Text message rules for delivery notifications

Rule 1: get consent before the first text

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as the FCC applies it in 47 CFR 64.1200, requires prior express consent before an automated text is sent to a mobile number, and prior express written consent when the text is marketing. Delivery updates are informational, not marketing — but they are still automated texts, so they still need consent. The CTIA's messaging principles say informational texts need express consent, and that it can be given on a form, on a website, verbally or by text.

In practice that means one thing: a checkbox or a clear sentence at checkout — “Text me updates about my delivery” — that the customer actively agrees to, and a record of when and where they did. An unticked box the customer ticks is the standard; a pre-ticked one is not consent.

The one-text exemption, and why it isn't enough

In 2014 the FCC granted package delivery companies an exemption from the consent requirement (FCC 14-32), and it is narrow. The text may go only to the recipient's number; it must name the company and give contact information; it may contain no marketing; it must be concise; it must be free to the recipient; it must include opt-out information, and opt-outs must be honored; and it is limited to one notification per package — up to three when a signature is required and the first attempt fails.

A delivery program like Porch Route's sends up to five messages about one order: scheduled, on the way, almost there, delivered, couldn't deliver. That is not one text per package. Rely on recorded consent, not the exemption.

Rule 2: honor STOP by any reasonable method

Under the FCC's rules a customer may revoke consent by any reasonable method — replying STOP is the obvious one, but so is an email or a phone call — and you must honor it within 10 business days. You cannot insist on one exclusive way to opt out. One confirmation text, with no marketing in it, is allowed within five minutes of the revocation. The CTIA adds the practical list: honor STOP and its plain-language cousins (stop, end, unsubscribe, cancel, quit), reply HELP with who you are and how to reach you, and keep records of both opt-ins and opt-outs.

Rule 3: register with the carriers (A2P 10DLC)

Texts sent by software to US mobile numbers from an ordinary 10-digit number are “application-to-person” traffic, and the carriers require the sender to be registered. Registration has two parts: a brand (who is sending — your legal business name, EIN if you have one, address, website) and a campaign (what you send, how people opt in and out, sample messages). Unregistered traffic draws extra carrier fees and is filtered. Brands come in types — Sole Proprietor for businesses without a tax ID, Low-Volume Standard and Standard — and the type sets a daily cap: T-Mobile allows roughly 1,000 message segments a day for a sole proprietor and about 2,000 for a low-volume standard brand.

When you text through a platform, the platform registers on your behalf — but with your details, not its own: Twilio's rules for software vendors require a separate brand for each customer business. That is why a delivery product can't simply switch texts on for a new account; your business is the sender, and the carriers want to know who you are.

What texting costs

Add it up and a delivery sequence of three to four texts per order costs roughly four to five cents in messaging — about as much as the per-order software fee at some vendors, which is why texts are usually metered or sold as an add-on. Routific bills them at $0.01 a segment in the US and Canada and steers customers toward email; OptimoRoute charges $0.01 a message; Upper from $0.01 a text. Porch Route includes 750 texts a month on Starter, 1,500 on Porch and 7,500 on Route, then $0.015 a text.

Quiet hours

Federal rules bar telephone solicitations before 8 AM or after 9 PM in the recipient's local time. That covers marketing, not a delivery update — but a 5:40 AM “your bread is on the way” text is still a bad idea for a customer who didn't ask for it, and some states are stricter. Send the scheduled notice the evening before, and hold anything that isn't time-critical until the morning.

What a compliant delivery text looks like

• Your business's name first, so the customer knows who is texting.
• What it's about: the order, the day, the window or the arrival.
• A link to the tracking page, on your own or your provider's domain — not a public link shortener, which carriers filter.
• On the first message, how often you'll text (“up to 5 texts per order”) and HELP / STOP instructions.
• No marketing. A rating request is fine; a coupon in the same text turns it into marketing.

For example: “Green Acres Farm: your order is out for delivery today between 9 AM and 1 PM. Track it: <link>. Up to 5 texts per order. Reply HELP for help, STOP to stop.”

How Porch Route handles texts today

Customer texts are included in the paid plans rather than sold separately, and they go out under your business's name. Until your business's carrier registration is approved, texts are logged but not sent, and customers get the same updates by email and through the tracking link, which work from day one. Every text and email — what it said, who it went to, whether it was sent — is in the message log. Orders can carry the consent your checkout recorded. Automatic STOP and HELP handling, consent capture in the app and quiet hours for non-urgent messages are coming.