How do I find my Evri tracking number?
An Evri tracking number is a 16 character code, and in almost every case it reaches a UK shopper through the retailer rather than through Evri. The dispatch or shipping confirmation email is the first place to look, followed by the order page in the retailer's account area. Parcels handed in at a ParcelShop carry the code on the drop off receipt or in the Evri account that booked them. Where a delivery has already been attempted, the calling card left at the address carries an 8 digit number that Evri's tracking box accepts in place of the full code.
Who generates the number, and why the sender holds it first
Evri assigns the 16 character tracking code when the shipment is booked and the label is produced, which is before the parcel physically enters the network. Whoever pays for the shipment receives the code at that moment. For a retail order that is the retailer or its fulfilment partner, so the code exists in the retailer's order system for hours or days before the parcel is collected.
This is the structural reason the carrier is the wrong place to ask first. Evri holds a delivery address and, if the retailer supplied one, a mobile number or email address for notifications. It does not hold the buyer's order history, and it has no way to look up a parcel from a name alone. The retailer is the only party holding both the order and the code that belongs to it.
The scale involved explains why the handover is inconsistent. People in the UK sent and received a record 4.2 billion parcels in 2024/25, 7 percent more than the previous year, according to Ofcom. Each parcel passes through a retailer system, a carrier system and at least one notification channel, and every handover is a place the code can fail to arrive. The same handover pattern applies across UK carriers, which is covered in more detail under where do I find my tracking number.
The dispatch email, and the exact words to search for
A dispatch email is the single most productive place to look, and it normally carries more than one reference number: the retailer's order number, sometimes an invoice or customer number, and the 16 character carrier code. Sorting them apart is a matter of length. Only the carrier code is exactly 16 characters long.
Useful search terms in an email client are "Evri", "Hermes", "dispatched", "your order is on its way", "out for delivery" and the retailer's own name. Searching the carrier name alone misses a large share of cases, because many retailers name the courier nowhere in the message and simply present a tracking button. Dispatch mail is also a common casualty of promotional filtering, so the spam, junk, promotions and updates folders are worth checking before concluding that nothing was sent.
Marketplace orders behave differently again. On eBay, Vinted, Depop and similar platforms the code is attached to the order record inside the platform rather than emailed as plain text, and it appears on the order or purchase detail page next to the shipping status. Retailer apps follow the same pattern, listing the code under a delivery or tracking tab within the order.
Pulling the code out of a track your parcel link
When a dispatch email offers a Track your parcel button and no visible code, the 16 characters are almost always inside the link's own web address. Evri's consumer tracking pages are addressed in the form evri.com/track/parcel/CODE/details, and international parcels use international.evri.com/tracking/CODE. Copying the link address rather than clicking it, then reading the segment after /parcel/ or /tracking/, recovers the code without needing the retailer to resend anything. On a desktop browser that option sits in the right click menu; on a phone, a long press on the link offers the same thing.
The technique also works in reverse. Opening the tracking page and reading the browser address bar exposes the 16 characters, which is what makes it possible to save or share the reference after arriving from an email link.
Some retailers route the button through their own domain first, so the visible address belongs to the shop and the Evri code only appears after the redirect completes. In that case the address bar of the loaded tracking page is the place to read it.
What an Evri tracking number looks like
Every Evri consumer tracking code is 16 characters long, and Evri describes it as the barcode number printed on the shipping label. Two shapes are in circulation: an entirely numeric 16 digit string, and a 16 character string that opens with a letter and mixes letters and digits after it. Both are entered in the same box and both are the full parcel reference.
Evri's own pages call the same reference a 16 digit tracking number in some places and a 16 character tracking code in others. The two phrases describe one thing, and the safe reading is the character count rather than the word digit, because the letter bearing variant is common.
The other references a UK recipient encounters are shorter or carry a distinctive prefix, which makes them straightforward to rule out.
| Reference | Length and shape | Where it comes from | Tracks the parcel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evri tracking number | 16 characters, all digits or a leading letter then digits and letters | Shipping label barcode, dispatch email, Evri account | Yes, full scan history |
| Calling card number | 8 digits, numeric | Card left after an attempted delivery | Yes, for that parcel |
| ParcelShop receipt number starting with P | Begins with the letter P | Drop off receipt at a ParcelShop | No, Evri states it returns no tracking information |
| Print In ParcelShop authorisation code | 6 digits, numeric | Booking email, used with a QR code | No, it authorises label printing |
| EVR reference | Begins with the letters EVR | International order confirmation and My Orders | No, it identifies the order |
| Retailer order number | Varies by shop, rarely 16 characters | Order confirmation email | No, internal to the retailer |
Length is the fastest test available when scanning a crowded email: a reference of 10, 12 or 13 characters is not an Evri parcel code. Cross carrier conventions and what the leading characters signify are set out under what a tracking number looks like and what the letter prefixes mean.
