How to improve your first-time delivery rate (and why each retry costs you more than you think)

It's 10 in the morning. Your driver has had three failed attempts in the same direction: no one opens, the doorman doesn't answer and the customer doesn't pick up the phone. Now that stop is floating in the air - neither delivered nor canceled - and the rest of the route is starting to mismatch.

What just happened has a name: a failure in the delivery rate on the first attempt. And if more happens to you than you'd like, you're not alone.

What is FTDR and why it matters more than it seems

La first-time delivery rate (First Time Delivery Rate or FTDR) measures the percentage of orders that are successfully delivered the first time the delivery person arrives at the address. No reattempts. No follow-up calls. Without coordinating a second visit.

The formula is simple:

FTDR = (Successful deliveries on the first attempt/Total delivery attempts) × 100

An FTDR of 85% seems reasonable until you think about it in volume: it means that 1 in 6 deliveries requires a second attempt. With all that that implies.

The hidden cost of each retry

When a delivery fails, the counter doesn't stop. Start another one:

• Direct logistics cost: the driver returns to the warehouse or schedules a second visit. Between 3 and 8 kilometers on average that were not in the plan.
• Management time: someone on your team has to process the notice, coordinate the retry, and update the customer.
• Customer Satisfaction: A failed delivery is, for many buyers, reason enough not to repeat.
• Returns: in B2C operations, packages not delivered on time trigger returns, especially in ecommerce.

In operations with 50 to 150 daily deliveries, improving the FTDR by 5% can translate into tens of kilometers and hours saved each week. It's one of the last-mile metrics with the greatest direct impact on profitability.

Why first attempts fail

Before looking for solutions, it is important to understand the real causes. The most common:

The customer was not available during the delivery time. The delivery arrived at 11:00 and the customer works until 17:00. Nobody knew. Nobody asked.

The address had incorrect or incomplete data. The floor is missing, there is an error in the number, or the geocoding points to the wrong point. The driver arrives, but not at the right place.

The customer received no notice that the delivery was close. Without accurate ETA notifications, the customer doesn't prepare. When the delivery person arrives, you may be in a meeting, in the shower, or just not listening to the intercom.

The delivery window was not aligned with actual availability. A range was offered from 09:00 to 13:00, but the customer can only receive between 14:00 and 17:00. No one validated that when planning.

How to improve the FTDR: concrete actions

Automatic notifications with real ETA

The most effective - and the most underestimated - measure is to let the customer know in good time before the delivery person arrives. Not the day before. Not by email. An SMS or WhatsApp with the accurate and updated ETA of when the driver will be at the delivery address, that generates a real reaction window.

When the customer knows that their order arrives at a specific time, they can organize their schedule, ask a neighbor to pick it up or simply go down to receive it. The number of “there was no one there” plummets.

Confirm time availability before assigning the route

In operations with time windows, confirmation must occur formerly that the package enters the route — not the same day of delivery. Integrating this information into the planning makes it possible to group deliveries by real band, not by theoretical strip. The result: fewer conflicts, more completed deliveries.

Geocoding verified before leaving

Each address must go through a validation process before it reaches the driver's map. A poorly geocoded address can ruin the entire delivery. Modern planning tools detect inconsistencies in coordinates and point them out before the driver starts — so that the error doesn't travel with him.

Record the reason for each failed delivery

If the driver can record in two taps why the delivery failed - “no one at home”, “access impossible”, “wrong address” - you have real data to act on. Without that record, the problem is repeated indefinitely without anyone understanding why. Proof of delivery also applies to failed attempts.

Measure to improve

Your current FTDR is the starting point. If you don't measure it, you can't improve it. The least you need to know:

• % of deliveries completed on the first attempt (per week, per zone, per driver)
• Main registered causes of failure
• Estimated cost of each retry on your operation

With those three pieces of data, you have enough to prioritize. And to justify it to management with numbers, not with intuition.

Perfect delivery is not luck

A high FTDR doesn't happen by chance. It happens because the customer was notified, the address was correct, the window was real and the driver had the information he needed before leaving.

Routal helps to plan routes that respect real time windows, sends automatic notifications to the end customer with ETA in real time and allows drivers to record incidents in seconds - so that the next attempt is not necessary.

Cases such as Ametller Origen, which delivers in 1-hour time slots and notifies its customers, achieve a success rate in the first delivery above 99.5%. Convenience, Information and Optimization.

How many reattempts would you avoid this week? Start by measuring them. Then, one by one, they cease to exist.

Get started for free with Routal →

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