The last mile is the most expensive and unpredictable stretch of any supply chain. It’s where costs balloon, visibility breaks down, and the customer experience is won or lost.
Yet even the largest delivery networks still measure it reactively, focusing on service recovery after problems appear instead of building systems that prevent them.
Measuring last-mile delivery is the difference between guessing at performance and controlling it. This guide breaks down the key KPIs that turn delivery data into operational clarity and, ultimately, predictable profit.
The measurement gap: why most teams are flying blind
Most organizations track the last mile like it’s a black box. They know the basics, such as the on-time rate and perhaps damage claims, but these metrics only describe the outcome, not the causes.
For many operational leaders, the “basics” don’t always translate into business specifics.
As Keith Jesse, Bungii’s Director of Strategic Solutions, explains, “Customer expectations are set by whatever the industry standard or whatever your published transit is, it becomes the bar that they use”
The problem with this approach to tracking last mile delivery metrics is twofold. Often, teams struggle with:
- Data fragmentation: Carriers, third-party logistics partners, and local markets all report differently. One region’s “on-time” might include 2-hour delivery windows, while another sets a lower bar.
- Disconnection from financials. Delivery data resides in one system, while cost data resides in another. Disconnected systems often mean that teams can’t tie performance to profit.
Tracking on-time rate alone is like managing profit with just a revenue number. Jesse said, “If you’re solely looking at on-time, you’re going to be more geared to paying a premium for transit.”
Without consistent definitions or visibility, operations leaders are left comparing apples to forklifts. Reports appear fine, but margin erosion tells a different story and you don’t actually know if you’re making money.
The solution to tracking last mile delivery metrics is standardization. When teams define and benchmark the right KPIs across carriers, they can pinpoint where costs leak, where efficiency stalls, and, more importantly, where performance breaks down.
The core KPIs that define last-mile performance
To manage last mile delivery with the same precision as the rest of the supply chain, you need to measure what actually drives cost and consistency.
What you can see, you can improve. And in last-mile logistics, the companies with the best visibility consistently lead on both customer satisfaction and profit margin. Below are the metrics that separate high-performing delivery networks from the rest.
1. Delivery Cost per Order
Delivery cost per order is the total cost of completing a delivery. It reveals where costs spike, often in overlooked areas like fuel surcharges, wait times, or excessive handling for oversized items. Typically, this KPI covers:
- Labor
- Mileage
- Accessorials
- Claims
- Technology
This metric is important, often becoming the clearest link between operations and margin. You can’t improve profitability without knowing the real cost of each order.
To calculate it:
- Divide the total delivery cost by the number of completed deliveries.
- Benchmark it by product type, region, and delivery distance.
What Strong Performance Looks Like: Enterprise retailers delivering large items typically aim to keep the delivery cost per order under about 10% of the item value. Anything higher cuts into margins—fast.
2. On-Time Delivery Rate
On-time delivery rate is the percentage of deliveries completed within the promised timeframe. It’s important to track this metric, as reliability is the heartbeat of the customer experience. It affects repeat business, brand reputation, and downstream scheduling.
Before tracking, teams need a consistent definition of “on-time.” On-time might look like:
- Deliveries completed by end of day
- Deliveries dropped within a 2-hour window
Without a consistent definition, there’s an invitation for confusion between delivery partners. Once definitions align, you can begin to understand what’s causing delays with a few operational filters:
- Geography
- Time of day
- Delivery type
What Strong Performance Looks Like: A healthy last-mile network typically achieves 95% or higher on-time delivery for big and bulky or non-parcel items. Below that threshold, small operational gaps, like mismatched capacity planning or under-optimized routes, compound quickly.
3. Claims Rate
A claims rate is the percentage of deliveries resulting in a damage or loss claim. Every claim represents both a direct cost and a potential hit to customer loyalty. It’s a leading indicator of where operational discipline breaks down.
