Enter your PostNL tracking number for live shipment status, real-time updates and delivery progress.
PostNL tracking
Get live shipment status and real-time tracking updates.
Three quick steps - free, no login required.
Check the SMS, email, or order page from your seller or courier. PostNL formats accepted here include 3S followed by up to four letters and seven or more digits, e.g. 3SABCD1234567.
Type or paste the barcode into the search box at the top of this page and hit track.
Track real-time shipment updates, recorded events and delivery estimates supplied by the carrier. Check the event timestamps; results may be cached between updates.
PostNL is the Netherlands' national postal and parcel operator, delivering domestic and inbound international parcels to homes, to neighbours, to agreed safe places and to its network of PostNL points. Its consumer Track and Trace service identifies a shipment by barcode and delivery postcode together. A lookup returns the parcel phase, an expected delivery window, the two towns involved and a list of dated observations, each carrying a short code alongside a Dutch sentence.
A parcel announced by a sender appears first as not yet received, then as received by PostNL once it physically arrives, then as sorted. The gap between the announcement and the receipt is the sender preparing the parcel rather than PostNL holding it, which is the most commonly misread part of the timeline.
Parcels can be routed to a shop acting as a PostNL point, either by the recipient's choice or after a failed delivery. The timeline publishes the parcel being expected at the point and then being ready for collection, and the closing event records the collection rather than a doorstep handover.
Recipients can nominate a safe place, redirect to a neighbour or change the delivery address while a parcel is in transit. Each change is published as its own observation, so a timeline that seems to double back on itself is usually recording the recipient's own instructions rather than a routing error.
Parcels posted from abroad join the Dutch network partway through their journey, and PostNL publishes the shipment as international with its own phase. The sender town shown on the timeline may therefore be in another country while every observation after receipt belongs to the Dutch network.
PostNL barcodes usually begin with 3S, continue with up to four letters identifying the business sender and end in seven or more digits, for example 3SABCD1234567, which is a generic illustration rather than a real parcel. The barcode appears in the shipping confirmation and on the label. The postcode is the Dutch delivery postcode in the form 1234AB. Both are required: PostNL joins them into a single identifier, and the barcode alone resolves nothing at all.
Domestic parcels handed over before the evening cut-off are normally delivered the next working day, and PostNL publishes an expected delivery window alongside the timeline. Inbound international parcels take longer and the Dutch leg only begins at the receipt observation. Every observation carries an explicit Dutch offset, so the times shown are the carrier's own rather than a reading of a local clock.
Each observation carries a short code such as A01, B01, J01 or J05 alongside a Dutch sentence, and the code is the stable half across PostNL's product lines. A01 is the sender's announcement, B01 the physical receipt, J01 sorting, J05 the courier on the road and J02 a parcel waiting at a PostNL point. Codes beginning with K record a problem or a revised delivery moment. The handover itself never appears here; it is published as a delivery date and a phase message, which is what Track91 shows as the closing event.
While a parcel is still announced but not received, the sender is the only party who can act, since PostNL does not yet hold it. Once it has been received, PostNL's own customer service can trace it, and the recipient can change the delivery preference from the official Track and Trace page. Track91 independently displays the published history and cannot redirect a parcel, extend a pickup deadline or settle a claim.
Official information: PostNL website.
Track91 provides live shipment status and real-time tracking updates through its carrier integrations. Results may be cached between updates, so check the carrier event timestamps when comparing progress. Track91 is independent of PostNL. For delivery instructions or help with a missing parcel, use the carrier's official support.
PostNL Support
Help with PostNL tracking, delays and deliveries. Select a question to read the answer.
Choose PostNL on Track91, enter the barcode and then the Dutch delivery postcode when asked. PostNL keys the lookup on both together, so a barcode on its own opens nothing. The timeline then shows each observation from receipt through sorting to the handover.
The consumer Track and Trace service identifies a shipment by barcode and delivery postcode joined into a single reference. Requiring both keeps a stranger with only a barcode from reading somebody else's delivery details, so Track91 collects the postcode before running the lookup.
Most parcels carry a 3S barcode: the letters 3S, up to four more letters identifying the business sender, then seven or more digits, for example 3SABCD1234567. Copy it exactly from the shipping confirmation, with no spaces.
Next working day is the standard for domestic parcels handed over before the evening cut-off. Parcels entering from abroad take longer, and the timeline shows the point where PostNL first receives them, which is when the Dutch clock really starts.
PostNL does not file the handover as an observation. It publishes it as a delivery date and a phase message instead, so Track91 builds the closing event from those and shows whether the parcel was left in a safe place, given to a neighbour or collected from a PostNL point.
The parcel is waiting at a PostNL pickup point rather than being delivered to the door. It stays available there for a limited number of days before being returned to the sender, so it is worth collecting promptly once that status appears.
PostNL publishes the full street address of both the sender and the recipient with the shipment. Track91 keeps only the town and country from each, because the journey reads perfectly well without republishing somebody's street and house number.
No. Track91 is an independent tracking service displaying published shipment events. PostNL remains responsible for carriage, delivery choices and customer enquiries. Contact the sender or PostNL directly about delivery problems.