Last Mile Delivery (LMD), sometimes called Final Mile Delivery, is the last stage in the delivery process, before your product’s journey ends in the hands of the customer, or at a given retailer.
At the point when your products are loaded into a van, leaving a local postal hub or distribution centre, destined for its final destination, they enter “the last mile”.
The last mile is critical. It’s not “just” about the physical delivery of products, it’s about delivering an excellent brand experience. The efficiency of your last mile has the ability to mould perceptions of your brand, and impact customer loyalty and satisfaction, so optimising and mastering this important final stage is essential.
The Challenges of Last Mile Delivery
Last mile delivery presents a number of challenges for brands looking to offer a connected, end-to-end delivery experience, challenges that make the final stage in the delivery journey inherently complex and difficult to manage.
- Costs – ‘The last mile’ accounts for 40-50% of the total shipping cost, covering expenses such as fuel, vehicle maintenance and staff labour. Most brands choose to absorb some of this to keep their customers happy, and to ensure they deliver a competitive delivery experience, while others increase their prices to meet final mile costs.
- Navigating Challenging Practical Factors – Carriers have to meet delivery deadlines in the face of a number of changing final mile challenges, such as changing traffic and weather conditions, urban congestion, motorway accidents and road closures that cause unexpected delays, vehicle breakdowns and a shortage of drivers. Rural delivery locations, or those with limited access to contend with, add further strain to an already complex stage of the delivery process.
- Demand – The number of ecommerce deliveries across the world is ever increasing, adding strain to the final mile infrastructure. In addition to this, customers today now demand greater delivery experiences, putting pressure on 3PL’s to provide flexible delivery options, same day delivery, even shorter delivery times, strong communication and delivery tracking now commonplace.
- Returns/Reverse Logistics – Returns add another layer of complexity to the last mile delivery stage, requiring providers to inspect the returned item, arrange the return, and coordinate refunds and exchanges.
Our Approach to The Last Mile
- Establishing Optimum Delivery Method & Carrier – We consider product-related variables (such as the dimensions and weight of the item being delivered), the order type (an order bound for a retailer, or an ecommerce customer), the delivery location, and the delivery deadline, before selecting the perfect method of delivery and carrier for each shipment.
- Preparing Your Order – Teams in our warehouse facilities pick, pack and prepare your orders accordingly, inline with any packaging customisation required (gift boxes, multi-packs etc), and the delivery method established in the previous stage, which dictates whether the item should be boxed for a parcel shipment, or palletised as part of a bulk delivery). To ensure a smooth last mile delivery, we then complete all labelling to ensure your regulatory compliance, adherence to retailer and carrier requirements, and to facilitate order traceability.
- Dispatch Process – We scan orders into the system as they are loaded onto outbound vehicles ready to leave our facilities, capturing departure time and delivery metrics to ensure full traceability from the point of dispatch.
- Processing at Carrier Hub & Coordinating the Last Mile – When goods arrive at the carrier’s hub, they are scanned and routed to the correct final mile hub or distribution centre (which is identified based on the delivery address of the order), where the last mile delivery process is scheduled.
- Delivery & POD – Final mile carriers deliver your order to the customer, capturing proof of delivery (POD) which is automatically uploaded to our client portal. Returns or failed deliveries are flagged in real time and are quickly processed by our returns team.
How Delamode Optimise Last Mile Delivery
At Delamode, we go to great lengths to optimise the final mile, and offer smooth, streamlined, reliable and connected deliveries that provide a great customer experience, help to support your reputational positioning, and offer you cost saving benefits.
Consolidated Purchasing Power = Cost Efficiency
Our purchasing power enables us to consolidate parcel volumes to reduce the cost of your final mile without compromising on service quality and reliability.
Route Planning & Pre-Sortation
We improve the efficiency of the final mile via smart route planning and our pre-sortation process.
For example, before orders leave our Southampton DC, heading to European or global retailers and customers (or ourEU facility in the Netherlands), either via our shuttle service or through carrier networks, we pre-label and sort them by destination country prior to dispatch. This helps to minimise touchpoints, reduces transit times, and ensures that orders are customs-cleared and ready for last mile delivery upon entering local delivery networks.
Multi-Carrier Flexibility
Delamode holds long relationships and established CMS integrations with over 80 trusted carriers across the UK, Europe and ROTW, this includes a great many last mile delivery carriers, spanning major providers like Amazon, DHL, FedEx, XPO and reputable local final mile carriers.
This offers you the flexibility to choose the best carrier option for each order based on cost, service level, geography or even sustainability goals, and enables you to tailor the experience you offer to your customers.
Optimised by Technology
At Delamode, we use one system, Blue Yonder WMS, across both our warehouse facilities, which offers full visibility, traceability and management of your goods and supply chain, and real-time data flows from our carrier network (including final mile providers (so you can monitor the progress of your orders from dispatch, through the last mile, to the retailer or hands of the customer.
Reliable Carrier Network
As a carrier agonistic 3PL who has forged relationships and integrations with with a diverse carrier network, we are not reliant on any single provider, and can therefore offer you access to the most reliable and cost-effective last mile delivery carrier, for each delivery, based on the delivery deadline, destination, and SLA requirements. .
Contact our team today to discuss how we can help optimise your (bonded and non-bonded) warehousing, shipping and final mile delivery.
If you’re curious about the other side of the coin, the initial stage of the logistics process – inbound/import logistics – you can read our guide here.
