post parcel product booked at contractual rates. Same nationwide network and same registered handling as a counter booking, at the contractual price, moving more slowly than Speed Post in exchange for a materially lower rate above 1 kg.
Consignment number: The unique reference printed on a shipping label that identifies one parcel for its whole journey. India Post consignment numbers are 13 characters — usually two letters, nine digits and two letters — and every scan from booking to delivery is recorded against it.
Contractual rate: A rate booked under a volume contract with India Post rather than over the counter. It is the same service and the same network; the price is different because the booking is made under contract.
Delivery office: The post office responsible for final delivery to a given pincode. It is the last stop before a postman carries the parcel to the address.
Manifest: A single sheet listing every parcel being handed in at once, with its consignment number and destination. Handing over a manifest turns a counter visit into one hand-over and one stamp, instead of the counter clerk booking each parcel individually.
Parcel hub: A facility where parcels are sorted and inducted into the India Post network. Where a parcel is inducted — at a hub or directly at a delivery office — determines which last-mile charge applies on shipments up to 5 kg.
Pincode: India’s six-digit postal code. The first digit gives the region, the first two the sub-region or circle, the third the sorting district, and the last three the delivery post office.
Postal circle: India Post’s top-level administrative division, roughly corresponding to a state. There are 23 of them. The first digit of a pincode identifies the postal region, which is what makes a same-circle shipment identifiable from the pincodes alone.
Prohibited item: Something the carrier will not accept in the post — explosives, flammable liquids, live animals, currency and a defined list of other categories. Sending one is at the sender’s risk and can void any claim on the whole consignment.
Proof of delivery: The record that a parcel was handed over, including the date, time and the name or signature of whoever received it. It is what settles a dispute about whether a delivery happened.
RTO: Return to Origin: a shipment that could not be delivered and is on its way back to the sender. The usual causes are an incomplete address, nobody available across repeated attempts, or a refused parcel.
Scan: A recorded handling event on a parcel’s journey — booked, bagged, in transit, out for delivery, delivered. Scans happen when a parcel changes hands, not continuously, so gaps of a day or two in long-distance transit are normal.
Serviceability: Whether a given pincode can be delivered to by a given service. Nearly every Indian pincode is serviceable by both India Post parcel lanes, which is the main practical advantage of the network over private couriers.
Speed Post: India Post’s express service, reaching effectively every deliverable pincode in the country. It is tracked end to end and is the faster of the two parcel lanes on the contractual tariff.
Volumetric weight: A weight derived from a parcel’s size rather than its mass: length × width × height in centimetres, divided by 5,000, giving a figure in kilograms. Carriers bill the greater of actual and volumetric weight, because a large light box takes the same space in a vehicle as a small heavy one.
Weight step: One row of a rate card. Postage is charged per started step rather than pro rata, so a parcel that is 100 g into a step pays for the whole step. On the contractual parcel tariff the steps are 500 g, 1 kg, 1.5 kg, 2 kg, then every kilogram up to 35 kg.
Zone: The distance band a shipment is priced in. The contractual parcel tariff uses four: Local, Within State, Zone/Metro, and Other States. A zone is a property of the origin and destination pair, not of either address alone.

Services

Business Parcel — The lower-cost parcel lane, at contractual rates.
Speed Post — India Post’s fastest lane, at contractual rates.

Main pages

Daakly is operated by Yahatech Solutions Private Limited, 51/D Goyal Complex, Opp. Ashima Tower, Bodakdev, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380054, India. Email team@daakly.com.

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