Delivery Driver Performance Evaluation: Top Delivery Metrics You Must Consider

The quality of your delivery service depends a lot on the performance and effectiveness of your delivery drivers. Depending on the high performance of the logistics part is not enough to ensure a great delivery experience for your customers.

You need to evaluate the delivery drivers’ performances to ensure that they work with maximum efficiency and productivity.

But how do we evaluate delivery drivers’ performance?

That’s where we got you covered. We have highlighted the nitty-gritty elements that highlight the importance of evaluating delivery drivers’ performance and how you can do so. So, without further ado, let’s get started with the basics.

Understanding Delivery Driver Performance Metrics

To enhance delivery efficiency and customer satisfaction, it’s crucial to analyze driver performance. Understanding how your drivers are performing not only helps in improving operations but also enhances morale by recognizing their contributions.

By focusing on key performance metrics, businesses can identify strengths and areas for improvement. This data-driven approach allows for better decision-making and ultimately leads to improved service quality.

Now, let’s learn the specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can help track and elevate delivery driver performance.

Key Performance Indicators for Delivery Drivers

There are over 1,300,000 delivery drivers in the United States, and different drivers have different capabilities, experience, and education. 

Businesses need to ensure that the drivers work efficiently and complete the assigned delivery tasks on time. Here are the delivery performance KPIs that help you find out how they are performing.

1. On-time delivery

Whether products are delivered on time is a common performance measure. On-time delivery rate means how many products are getting delivered to customers at the committed time.  Consistently delivering on time builds trust and improves customer satisfaction scores.

2. Excessive idling

The first on the list is checking the idling span of the vehicle. If your driver leaves the engine idle for a long time, it decreases the vehicle’s fuel efficiency. 

You want your drivers to reduce the engine’s excessive idling, which can benefit the environment and your business’s bottom line.

3. Out-of-route miles

You don’t want your drivers to go out of route and increase the time and delivery cost of the order. You should compare the designated driving route and the allotted route with the driver. 

It will help you minimize wasteful and ineffective driving where drivers go out of the designated route for multiple reasons. Using a professional route planner can help you get real-time visibility of the driver’s location and help you escape the comparison part.

4. Number of stops

Tracking the daily pick-up and drop-off stops per vehicle can help you measure your future route planning and optimization efficiency. 

You can focus on different vehicles with a maximum number of stops to help the drivers get a better delivery schedule to finish the delivery process in minimal time and with maximum efficiency.

5. Time at each stop

You need to calculate the total time spent on delivering the courier at individual stops by the delivery drivers. If the time spent by the drivers is on the higher end, that indicates inefficiency in your delivery process.

You need to calculate the sweet spot and instruct your delivery drivers to achieve swift and professional deliveries. The average delivery time for drivers at a single stop is 1-2 minutes to deliver the package.

But most of the delivery drivers take over 5 minutes to complete the manual redundant delivery process at every stop. 

You need to evaluate the time taken by your delivery drivers and look for modern-day technology solutions to minimize the gap between the ideal and on-ground delivery time.

6. Schedule adherence

One of the vital factors that can decide the productivity of your delivery drivers is the schedule adherence by your drivers. You need to check whether or not they are sticking to the set schedule.

Try to figure out the reasons that indicate poor adherence by the delivery driver. There can be multiple reasons, like drivers taking multiple breaks, going off-route, and taking too much time at different delivery stops.

Oil your delivery system to remove this friction for better customer satisfaction and improve delivery performance.

7. Speeding

You need to use speed monitoring tools or GPS tracking to tell your drivers to adhere to the speed limits. If they, unfortunately, cross the limits, it can land the vehicle and the driver in legal difficulties that will result in delayed deliveries of your customer orders.

Also, you need to check whether or not the driver is lagging behind the schedule. Use automated tools that deliver notifications to the drivers and alert them to speed up the process.

8. HOS exceptions

There are specified hours of service (HOS) allotted by the law for the drivers. You need to ensure that the drivers exceed the limit set for the number of hours they have to put in. There can be exceptions in adverse weather conditions or emergency deliveries, but not for regular day-to-day delivery tasks.