The formula is simple. Follow these steps:
- Divide the number of claims by total deliveries
- Multiply that number by 100
Track this by product type to pinpoint problem areas like:
- Certain SKUs
- Packaging types
- Specific delivery partners
Monitoring how claims trend after carrier or process changes helps verify whether training or procedural shifts are working.
What Strong Performance Looks Like: For bulky goods, a claims rate below one percent is considered world-class. Beyond that, even a half-point improvement can translate into tens or hundreds of thousands in retained margin annually.
4. Delivery Consistency
Delivery consistency defines the degree of variance in performance across locations, markets, or carrier partners. It matters because averages can conceal many problems. Consistency, on the other hand, indicates whether your processes are scalable or if they only work under specific conditions.
When one region operates at 97% on-time while another sits at 88%, the issue usually isn’t effort. Often, it’s the system design. Tracking consistency forces standardization and surfaces problems relating to:
- Training gaps
- Technology discrepancies
- Underperforming partners
- Capacity
Standardize data sources and reporting intervals, then visualize performance spread. Doing so will reveal areas for improvement.
What Strong Performance Looks Like: A narrow performance band—say, less than five percent variance between regions—signals a well-controlled network. Large swings indicate that your “best practices” aren’t yet consistent enough to be considered standard.
5. Delivery Visibility
Delivery visibility refers to the ability to monitor every delivery milestone in real-time, across all partners and regions.
Visibility converts chaos into control. It enables teams to:
- Identify delays before customers do
- Dynamically reroute resources
- Accurately measure outcomes
Strong visibility depends on integrating order management, carrier data, and delivery performance into one unified view. When teams can track exceptions instead of chasing updates, efficiency skyrockets.
What Strong Performance Looks Like: Real-time visibility correlates with lower cost per delivery, reduced manual intervention, and higher customer satisfaction scores.
How to Benchmark and Standardize KPIs Across Carriers
The last mile rarely runs on a single system. Multiple carriers, regions, and reporting tools often use different definitions and data cadences, making side-by-side comparisons nearly impossible.
What’s interesting, though, is that recent research shows that 87% of shippers want standardized metrics—and for good reason. When metrics aren’t standardized, benchmarking loses value.
Here’s how to fix it:
- Define universal metrics: Decide exactly what counts as “on-time,” “complete,” or “exception,” and make those definitions consistent across every partner and market. Align data formats and reporting schedules so results are comparable and reliable.
- Add context to the numbers: A single data point doesn’t tell the full story. Compare performance across time periods, regions, and carrier types to understand what’s improving, what’s slipping, and what’s noise. Track how operational changes impact key KPIs.
- Make variance visible: Use dashboards to highlight outliers, not just averages. When differences between carriers or regions are visible, leaders can address root causes quickly and scale what’s working.
Standardization ensures data speaks the same language everywhere. It helps turn disconnected reports into insights that actually drive performance.
How National Brands Standardize KPIs Across Markets
Connecting KPIs to Financial Outcomes
Every last mile delivery metric has financial weight. As Jesse points out, “No matter how good your product is, if you’re making poor choices on the logistics side, it will ultimately impact your brand. Your customers could be forced to look somewhere else.”
Last-mile KPIs reveal how performance decisions show up on the balance sheet, whether through lower costs, stronger margins, or higher customer retention. Often it shows up like:
- Improved on-time delivery reduces refunds and increases repeat business.
- Higher driver utilization reduces labor inefficiency and lowers the cost per order.
- A lower claims rate protects margin and keeps brand trust intact.
- Strong visibility minimizes exception-handling time, allowing teams to reallocate resources to revenue-generating work.
In practice, it looks like a network completing 100,000 deliveries annually at an average cost of $120 per order. That’s measurable profit created by operational precision.
Customer outcomes follow the same logic. Research shows that 85% of customers will never shop with your brand after a poor delivery experience. That figure reflects standard e-commerce, but the lesson applies even more sharply in the world of big and bulky goods. If a couch or appliance arrives late or damaged, the stress and cost multiply, and the chances of winning that customer back shrink dramatically.