The calling card left after a failed delivery attempt
A calling card left after an unsuccessful delivery attempt carries an 8 digit number, and Evri's tracking page accepts that number in place of the 16 character code. This is the one route to a tracking record that bypasses the retailer entirely, because the card is produced by the courier at the door rather than by the shop.
The card also states when the next delivery attempt is planned, which makes it a dated record as well as a reference. Where a card has been posted through a letterbox and then lost among other mail, the 8 digit number is worth recovering before contacting anyone, since it is faster than a retailer support queue. What happens to a parcel between attempts, and how many attempts a UK carrier normally makes, is covered under what happens if delivery fails.
Text messages and delivery day emails from Evri
Evri sends a delivery day notification when the retailer has passed on a mobile number or an email address, and that message links directly to the parcel's tracking page. The message itself often shows a delivery time slot rather than the 16 character code, which is why the link address technique above matters: the code is in the link even when it is not in the text.
Parcels routed to a ParcelShop for collection generate their own notification, sent by text message or email once the parcel is ready to be picked up. That message is a second chance at the reference for anyone who deleted the original dispatch email.
Notifications depend entirely on the retailer having supplied contact details at booking, so a shop that passes only a delivery address produces no Evri messages at all.
The Evri app and the Evri account area
The Evri app tracks a parcel from its 16 character code without requiring a sign in, while the account area is what stores the codes for parcels a person has sent. The distinction matters: a recipient's parcels are not listed in an Evri account, because the account belongs to the sender who paid for the shipment.
For a sender, the codes sit behind the Your Shipments link in the top right of a signed in Evri account. Evri's account guidance describes three groups there: unpaid parcels, active parcels in transit, and parcels already delivered, each searchable. An older parcel therefore remains retrievable long after its confirmation email has been deleted.
International orders are indexed slightly differently. The 16 digit tracking number appears in the order confirmation email, and the order itself is listed under My Orders against an EVR reference. Both are needed for different purposes: the EVR reference identifies the order for customer support, the 16 digit code drives the tracking feed.
Sending a parcel in person: ParcelShops, lockers and courier collection
ParcelShops issue digital receipts only, so a drop off made without supplying an email address leaves no printed record of the 16 character code. Evri advises photographing the label or noting the barcode number before handing the parcel over, precisely because there is no paper fallback. That photograph is the single most reliable safeguard for a self posted parcel.
One trap is specific to ParcelShop receipts and catches a large number of senders. A receipt number beginning with the letter P is not a tracking number and returns no tracking information; the 16 digit code has to be read from the Your Shipments page of the Evri account instead. Entering the P reference into a tracking box produces nothing, which is easily mistaken for a parcel that has vanished.
Lockers and courier collections work from the same code. A courier collection can be booked up to 7 days in advance, and the booking confirmation carries the 16 digit tracking number in the same position as a ParcelShop booking. Labels printed in store through the Print In ParcelShop device are generated from a QR code or a 6 digit authorisation code sent by email, and neither of those is the tracking reference.
Returns travel on their own tracking number
A return is a new shipment with a new 16 character code, not a reuse of the code the original delivery used. The reference arrives in the return confirmation email, which normally contains a tracking link rather than the bare code, and the same link address technique recovers it.
Where that confirmation email cannot be found, Evri's tracking guidance points to the ParcelShop receipt number or the 16 digit tracking number as alternatives. Returns booked through a retailer's own returns portal are a further step removed, because the retailer generates the label and may show only its own returns reference until the parcel is scanned. That leaves two references attached to one physical parcel, and only the 16 character carrier code opens a scan history.
Old Hermes numbers, old links and emails that still say Hermes
Hermes UK rebranded as Evri in March 2022, and a large share of search demand still uses the former name. The rebrand renamed an existing operating business rather than replacing it, and the delivery network and ParcelShop estate carried across unchanged. That is why a retailer email or returns page that still says Hermes is not evidence of a different courier or a different reference.
