subject: What Is A Reference Code And Its Later Uses? [print this page] Whether it be a Bay area courier service or any other courier service elsewhere on the globe; courier businesses have evolved in to a more technologically accommodating and satisfying service. Collection of the packages requiring delivery, the freight of the package, warehousing of the package and its actual delivery at the destination; most of the processes of the courier industry have been automated with the use of tools such as special mobile devices, bar codes and web based systems.
The demands of the consumers for more transparency and more insights regarding bills and delivery process forced industry to mold itself technologically. The courier companies also benefited from the advanced and faster modes of transport as the time progressed enabling them to provide a superior service. The courier companies use their systems to generate bills which clearly state not only the price charged for the destination but also the estimated time to delivery, insurance terms and conditions and reference number.
Almost all courier companies provide their customers with unique codes or numbers known as a reference number. It is a unique system generated number that acts as a tag for the related package or shipment. This reference number is typically made up of the day's date, the batch's number with which the package is sent, the destination code and the package's own unique number. The reference number does not change at any later stage and remains the same as generated in the first instance.
The reference number printed on the slip provided to the customer by the courier or shipping company is of prime vitality. In case of courier companies it is this reference number which helps one detect or track their package's movement at any given time through the courier service's web based GPS system. Similarly this number is also used to manually track the status of the assignment via a telephone inquiry to the company's office or it can also be used to change the destination address of the package in case of a mistake.
From Bay area courier service to courier services in any other part of the world, use of reference number to track, locate and observe a delivery's status has become a benchmark. Even small non-automated courier services have manual means to generate reference numbers and satisfy their customer with timely updates and inquiries. From the customer's perspective, it is important that he or she hold's safely the reference number until the mail is delivered or received in a proper condition.
