The invention relates to a method of tracking shipments, such as letters and parcels, sent by at least one user to the address of at least one recipient. The inventive method comprises a step whereby a barcode (10) is printed on each of the shipments to be tracked. The method is characterised in that the barcode (10) comprises at least one shipment user (1) identification part, which remains the same for each user, and one part that is used to identify the shipping rank or number (3) of the shipment, said part varying for each shipment. The invention also relates to a device for using said method and to a manual apparatus for printing the barcodes (10) on the shipments.