The practical residue of the rebrand is wording rather than unusable numbers. Retailer emails, returns portals and printed inserts still name Hermes in places, saved bookmarks point at the old domain, and older help articles describe menus that have since been renamed. None of that changes the reference being looked for: a 16 character code, or an 8 digit calling card number, entered on Evri's current tracking page.
Ownership has continued to change since. According to Wikipedia's record of the company, Advent International and the Otto Group held Evri until Apollo Global Management agreed to acquire it in 2024, and DHL is recorded as the owner from 2025 following the merger with DHL eCommerce UK. Consumer parcels are still tracked through Evri branded channels, so the corporate history matters only for reading a retailer email that names a different company.
When the retailer has not passed a number on at all
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the seller, not the courier, is responsible for delivery, which makes the retailer the correct party to chase and the party entitled to open a parcel investigation. Evri's own guidance says that where no tracking number has been provided, the sender is who to contact. The legal position behind that is explicit in Citizens Advice guidance on undelivered orders.
"If you bought something from a business to be delivered, it's the seller's responsibility to make sure the item is delivered to you. If the seller used a courier, they should chase the courier to find out what's happened to your order - it's not your responsibility." (Citizens Advice, If something you ordered hasn't arrived, 2025.)
There is also a hard outer limit on how long a wait is reasonable. Section 28 of the Act sets a default delivery period where none was agreed at the point of sale.
"the trader must deliver the goods (a) without undue delay, and (b) in any event, not more than 30 days after the day on which the contract is entered into." (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28, legislation.gov.uk.)
Missing tracking information is a common enough experience to be measured. Ofcom's 2025 residential research found that 68 percent of recipients had experienced a delivery issue with some operator in the previous six months, with a lack of information or delivery options among the categories counted. A request to a retailer is more likely to succeed when it names the carrier reference specifically, since a support agent asked for "the tracking number" may return the order number instead.
References people mistake for an Evri tracking number
The reference printed most prominently in a dispatch email is usually the retailer's order number, and Evri's tracking page does not recognise it. The distinction is worth making explicitly, because entering the wrong reference returns an empty result that reads like a lost parcel rather than like a wrong input.
| Reference | Typically appears as | Why it returns nothing on Evri tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Retailer order number | Prominent line in the order and dispatch emails | Internal to the shop's system, never sent to the carrier as a tracking key |
| ParcelShop receipt number starting with P | Printed or emailed drop off receipt | Evri states P numbers return no tracking information |
| Print In ParcelShop code | 6 digits, sent with a QR code by email | Authorises printing a label, not tracking a parcel |
| EVR reference | International order confirmation, My Orders tab | Identifies the order, while the 16 digit code identifies the parcel |
| Delivery address or postcode | Typed into the tracking box in place of a code | Evri tracking accepts the 16 character code or the 8 digit card number only |
| Another carrier's code | Multi parcel orders split across couriers | Belongs to a different network and resolves on that carrier's system |
Multi parcel orders deserve particular attention. A single order split into two shipments produces two 16 character codes, and only one of them may be an Evri code, so a reference that fails on Evri tracking is sometimes a valid code belonging to a different courier.
Order of places to check, from fastest to slowest
The six sources below are ordered by how quickly they normally produce a code, which is a different ranking from how authoritative they are. A calling card is instant but only exists after a failed attempt; a retailer support request is always available but slowest.
| Source | Reference it yields | Available to |
|---|---|---|
| Calling card at the address | 8 digit number | Recipient, after an attempted delivery |
| Dispatch or shipping confirmation email | 16 character code, or a link containing it | Recipient |
| Retailer order page or app | 16 character code or a tracking button | Recipient, signed in to the shop |
| Evri delivery day text or email | Link containing the 16 character code | Recipient, if contact details were supplied |
| Evri account, Your Shipments | 16 digit code for sent parcels | Sender |
| Retailer customer support | 16 character code on request | Recipient, when nothing else worked |
Once the 16 characters are in hand, the code can be entered on this page to pull the parcel's scan history, and the sequence of statuses it produces is explained under how to track an Evri parcel. Keeping a photograph of the label, or the code saved somewhere outside the email account, removes the whole problem for the next parcel.