Also, poor driver productivity raises a red flag if the drivers put in less effort and do not complete the set work hours.

9. Engine On/Off

It’s important not to run an engine when loading or unloading. Running the engine on your cargo van only when necessary improves operational efficiency and safety – although starting too late can cause courier drivers to fall behind on the delivery schedule.

10. Acceleration and Hard Braking

Delivery drivers need to learn how to accelerate and brake properly. Too-rapid acceleration and braking decrease fuel efficiency, contribute to wear and tear on the vehicle, and be dangerous.

11 . Safety Violations

Tracking each driver’s record of traffic violations is important to weed out reckless drivers. When a courier driver is pulled over for a violation, that affects the driving time and schedule integrity. Too many safety incidents can result in fines on both the driver and the vehicle – meaning your company. A driver with a history of safety incidents is also more likely to be involved in a costly crash, which results in higher insurance rates. Make sure they have a clean driving record.

12. Fuel Economy

Fuel is one of the top three fleet expenses. Analyzing fuel economy by tracking miles-per-gallon helps keep expenses in check and improves your courier service’s bottom line.

13. Empty Miles

Tracking the number of deadhead trips or miles that carry no freight helps to identify opportunities to improve fleet efficiency. You want more filled trucks and fewer empty ones.

14. Vehicle Utilization

How efficiently are you using your own vehicles? Vehicle utilization compares vehicle demand versus capacity; the higher the ratio, the more efficient the utilization.

15. Total Vehicle Breakdowns

You want to minimize the number of vehicle breakdowns in your fleet. If you identify a high rate of vehicle breakdowns, it’s a possible indicator that your fleet vehicle maintenance operation needs to be evaluated.

16. First-Time Fix Rate

The first-time fix rate (FTFR) is the percentage of time a mechanic is able to fix a vehicle issue on the first visit without the need for a follow-up. A low FTFR could indicate an unworkably low parts inventory or a less-than-competent maintenance staff – and affects the number of vehicles available for operations.

17. Vehicle Diagnostic Codes Generated

Most newer vehicles contain onboard diagnostic systems that generate diagnostic codes when issues arise. Tracking the number of codes generated and which are most common can help identify specific maintenance issues with the fleet – and alert staff to increase the inventory of parts needed for those repairs.

18. Average Maintenance Downtime

It’s crucial to know how much time your vehicles spend out of action for maintenance and repairs. You want to minimize your fleets’ downtime to maximize the number of vehicles available – and the total number of vehicles needed. A vehicle not on the road is producing zero value for your company.

19. Vehicle Part Inventories

To minimize vehicle downtime and maximize FTFR, your maintenance staff needs the right parts on hand. You also want to keep inventory costs low by reducing the number of unnecessary parts on hand. Tracking your part inventory levels – and prioritizing high-in-demand parts – is crucial.

20. Vehicle total cost of ownership 

All of these KPIs – and others feed into the total cost of ownership (TCO) for each vehicle. This metric is calculated using the initial vehicle cost, fuel consumption, maintenance costs, taxes and licenses, and other related operating costs over time. It’s important to track TCO not just for individual vehicles but for the entire fleet – and then compare TCO to revenue generated.

21. Vehicle Replacement Costs

Even the best-maintained vehicles eventually have to be replaced. This decision can be facilitated by comparing ongoing maintenance costs with the replacement cost for a similar vehicle.

Factors Affecting Delivery Performance

To improve the performance of the delivery drivers, we need to get to the roots of the problem. Over 50% of businesses are unable to fulfill same-day delivery shipping because of the under-pressure drivers or inefficient delivery process.

So, let’s understand the factors that can dictate the performance of the delivery drivers.

1. Ineffective planning

The way you plan can directly impact the performance of the delivery drivers. If your strategizing team cannot point out the loopholes in your delivery operations and doesn’t focus on enhancing the delivery efficiency of the drivers, their productivity will degrade.