When KPIs align with financial results, leaders gain a clear view of which operational changes truly drive growth.
Curious how a retailer fixed their big-and-bulky bottlenecks? See how Home Outlet cut headaches and leveled up delivery with Bungii.
Building a data-driven culture in last mile delivery
Visibility requires alignment across every level of the organization, from store or branch to carrier managers and regional directors to finance teams. Every person who touches the delivery process needs to understand what success looks like, how it’s measured, and why it matters.
Here’s how to build a foundation that turns data into control:
1. Start with one KPI
The fastest path to consistency is focus. Begin with a single last-mile metric, such as the claims rate, and standardize how it’s measured across every market and partner.
Define:
- What constitutes a claim
- Where that data is captured
- Who is responsible for reporting it
Make sure every system and carrier follows the same definition and cadence. Once that metric becomes reliable and trusted, layer in additional KPIs, such as on-time delivery or cost per order.
When you start small, it’s easier to identify discrepancies and fix them before they scale. You’ll also build buy-in internally as teams begin to see how standardization simplifies reporting and sharpens accountability.
2. Choose the right indicator metrics
Not all data has equal value. Some numbers describe activity, while others predict performance. Prioritize the metrics that have the strongest connection to reliability, cost, and customer satisfaction.
For example:
- On-time delivery rate is a leading indicator of operational control.
- Driver utilization reveals the efficiency of your resource allocation
- Claims rate exposes weaknesses in training or handling.
When you understand which numbers predict outcomes, you can steer results before problems appear. The goal is to monitor what moves the needle. Once those core indicators are stable, you can expand to supporting metrics like delivery consistency or cost-per-mile to fine-tune performance.
The best operators use these KPIs as an early warning system. When trends shift, they investigate immediately, preventing small issues from turning into costly failures.
3. Use insights to act
Measurement without motion has no value. And, as Jesse points out, “No matter how good your product is, bad logistics choices still come back to you. If you’re partnered with the wrong providers, customers feel it first and they won’t hesitate to look elsewhere.”
The strongest teams close the loop by turning data into action:
- When visibility reveals route bottlenecks, they reassign resources or adjust delivery windows.
- If driver utilization drops, they rebalance workloads or revisit scheduling logic.
- High claims in one region trigger retraining or packaging audits.
These feedback loops transform metrics from passive reports into active decision tools. With standardized data, teams can:
- Compare performance fairly
- Identify root causes quickly
- Implement improvements confidently
Real-time visibility makes this process continuous. Instead of waiting for monthly reports, leaders can spot issues as they arise. Over time, those small, data-driven decisions compound into a meaningful advantage, helping you avoid last mile delivery challenges that can throw off your operations.
What “good” looks like in last mile delivery
Dig deeper into reverse logistics performance and best practices.
There’s no single universal target for every operation. But there are patterns that emerge among the best performers:
- Efficient networks keep delivery cost per order below roughly ten percent of item value.
- Their on-time delivery performance is above ninety-five percent.
- Claims rates are less than one percent, signaling quality control and careful handling.
- Delivery performance remains consistent across markets—typically within a five percent variance—and 100% of active deliveries are visible in real-time.
These are the hallmarks of a high-performing, data-driven last-mile operation, reflecting both scalability and financial discipline.
Turning visibility into profitability
The last mile will always be complex. Multiple carriers, market variables, and oversized freight are never as simple as dropping off a small package on a porch.
That said, complexity doesn’t have to mean chaos. As Jesse says, “It’s truly understanding who you’re partnering with and what they do and making sure you have the right people in the right place.”
Tracking last mile delivery metrics helps you understand these complexities, turning uncertainty into strategic insight. Standardizing those metrics across operations helps turn scattered data into strategy. And the right KPIs turn performance into predictable profit.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Now’s the time to measure better with Bungii.
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