Ineffective delivery planning can cause multiple scenarios of backtracking and delayed deliveries. And that can directly impact the morale of the delivery drivers and cause a decrease in their delivery performance.

2. Lack of proper communication

If your fleet managers cannot communicate with the delivery drivers, the real-time instruction deliveries and mentoring won’t happen, and it can cause friction in the on-ground delivery performance of the drivers.

Delivering the right instruction during an unfortunate situation can help drivers make well-informed decisions and increase the productivity of the delivery process.

3. Lack of advanced tools

If your delivery business is not equipped with the right tools and technology, it will become difficult for the delivery drivers to order in the most optimized manner. 

Manual business processes can cause inefficiency and result in delivery delays from the delivery drivers, affecting your overall business operations and revenue numbers.

4. Lack of training

Lack of training and periodic educational sessions doesn’t help the delivery drivers expand their knowledge and be aware of the latest updates and changes in the delivery industry.

The delivery drivers are stuck with the ineffective traditional methods for handling the rising customer and industry demands.

These are the major roadblocks that can affect the delivery performance of your drivers. And periodic evaluation of delivery drivers’ performance can give crystal clear ideas about these inefficiencies in your delivery business.

That’s not it.

Let’s dive further deep and understand what other reasons make delivery driver performance evaluation necessary.

Importance of Evaluating Delivery Driver Performance

Evaluating the delivery drivers’ performance can drive multiple short-term and long-term benefits for your business and workforce. Look at a few:

1. Spotting strengths and weaknesses

Measuring different key performance indicators can help you spot your drivers’ strengths and weaknesses. It can help you strategize the best possible ways to improve their low points and help them deliver higher productivity during their work hours.

Evaluation can help paint a more comprehensive picture of the on-ground workforce and help you figure out the right touchpoints where you can channel their strengths for your business success.

2. Achieving delivery excellence

You can multiply the productivity of your delivery drivers, resulting in a better on-time delivery experience for your customers. Proper evaluation of the driver’s performance can help you utilize your resources in an optimized manner and help streamline your business delivery process.

Better delivery services can result in matching customer satisfaction and experience levels. You can stand out from the rest of the 50% of businesses that cannot deliver last-mile deliveries on time.

3. Creating an organized workforce

With valuable insights into the performance of the delivery drivers, you can help the on-ground workforce to accomplish their assigned package delivery task on time and boost their productivity. 

With proper attention given to individual workforce members, you’ll create a strong team of experts to help you achieve your business delivery goals and deliver the best-in-class delivery experience.

But if you want to achieve these benefits, you need to perform regular delivery driver performance checks using the key performance indicators for better results because delivery performance affects business revenue.

So, let’s go through the top KPIs to measure the delivery performance of your courier drivers or truck drivers.

Leveraging Route Planning and Optimization Software

• Route planning and optimization software solutions are excellent for your business to get optimized and the shortest path for your multi-stop delivery process within a few clicks. It analyzes weather and traffic conditions, vehicle and driver performance, and order priority to deliver you the best delivery path.
• You can dispatch multiple delivery paths to different drivers within a few clicks. It can help you create a robust communication channel that can help you scale your delivery business with finesse.
• A route planning and optimization tool helps you bypass the hurdles caused by manual route planning and delivers tailored performance reports of your delivery process, delivery success rate, employee performance, and other metrics to make well-informed decisions.

Don’t you want that for your online delivery business?

But before choosing one out of hundreds of delivery tools available in the market, let us answer some of the most frequently asked questions.

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Track driver’s Performance with the Help of Upper Route Planner

Being one of the leading route planning and optimization software, Upper Route Planner is an advanced and professional asset that offers a simple-to-use interface with the powers of a premium route planner.

The effective pricing and plethora of exceptional route planning and optimization features help it stand out from other tools. You can export up to 500 delivery addresses from Excel sheets for quick optimized route planning within a few clicks.

It can assist you to increase the productivity of your delivery drivers by up to 40% and help your business deliver more packages in day-to-day operations.

So, what’s making you wait?

Avail of the benefit of a 7 days FREE Trial to get a hands-on experience of the tool.